Leicester City Match Preview

Ruud van Nistelrooy won his first game in charge of Leicester City back on 3 December, but then that was against a West Ham United side, who were under the stewardship of Julen Lopetegui and we all know how badly the Spaniard’s tenure went!!!

Now Graham Potter is in charge of the Hammers and after another encouraging performance in the rather unexpected win over Arsenal at The Emirates Stadium five days ago, he will hope to guide his team to back-to-back wins when the Foxes visit Stratford tonight.

In terms of victories, both Head-Coaches are stuck on two a piece but with the newly-promoted side embroiled in a relegation battle, the home faithful are hoping to see a first home win since the 3-2 success in the London derby against Fulham back on 14 January.

The Hammers have already beaten both of the other top-flight newcomers this season and to be fair, played well enough to take maximum points away from The King Power Stadium.

Unlike December and January, February hasn’t been as busy a month for the club and following this encounter, there will then be another lengthy break for the team, meaning they can fully focus on a second consecutive home game on March 10 when Newcastle United are the visitors to East London. However, it will be a totally different challenge to the one they face tonight.

The visitors have not had a win since coming from behind to take all three points from The Tottenham Hotspur Stadium just over a month ago, whereas the hosts will be full of confidence and want to follow up that result against the Gunners. Having said that though, the Foxes have had one extra day’s preparation, following their dismal performance in the 4-0 home defeat to Brentford on Friday.

Potter will be tasked with trying to turn the team’s form around in this particular fixture though, as they have only triumphed here twice, back in April and August of 2021.

The Irons Head-Coach knew the importance of this match before taking his side to North London at the weekend, so he decided to mix things up for that game. However, if he decides that alterations are needed again, then Konstantinos Mavropanos, Emerson Palmieri, Carlos Soler and Andy Irving could come into the starting line-up. Evan Ferguson may also get his first start.

The hosts will still be without Vladimír Coufal and Lucas Paquetá, as Potter revealed that the pair are still recovering from injury when he faced the media ahead of this game on Tuesday.

A number of the club’s youngsters have been involved in the matchday squad recently but one that won’t be available here is Luizão, as it was confirmed on Monday that the Brazilian has joined Polish club Pogoń Szczecin on a loan deal for the rest of the current season.

The match is an 8pm kick-off and live coverage will be screened by TNT Sports from 7pm. The referee is Anthony Taylor.