Preview: Chelsea Vs Leicester City

The week may have mostly been dominated by the transfer speculation surrounding most of Leicester City’s players, but it’s time the focus shifted back to the Premier League as the Foxes face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.

The Bridge hasn’t historically been a happy hunting ground for Leicester City (won just once since 1965), though Claude Puel can derive a lot of confidence from the Blues’ shaky form. Fresh off two consecutive goalless draws against Norwich City and Arsenal, Chelsea are by no stretch of imagination at their best, and Leicester should be looking to exploit that.

Even though Chelsea are on a run of seven consecutive home wins in the Premier League, the record should barely be a cause for worry, judging by what we’ve seen from Antonio Conte’s side of late, and the quality of the opponents that they’ve faced during their run (Manchester United being the only exception).

That, however, doesn’t mean that Leicester City have any sort of advantage coming into the fixture. It’s just that Chelsea aren’t experiencing the best of times by their own standards, and were Claude Puel’s side to take any points off the current champions in their own backyard, then this is the time to do it.

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The East Midlands outfit have so far had a fine time in 2018, trouncing Huddersfield Town by a resounding 3-0 before keeping another clean sheet in a goalless draw at Fleetwood Town. With most of Leicester City’s first choice players now fit and charged, Puel also has the luxury of fielding a fully fit side as opposed to Conte, who will have a relatively tired set of players to pick from.

Regardless, Leicester City would still have to raise their game to get anything at Stamford Bridge. Chelsea can easily win even on an off day, and Leicester can only win with a five-star performance – such is the difference.

Man to Watch

There’s only one man at Leicester City who can truly petrify the opponent defenders and that’s Jamie Vardy. Already the leading goal scorer against the Premier League’s big six since 2014, Vardy has the ability to win the game for the Foxes by the killer instincts that he has in front of goal. If he gets decent service, he’ll deliver.

Quotes

"“We know Chelsea are the champions. We can cause them problems. We have great players also and quality in the squad and a great attitude all the time in training sessions on the pitch,” said Claude Puel.“I think in our games against the great teams, we have always had good situations and good possibilities – like against Manchester United and Tottenham.“The ambition is not just for us to score but to continue to play after scoring and to always keep good ambition in our play.”"

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Possible XI

Schmeichel; Amartey, Dragovic, Maguire, Fuchs; Albrighton, Ndidi, Iborra, Gray; Mahrez; Vardy.