Leicester dropped Ndidi during visit to Emirates as it sacrificed game for Europa League

LEICESTER City manager Brendan Rodgers has revealed that he rested Super Eagles midfielder Wilfred Ndidi over the weekend when his team faced Arsenal in the English Premier League because he needed him for the more important Europa League game.

On Sunday, Leicester played Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in London and surprisingly lost 0-2 to a ream they would normally beat. However, it emerged that Leicester dropped their two first choice midfielders as Mr Rodgers decided to rest Ndidi and Belgian Youri Tielemans ahead of their Europa League match against Rennes of France on Thursday.

Leicester currently sit 12th in the Premier League but have an eye on the Europa League where they have emerged early favourites for the title. With Leicester's chances of making Europe next season extremely bleak going by their current position on the league, Mr Rodgers has turned his attention to the Europa League as a way of getting to play continental football next season.

With Leicester fielding its second tier midfield on Sunday, the Foxes were outclassed by Arsenal as they fell to their second defeat of the season. Had Ndidi and Tielemans played, the game would certainly have been a different kind of match and would likely have had a different outcome.

Both midfielders were rested for the trip to Brittany on Thursday as they hope to consolidate on their 2-0 win in the first leg of the fixture. In the first leg that took place at Leicester last week, Kelechi Iheanacho had grabbed a vital second goal to give the Foxes an important cushion going into the difficult game against Rennes.