Leicester City Previews: Nothing but the Huth – East Midlands vs West Midlands
Leicester City vs West Brom
16/10/17
Preview:
Finally we’re back after the international break, and about time too. All I’ve seen on social media recently;
‘England will win the World Cup’ or ‘We’ve topped the group without losing, it can’t be that bad.”
…and you now understand why International football is on the decline, as oppose to what some ‘journalists’ believe.
Anyway, enough of the negativity, let’s get back to domestic football.
I think i’ve found the perfect analogy for this game.
A team that score goals but can’t defend for toffees, against a team who can defend but can’t score for toffees.
The Premier League everyone!
If you read my last piece on the Bournemouth game, I was hoping for an early birthday present with a Leicester win.
Unfortunately, that didn’t materialise, although we did pick up a point on the south coast, when in reality, we deserved nothing.
My birthday is on Sunday, so this game is the day after. I will be 22 years old and funnily enough, my score prediction that you will see at the bottom of this piece is based on my upcoming age…take a wild guess.
Stats:
In the last six games between the sides, it’s the home side who have the better record.
The Blues have only lost one of those six games, winning three and drawing two in the process.
Their only defeat against the Baggies was a 2-1 defeat at the King Power Stadium back in November 2016.
Overall however, it’s Tony Pulis’ men who have the better head-to-head record. West Brom have won 51 out of 112 games played, drawing 23 and losing 38. Their biggest win away to Leicester was back in 1976/1977 season, where they thumped the Foxes 5-0.
It’s a good job I wasn’t born to witness it!
On average both home and away, Leicester score over a goal a game against their Monday night opponents, (1.51) to be exact, whilst West Brom score just under two a game (1.92). Yet, when this stat is broken down further, Leicester have a better goals per game ratio than West Brom when at home- (1.76 vs 1.65).
This shows very much that both teams are capable of scoring come Monday night.
In terms of goalscorers, Jamie Vardy has netted three in six against the Baggies, including a crucial goal last season at the Hawthorns, meaning Leicester scraped a 1-0 win. His best goal against West Brom was definitely back in the title winning season, scoring a wonder strike in Leicester’s 3-2 victory.
Looking at both club’s current forms this season, as much as West Brom are seven positions higher than Leicester, this doesn’t tell the whole story. Both sides haven’t won in their last five Premier League games,  with the Foxes suffering three defeats, and West Brom two.
It looks grim reading in that sense, but I’m going to go with the goalscoring goals per game stats to aid my prediction.
Prediction:
Fundamentally, our home form needs to improve. That’s the bottom line, and if we can pick that up sooner rather than later, I think we’ll be clear of the bottom five or six places in no time.
However it’s not all doom and gloom, a win could lift the Foxes as high as 12th, results dependant of course.
With the Foxes faithful behind them, expect the lads to produce a decent performance, testing Ben Foster throughout the 90′.
From an away point of view, West Brom’s form couldn’t be anymore indifferent.
Two wins, three draws and two defeats leave Tony Pulis’ men 10th.
A win at struggling Leicester could see them climb four places to 6th on goal difference- results could go against them, however.
I know a West Brom fan well, and he hopes James McClean can continue his international form for the Republic of Ireland, back in the West Midlands.
Solomon Rondon was back amongst the goals against Watford, so it will be interesting to see his battles against Wes Morgan and Harry Maguire.
I can see this game, for once, having a fair few goals at both ends. International breaks can work for and against you, and both of these teams needed to regroup after not winning their individual matches before the two-week break.
It goes without saying, Leicester need to win. But at the moment, that seems so close yet so far. Too many times this season, we’ve said that Leicester have performed well, but didn’t quite get the result.
This is the perfect chance to kick start the season, and realistically we need to get up and running as soon as possible.
On the other hand, Mr. Pulis is the away day master and knows how to frustrate teams with relative ease.
This is why i’m going with a score draw.
Take Vardy to score anytime.