Leicester City vs Crystal Palace
Date: 23/02/2019
K/O: 17:30
Venue: King Power Stadium
TV: BT Sport 1
Referee: Anthony Taylor
Leicester City welcome Crystal Palace to the King Power Stadium on Saturday evening, with the aim of restarting their season in pursuit of the crown of ‘Best of the Rest’. With no win in the last five league games, they have fallen behind in the race for 7th place, now seven points adrift sitting in 12th place.
They were riding high over Christmas and after back-to-back wins over Chelsea and Manchester City, they were pretty secure in 7th place. Yet that win over the champions has since been their last win at home, with just a 1-0 win away at Everton on New Years Day their only victory since.
One comfort for the home side is that they can’t fall any further this weekend as the visitors who are placed directly below them in 13th are five points off them. Having said this, the recent head-to-head record between the two does not make positive reading for the Foxes – Palace have won each of the last three meetings between the two sides, scoring nine goals in the process and conceding none.
In fact, whenever Palace have beaten Leicester in the Premier League, they have done so by keeping a clean sheet, a run of 7 games spanning back to 1994 (0-1, 2-0, 2-0, 0-1, 0-3, 5-0, 1-0), which includes the most recent game where a Luka Milivojević goal back in mid-December was enough to leave the Foxes leaving Selhurst Park empty-handed.
It is not all bad reading for Leicester though as Palace are in similar form to themselves when it comes to the league, having only won one of their last five in the Premier League yet they were unbeaten in the four meetings (2-2, 3-1, 0-1, 1-0) prior to the most recent three. Palace do have the confidence gained from advancement into the quarterfinals of the FA Cup after comfortably beating Doncaster Rovers 2-0 at the weekend.
A win for the home side could see them climb as high as ninth, whereas a victory for Palace would not see them move up the league but would help towards separating them and the relegation zone, of which they are only three points away from.
Team News
Leicester City
The main doubt injury-wise in the Leicester City squad over the last week has been over midfielder Nampalys Mendy after he withdrew from the warm-up prior to the last match against Tottenham. When giving an update, manager Claude Puel said that he had felt something in his groin and they did not want to take the risk with him so replaced him with Wilfred Ndidi. All indications look like he should be fine for the weekend, but a late fitness test will prove the decisive factor.
The other huge miss will be Marc Albrighton, who has a hamstring injury that was described as ‘serious’ by Puel, with concern that he may miss the rest of the season. Daniel Amartey continues his recovery in rehab from his ankle injury that has kept him out since late-October, as he looks for a return in the coming month.
Top scorer Jamie Vardy will more than likely return to the starting line-up after his rollercoaster performance off the bench against Tottenham, scoring a consolation goal after missing the penalty with his first kick of the game. He has scored twice in eight Premier League appearances against the Eagles.
Crystal Palace
There are no fresh injuries in Roy Hodgson’s squad, with Julian Speroni (knock) and Connor Wickham (unknown) being the most recent visitors to the treatment room. The veteran goalkeeper picked up a minor injury prior to the away trip to West Ham last time out, but with Vicente Guaita having now returned between the sticks and Wayne Hennessey on the bench, the Argentinian was not going to feature anyway.
Wickham’s one is a mystery, a player forever plagued with injury worries is out again but it is unknown when he’ll return to the squad. Fortunately for Hodgson, he has numbers in that striker position with Jordan Ayew, Michy Batshuayi and Christian Benteke all available. The latter of which will be hoping to retain his starting place as he continues to look for his first goal of the season. The Belgian will be confident in Leicestershire though against a side in which he has scored three goals in four appearances.
German Max Meyer will probably retain his place in the Palace midfield, in place of Cheikhou Kouyaté, although it could also go to Jefferey Schlupp, who was a goalscorer in the cup win over Doncaster along with Meyer.
Predicted Starting XIs
Leicester City (4-2-3-1): Schmeichel; Pereira, Evans, Maguire, Chilwell; Mendy, Ndidi; Gray, Maddison, Barnes; Vardy
Crystal Palace (4-3-3): Guaita; Wan-Bissaka, Tomkins, Sakho, van Aanholt; McArthur, Milivojević, Meyer; Townsend, Benteke, Zaha
Score Prediction: Leicester City 1 Crystal Palace 2
Recent form suggests this should be an exciting attacking end-to-end game, albeit not a high scoring one. The confidence the away side have from a (so far) successful cup run, and the uneasiness surrounding Leicester and manager Claude Puel could see the South London club just edge it by the single goal.
