Leicester City Previews ‘Nothing but the Huth’: Can Leicester pile on the misery for Newcastle in the North East?

Newcastle United vs Leicester City

09/12/17

Kick off 5:30pm

Preview:

Saturday’s late kick off is a clash in the North East, with Rafa’s Toon Army facing Claude Puel’s Foxes.

As most people are, i’m loving the Premier League this year.

I mean, I love it every year, but this season there seems to be goals, goals and more goals; Gary Lineker is certainly earning his pay check on Match of the Day!

Now, in relation to this game, we all know what happened a couple of years ago. It involved an inform striker, looking to break a certain goal scoring record. Yes, i’m talking about Jamie Vardy.

He continued his amazing run of consecutive goals up at St. James’ Park in Leicester’s title winning season, a moment that at a club like Leicester just simply won’t happen again.

Everything he touched turned to gold that year and it was a joy to watch him play;

Any goals like that come Saturday evening would be very much appreciated, Jamie.

Stats:

Newcastle come into this fixture having won only one of their last nine in the Premier League.

Their last victory came at home to Crystal Palace back in October, winning only then by a goal to nil.

Leicester flip that stat on its head. The Foxes have only lost one of their last nine, winning four in that time.

On paper this game is wrapped up, however this is the Premier League we’re talking about…

Newcastle manage just 1.43 points per game at home in which the average this season is 1.62.

Away from home, Leicester fare just as bad averaging 1.00 per game, with the average being 1.14.

One stat I looked at was the total goals per game this season for both sides.

So at home, Newcastle’s games average around 2.14 goals per game, with Leicester’s away score hitting an above-average 2.86.

So just by comparing those two stats, you can see that the likelihood of at least two goals this weekend is high. However, it seems like most of the goals with these two teams come in the second half of their matches.

To back that up further, both teams average over 60% in second half goals conceded – Newcastle (home) & Leicester (away).

At half time this season, the most re-occurring scoreline for both sides is 0-0. This has happened three times to both Newcastle and Leicester home and away respectively.

Leicester so far haven’t been losing at half time in any of their away league games, having been drawing six out of seven times on the road. This is definitely a pleasing sign for Foxes fans who’re travelling up north this Saturday.

To wrap this section up in a nutshell-

I’ll be surprised if both sets of fans don’t celebrate under the floodlights at some point during the match…

Prediction:

I can see nothing but a Leicester win here.

I hate saying that – seeming so confident and saying this will almost be a stroll in the park.

However, let’s face it, Newcastle are a team struggling for points, and a team who don’t know where or when they’ll pick up their next victory from.

Leicester have only lost one game under Claude Puel and that was against Manchester City, which is no disgrace.

The Foxes seemed to have clicked under the Frenchman; Demarai Gray, Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez are all playing out their skins.

There is always some kind of doubt in my head, maybe because i’m quite sceptical in the sense that this could easily be a ‘banana skin’ for the travelling Blues.

An inform team winning football matches, travelling to a side who look incapable of doing just that.

With all that being said, I just feel like our run will continue and we’ll go to the North East and pick up the three points.

I fancy someone different to get a goal this weekend, just a gut feeling I have.

I’m going to be quite outlandish here and say Danny Simpson will grab a goal against his former employers, with Vardy also to net at least once.

My goal scorer predictions have been pretty awful this year, so I’m either going mad or I’m going bonkers…

Leicester to win, but Newcastle to score in an open, entertaining match.

Score Prediction:

Newcastle United 1-3 Leicester City