Five games in and Leicester City are without a win this season, their first return to the Premier League since relegation and a title triumph.   The situation wasn’t ideal, but it wasn’t catastrophic either.   After all, City are 15th in the Premier League table, having drawn more games than lost.
  You have to take the positives and the negatives, and the balance between these will depend on your outlook on the season so far.   But to assess the opening five Premier League games, we’ve picked five positives and five negatives that sum up City’s campaign as far as it goes…
  POSITIVE
  Competitive in every game
  The victory that everyone at City is yearning for was yet to come, but it didn’t seem far off either.   City were competitive in all five games.   Except perhaps at Fulham, victory seemed possible at all of them.   They are not completely outplayed yet.
  That may sound like faint praise, but it is significant, especially for a side fighting to stay in the division.   This was also true of Nigel Pearson’s team 10 years ago.   If a team believes they are good in every game they play, it is easier to maintain morale and belief, which increases the chance of results down the road.
  Second half comeback at home
  City have trailed at half-time in all three home games, the only club in the division to do so.   But they excelled in all three games and were the stronger side after the break.
  They didn’t settle in games where they were behind.   They showed spirit and resilience to fight back and find weaknesses to exploit and threaten the opposition.   Currently, no team has a better second half record at home than City.   That’s a huge positive for Steve Cooper, not least because the players seem to be responding to his calls to the squad at half-time.
Dedicated defense
City probably played more defensive plays than they would have liked and they still created a good number of chances. But the chances they gave up didn’t come from a lack of effort in the back line.
After five games, City have the most shutouts in the division. The defense, especially Wout Faes, reads the game well and shows a commitment to closing down and hampering opponents. However, the idea is that they will have to do this less often in the future.
Strong play by the goalkeeper
Those defensive qualities mean City have conceded just 25 shots on goal so far, the same as Chelsea and Crystal Palace and fewer than seven other teams in the division. When the shots hit the target, Mads Hermansen did well to keep them out. This should help the confidence flow through the team knowing they have a capable and reliable goalkeeper between the sticks.
The expected goals against shots stat shows the quality of finishes a goaltender faces and how effective they are against the average goaltender. By that measure, Hermansen ranks as the seventh most successful number one in the division.
Set-up attacks
In five games and City have already scored from two corners. They seemed to be a much bigger threat than them too, with plenty of signs of preparation on how to get the most out of the opposition they faced and some signs of ingenuity.
NEGATIVE
Even to create a perfect show
The results City have earned so far have come in a good half hour here or a good 20 minutes there. It’s not a 90-minute show yet.
Perhaps a perfect performance isn’t necessary to get the three points, but that means there’s yet to be a display City can look to as their shining light. It also means that in all five of their games, it was hard to say they deserved to win, even though they were competitive throughout.
Slow startups
Part of the reason City couldn’t put together a 90-minute display was their slow start. Apart from the draw at Crystal Palace, City have been second best in the early stages of each game and need time to get up to speed. With one goal scored and four goals conceded, they have the second-worst record in the opening half hour of matches, behind West Ham.
Lack of open play opportunities
City have scored in every game played, which is a promising sign. But they did it because of a decent finish rather than an abundance of chances.
They are 19th in the division in all important attacking stats – shots, expected goals, touches in the box – just ahead of Ipswich. Those creative juices need to get flowing.
Be careful when changing
Only two clubs have used fewer substitutions than City so far. Only once, against Aston Villa, did Cooper use his full allowance. It’s not necessarily a negative, but it feels like there were opportunities to be more adventurous and progressive with the changes that we didn’t take advantage of.
Against Aston Villa and Everton in particular, there seemed to be opportunities to attack weak spots on the wings or chances to get fresh attacking players earlier. There were defensive changes against Palace, which had a negative impact on the balance of the team.
The game plan is sometimes unclear
City have a game plan under Cooper. The structure of the team was clear at the start of pre-season, as was the broad tactical concept, combining some good work under Enzo Maresca with a more direct approach, including more counter-attacks and balls over the top. It’s less strict than last season’s setup and gives players more freedom.
The problem was that the idea was not always clear in competitive matches. In the difficult moments of last season, City seemed to stick too closely to the game plan. The problem is that there seems to be, at least from the stands, a period when it’s unclear what City are trying to do that could affect their flow at the top.