Leicester City v Arsenal: Preview, Team News and Predictions
Arsenal will look to build on their impressive comeback victory at Aston Villa when they lock horns with Leicester City on February 25th.
The King Power stadium will welcome the league leaders, who after a short stutter of three winless games, responded in devastating fashion with a 4-2 drubbing of Unai Emery’s Villans. Should they win and manage to enlarge the gap between themselves and the Manchester clubs, it will be Arsenal’s fifth consecutive Premier League win against Leicester.
Leicester, meanwhile, have blown hot and cold in recent fixtures. They annihilated Tottenham at home last time out, with forwards James Maddison, Harvey Barnes and the in-form Kelechi Iheanacho running riot. Prior to that enjoyable outing, though, the Foxes had only won twice out of 10 at home.
The 3-0 defeat to Manchester United will do no good to Brendan Rodgers’ side either, as AFC Bournemouth remain the only side currently to concede more in the league than Leicester.
They have the firepower upfront, but it will be another stern test for Leicester’s relatively inexperienced back line. As for Mikel Arteta, he’ll expect nothing but three points.
Team News
Leicester City
Once plagued with injuries, Leicester’s crisis is now slowly ending as only Jonny Evans, Ryan Bertrand and James Justin remain sidelined.
Timothy Castagne’s partner-in-crime Ricardo Pereira returns after a prolonged period on the sidelines which is a welcome boost. He’ll be eased back into the setup that could see Castagne switch to the left – in coming games.
Jamie Vardy, who has scored more league goals against Arsenal than any other opponent, might have to settle for a spot on the bench.
Youri Tielemans is also pushing for a start after being named on the substitutes list against Manchester United.
Arsenal
With Thomas Partey unlikely to return due to a thigh strain, it looks like snapping up Jorginho from cross-city rivals Chelsea was a shrewd piece of business.
Gabriel Jesus and Mohamed Elneny continue to fight back following respective knee injuries. The latter, who is currently Arsenal’s longest-serving first-team player penned a new deal for another year earlier this week.
Predicted XI
Leicester City probable line-up (4-2-3-1):
Ward; Castagne, Souttar, Faes, Kristiansen; Mendy, Dewsbury-Hall; Tete, Maddison, Barnes; Iheanacho
Arsenal probable line-up: (4-3-3):
Ramsdale; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Odegaard, Jorginho, Xhaka; Saka, Nketiah, Martinelli
Match Prediction
The King Power faithful goes quiet if Leicester concede first. It happened against Spurs, only for the crowd to be bouncing and jumping with what followed. If Arsenal can start quickly and expose the centre-halves by filling in the pockets of space beyond Nampalys Mendy, they could hurt the hosts.
Rodgers’ side are beginning to gel together after a horrendous start to the campaign, but Arsenal should be too good for them.
Predicted score: Leicester City 0-2 Arsenal
-Akarshak Roy
Twitter: @RoyAkarshak
Photo: Pottercomuneo. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.