Leicester City Previews ‘Nothing but the Huth’: The Cityzens next up for Claude Puel’s Foxes
18/11/17
Leicester City vs Manchester City
Kick off 3pm
Preview:
Well, wasn’t that International break a bundle of joy?
My goodness me, I’m so happy that the next time we have to endure that level of football again isn’t until March- a whole 123 days from today!
To give you an idea of how drab that break was, here you go:
The first leg of the World Cup playoff games:
Honduras 0-0 Australia
New Zealand 0-0 Peru
Denmark 0-0 Republic of Ireland
Switzerland 0-0 Northern Ireland
Greece 0-0 Croatia
Italy 0-0 Sweden
Need I say anymore? On to the important game, and that comes at the King Power,
where Leicester who are yet to lose under new boss Claude Puel, take on inform Manchester City,
who thus far have a goal difference of +31…
Stats:
The stats, as I’m sure you might have guessed, are clearly in favour of Saturday’s away side.
Man City’s defeat at the King Power Stadium back in December 2016 (4-2), was their first away defeat to Leicester since 1988, where Nicky Cross scored the only goal in the old Division Two game.
Jamie Vardy on that day put Man City’s expensive defence to the sword, scoring a well-taken hat-trick.
Overall it’s the ‘Cityzens’ who have the better record head-to-head, winning 54 out of 112, losing just 29.
Bare in mind that the first game between the sides was back on the 16th March 1895, so losing just 29 times is quite incredible.
(If you were wondering, Leicester Fosse won that game 3-1)
Looking specifically at this season, and Man City are averaging 3.45 goals a game whilst only conceding less than a goal a game- 0.64.
Away from home, they’re averaging 2.8 goals a game and still conceding less than a goal a game.
Whatever Pep Guardiola has done on the training ground seems to have worked remarkably well. Although,
the only question mark for me would be whether they can keep up this relentless all-out attacking football for the season.
Leicester on the other hand, like Man City, are scoring above the league average goals per game- 1.45.
However, they are conceding on average exactly the same number.
One stat that struck me more was based around the half-time scoreline.
At home, the Foxes have been losing twice in five games, yet they have also been winning at half-time twice too.
Manchester City on the flip side, haven’t been losing at half-time in their five away matches, leading twice.
Based on this small stat, I can draw up an opinion that I feel there will be a goal in the first goal,
so expect at least two goals in this game.
To back that up, 60% of Man City’s away games have been over 2.5 goals, which is also in line with Leicester’s home form, which resembles an average of 45% over 2.5 goals.
In short, both goals on that pitch will at some point have the ball nestled somewhere within its frame…
Prediction:
This game will be a goal fest; I simply can’t see this game only having the odd goal in it.
Manchester City are a team on the up and have been since the first whistle, whereas Leicester in the past couple of games, have threatened to start scoring a lot more than for most of the season so far – four goals in the last two league games for the Foxes.
With the attacking prowess Man City have at their disposal, not forgetting their substitutes bench,
I find it hard to see how we can win this Saturday.
I do have a gut feeling however that we will score, just because we’re at home and the fans can really spur the lads on.
Sergio Aguero does look set to miss the game due to dizzy spells on International duty.
All that being said, my score prediction below sums up my thoughts of this game into a nutshell,
although i’m hoping that this result is flipped and we somehow manage to stop Pep’s men in their tracks.