Leicester City vs Newcastle United
Date: 07/04/2018
K/O: 15:00pm
Venue: King Power Stadium
Referee: Stuart Attwell
The Foxes host the Magpies this Saturday with both sides looking for their third consecutive Premier League win. Although it may seem like a boring mid-table encounter, there is more riding on this fixture than first thought.
Claude Puel’s men have a considerable chance of appearing in Europe next season and a seventh-place finish would almost guarantee this. As for Newcastle, three points would result in Benitez’s side being only two points off of the elusive 40 points which will surely ensure Premier League safety.
Both sides are on a valuable run of form and after a five-goal thriller between the two clubs back in December, it will likely be an attacking and open affair at the King Power come Saturday afternoon. Leicester go into the fixture after a second successive away win facing West Brom and Brighton respectively. A demanding fixture at the Amex last week ended in a 2-0 victory for the Foxes and Puel will be looking for much of the same in terms of character and intensity from his side on at the weekend. Similarly, Newcastle reveled in a 1-0 victory in a real six pointer facing relegation contenders Huddersfield. A late Ayoze Perez goal was enough for the three points in front of a crowd of 52,000 plus at St James’ Park.
Leicester City Team News
Leicester will be without the suspended Wilfred Ndidi who was sent off for the second time this season at Brighton last week. This means the 21-year-old will be absent for two games and with the injured Matty James missing for the remained of the season, it will most likely be a partnership of Vicente Iborra and Adrian Silva in the middle of the park for Puel’s men.
The preferred formation of 4-4-1-1 is probably going to be chosen again by Puel with the back line presumably remaining unchanged with Schmeichel between the sticks and a back four of Simpson, Morgan, Maguire and Chilwell. Mahrez and Albrighton are expected to take up positions on the wing with Vardy leading the line as he looks for his 9th goal in 11 starting appearances for club and country. It will be the number 10 position that will remain unknown up until the squad announcement as Okazaki and Iheanacho have been yo-yoing for starting places and both look to be the supporter for Jamie Vardy.
Daniel Amartey remains side-lined for the Foxes after his hamstring injury against Bournemouth but is expected to return to training next week. Demari Gray will be looking to make an impression if he appears yet January transfer, Fousseni Diabate is the preferred midfielder/striker currently.
Newcastle United Team News
Benitez is hopeful that Mo Diame will be fit to face the Foxes come Saturday as the centre midfielder hobbled off in the latter stages in the 1-0 win vs Huddersfield. However, his withdrawal was just a precautionary measure in place and the midfielder Is confident he will be available. If not, there are a wealth of centre midfield options with Isaac Hayden being the probable option.
As for the remainder of the Newcastle squad, Rafa Benitez could likely name the exact same starting XI as the trip of Huddersfield. Rob Elliot is close to return and Islam Slimani, who will be returning to his parent club, is ineligible.
Dwight Gayle will no doubt be chosen to lead the line due to Slimani’s exclusion as well as the doubt of Joselu, who has a slight ankle injury.
Prediction: Leicester 2 Newcastle 0 – Leicester return to the King Power after two straight away games and with the form of Jamie Vardy, the three points are Leicester’s for me.
Written by Eamon Kitching.
