Leicester City Previews: ‘Nothing but the Huth’ – Can Leicester avoid another defeat at the hands of Chelsea?

Chelsea vs Leicester City

13/01/18

Kick off 3pm

Preview:

This Saturday sees the Foxes travel down to London to take on Antonio Conte’s Chelsea. I suppose you could label this game now as the ‘Drinkwater Derby’, or the ‘Kante Derby’, or even both if you’re feeling generous.

This game is an interesting one in the sense that both sides come into this following goalless draws away at lower league opposition in the Carabao Cup. Chelsea drew at Norwich while Leicester drew away to League One Fleetwood Town, so not the best preparation for a Premier League match some would say.

Stats:

Chelsea in the league have been very good this season, losing just one game since the 21^st October against West Ham at the London Stadium. Since then the hosts have won four and drawn two, scoring a total of 13 goals and conceding just three.

Chelsea seemed to have sorted themselves out defensively since David Luiz came out and Andreas Christensen replaced him. It will be hard for Leicester to score at the Bridge, especially as the Foxes lost 3-0 in their last game there.

Leicester’s record against Chelsea since October 2001 is a sorry sight for Leicester City fans. The Foxes have only won one of the last 14 games, drawing one and losing 12, including losing the last four against the Blues. The stats are clearly in Chelsea’ favour as you could’ve imagined…

73% of Chelsea’s wins this season have come at home, scoring just under two goals a game (1.91). Leicester however, have only won over a quarter of their games away from home this season (27%), conceding at least a goal per game (1.61).

This game signals to me that there will be goals, simply because Leicester’s away league games this season have averaged 3.27 goals per game and Chelsea’s home matches average 2.55 goals per game.

You’ll be able to see my score prediction at the bottom of my piece, and it reflects the above stats.

Prediction:

I see this game having goals or at least plenty of chances at both ends, with both sides looking to get more points on the board. Chelsea are naturally favourites for this, I mean even away from home Chelsea would be favourites, but I don’t think it’ll be as easy as everyone is making out.

I feel as if we can cause them problems; we can cause anyone problems on our day. It will be a tough game no doubt and Chelsea will look to kill the game as early as possible with Hazard, Morata, Willian and the rest of the home side’s potent attacking line up looking to get on the score sheet.

Leicester will look to soak up pressure and hit on the break, which by now teams should know how to deal with. Saying that, we still somehow manage to get something from most games which is credit to our lads in sticking with the game plan for the full 90 minutes. Claude Puel will have the lads ready for this game, and with the squad pretty much at full strength, I don’t see why we can’t at least get a goal at Stamford Bridge.

However, Chelsea at home are a different kettle of fish, and it’s on that basis alone, I think Chelsea will snatch victory by just a single goal.

Score Prediction:

Chelsea 2-1 Leicester