Preview: Leicester City look for resurgence against Crystal Palace

A fanbase suffused in ennui, six defeats in the last eight games and the season’s ambitions beginning to look far from realistic. If you are Claude Puel, you know what the game against Crystal Palace means.

Leicester City have now reached the stage where every bad result will be met with unbearable wailing and an unprecedented insurgency.

The King Power Stadium is already the home of toxicity – which is partly justified and partly unfair, but let us not go into that just yet – and if there is no upturn in Leicester’s results sooner rather than later, that toxicity could be sneaking into the dressing room.

This no exaggeration. Leicester have not won a single game since January 1 and are closer to 17th-placed Cardiff City than they are to seventh-placed Watford in the Premier League table. Talk about a damning indictment.

The table being as is, though, a win against Palace could take Leicester all the way up to 10th – given that AFC Bournemouth don’t beat Wolverhampton Wanderers. On paper, it sounds like it’s an easy task. After all, it’s Roy Hodgson’s Eagles.

But no, Leicester last beat the South Londoners on October 22 in 2016, so history suggests that it is not so easy. Andy why refer to history? Under Puel, Leicester have mostly struggled against the teams they are least expected to not be beaten by. They don’t play any of the big six until the end of April. Interesting.

Quotes

"“I think, of course, we need to join now the performance and the right result at the end. Of course, we need points. It’s a normal thing,” said Claude Puel.“We have two games at home, and it will be important to find again the good result for our confidence and to continue this good work.“It’s not to change [this work], it’s to continue this work, these good performances and to have more opportunities to finish. We have had a lot of chances in our last games. We played a contender for the league and two games away.”"

Predicted XI

Schmeichel; Fuchs, Maguire, Evans, Pereira; Gray, Barnes, Ndidi, Tielemans, Ghezzal; Vardy.