Leicester City and Manchester City are two teams in the English Premier League who had high expectations at the start of the season, but are performing way below their potential.
The champions are in a terrible form and could certainly use some easier opponent than Guardiola’s City.
The Foxes haven’t tasted victory in over a month as they’ve last beaten Crystal Palace on the Noverber. Since that game they’ve picked up only two points in five games and are currently sitting in the 15th place, two points above the relegation zone.
Leicester’s Champions League form was a lot better than the Premier League’s , but Porto trashed them 5-0 in the midweek. Despite Leicester Leicester resting some of the key players like Vardy, Mahrez, Albrighton, Huth and Fuchs, Premier League champions should do better against the third placed team of Portuguese Primeira Liga.
Manchester City lost derby against Chelsea in the last round. Not only that they lost a game, but they’ve also lost Sergio Aguero (4 games) and Fernandinho (3 games) due to unpleasant scenes at the end of the game.
The Citizens weren’t outplayed by Conte’s Chelsea, but Aguero and De Bruyne didn’t have concentration in front of Courtois, while Kolarov once again proved to be the weakest link in Guardiola’s chain as he barely troubled Willian and Hazard when they scored second and third goal of the game.
Like Leicester, Manchester City have also played a Champions League game in the midweek, but they failed to defeat Celtic with some players from the bench (Caballero, Adarabioyo, Maffeo, Fernando, Clichy) in the lineups. Good news from that game is that Kelechi Iheanacho kept his good goal-scoring form as the young Nigerian will have to step into Aguero’s shoes.
Leicester goalkeeper Kasper
Schmeichel is close to a return after a hand injury, although he is
unlikely to play against his former club on Saturday.
Nampalys Mendy only returned from injury in midweek and will not start, while Danny Drinkwater is still banned.
Manchester City trio Sergio Aguero, Fernandinho and Nicolas Otamendi are all serving suspensions.
Raheem Sterling is expected to be involved after missing the last two matches with a knee injury.
WHAT THE MANAGERS SAY
Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri: "I want players to play for the team, to be strong, to fight and to be competitive - I want no more. If you lose this how can you win?"Not even the big players can win without fight. That is football.
"Last season we won because some big teams didn't fight as well as us and now we want that back, not to win the title but to defend the title and not be in the relegation zone."
Leicester City: Zieler; Simpson, Huth, Morgan, Fuchs; Mahrez, King, Amartey, Albrighton; Vardy, Slimani.
Manchester City: Bravo; Sagna, Stones, Kolarov, Clichy; Gundogan, Toure; de Bruyne, Silva, Nolito; Iheanacho.
AgaasportNews. Predicted Scores:
Leicester City 2 Man.City 1
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