Leicester City Previews: ‘Nothing but the Huth’
Leicester City vs Chelsea
9th September 2017
3pm Kick Off
Match Preview:
Domestic football is back…finally! I think I’d rather watch paint dry than to watch International football, and as predicted, watching England play Slovakia put me through the mill of emotions and ended up making me revert back to my old ways of anger and expletive shouting. I’m pretty sure my dad wasn’t happy with some of the language that escaped my lips, but that’s what football does to you- sorry, dad.
Right, let’s move on, swiftly – Leicester City vs Chelsea.
What a game we could have in store. Funnily enough, these two teams seem to be rather ‘close’ in the weirdest of footballing ways. Chelsea became best friends with the Foxes after Eden Hazard’s equaliser two years ago, that gave Leicester their first (and probably only) Premier League title. Since then, former Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri has jumped ship over to Nantes, whilst arguably Leicester’s two most underrated players in their title success have both moved to the London club.
More recently, the signing of Danny Drinkwater has left quite a sour taste in the mouths of Leicester fans, and as Jamie Vardy stated this week:
“He’s now the enemy”.
I suppose you could class this as the Drinkwater Derby?
Stats:
These two teams have played 109 times since 1905, with Chelsea having a much better record overall.
Leicester have only won 25 of those games, with 30 being drawn.
Leicester’s most recent win against the Blues came in 2015 at the King Power Stadium, where Riyad Mahrez’s wonder strike gave the Foxes a 2-1 victory.
Prior to that, Leicester had lost eight in a row against Chelsea home and away, with their last victory coming all the way back in 2001. Funnily enough, that season (2000/2001), Leicester did the double over Chelsea. The Foxes secured a 2-0 win away at Stamford Bridge, as well as their last victory (as mentioned above), a 2-1 victory at the old Filbert Street.
As for the games themselves, one gaurentee is there’ll be goals. The last 0-0 these two played out in a competitive match was back in August 1985, in the old Division One.
Head-to-Head:
Leicester being the home side (48 games in total), the Foxes average 1.58 goals per game (76 goals). Of course, you can’t have 0.58 of a goal, so for accuracy’s sake, we’ll say Leicester tend to score at least one goal per game at home against Chelsea. On the other hand, with Chelsea being the away side, they average 1.38 goals per game (66 goals). Again, for accuracy’s sake, we’ll say Chelsea score at least one goal as well.
So far this season, Chelsea have scored six goals in three games, two in every game- two against Burnley, two against Tottenham and two against Everton.
Will it be two against Leicester as well? It could well happen.
Leicester at home so far this season (one game):
Clean sheets: 100%
Win-to-nil: 100%
Scored in both halves: 100%
Chelsea away from home this season (one game):
Clean sheets: 0%
Win-to-nil: 0%
Scored in both halves: 100%
The stats above show that both sides have scored in both halves in their home and away games so far respectively. It could indicate that, along with an average goals per game of 2.95 when the two sides meet, this match will be high scoring. Hopefully the ball goes in the back of Thibaut Courtois’ net and not Kasper Schmeichel’s; that would do me nicely.
Prediction:
I thought Leicester did a pretty good job up at Old Trafford for 70 minutes, and as all Leicester fans found out, the stats I produced on my last piece didn’t lie. Two goals in the final 15 minutes undid all the hard work and gave United all three points.
This game poses a different threat. A Chelsea side who didn’t have the best of transfer windows if truth be told, with Antonio Conte casting an unhappy shadow at the club because of that. The quality of his side however, is still high, and the inclusion of Italian international Davide Zappacosta at full-back, gives them more strength in depth for the season.
The Danny Drinkwater situation currently is Chelsea’s gain and Leicester loss, with FIFA rejecting the registration of the Adrien Silva as of Wednesday 6th September.
Leicester could be a little light of bodies in midfield as a result, which will only play into Chelsea hands with their high pressure game, not to mention N’Golo Kante running the middle of the park- literally.
If Jamie Vardy can stretch the back three of the Blues, Leicester have a chance. But in all honesty, i’m finding it hard to see a way in which we can win this game- unless Chelsea have an off day and we turn up.