Foxes of Leicester
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Preview: Leicester City look to give Chelsea the blues

By Harneet Singh Sethi

LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 22: Jamie Vardy of Leicester City celebrates after scoring his team's first goal with his team mates during the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and Leicester City at Stamford Bridge on December 22, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images)
LONDON, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 22: Jamie Vardy of Leicester City celebrates after scoring his team's first goal with his team mates during the Premier League match between Chelsea FC and Leicester City at Stamford Bridge on December 22, 2018 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images) /
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Leicester City against Chelsea. Brendan Rodgers against the club where his coaching career began. He is yet to beat the Blues as manager. Frank Lampard is yet to taste victory as Stamford Bridge’s latest supremo. Leicester’s 500th Premier League game isn’t just another game.

This is a tricky fixture for the Foxes in many ways. Chelsea’s 4-0 annihilation at the hands of Manchester United combined with a significantly weakened team has got people thinking that the West Londoners are there for the taking – which is more a surmise than a surety at this stage.

Add to that, Leicester haven’t lost to Chelsea since September 2017. They have won once and drawn twice in the last three meetings, meaning that the expectations are unusually higher.

This will make it uncomfortable for Rodgers’ side, bearing in mind that they’re not quite used to playing a big six team with at least 70% fans demanding points.

This isn’t to say that Leicester don’t have enough arsenal, just that it will be an awkward feeling for them but one they will have to acquaint themselves to anyway.

For Chelsea, the pressure is just as much, perhaps even more. But there is positivity as well despite the UEFA Super Cup defeat to Liverpool. They’d be anything but an easy opponent.

One to watch

Caglar Soyuncu. He was Leicester’s best player last week and the way he played alongside Jonny Evans made it seem as if the duo had done it together for years.

The Turkish international was excellent on the ball, composed whenever tested and all in all, complete in the truest sense of the word. Those optimistic about him filling the void left by Harry Maguire aren’t being unrealistic, of course.

Bigger tests await this beautiful, ball-playing centre-back, though. One of them comes tomorrow at The Bridge.

Quotes

"“It’s a long season. For us, it’s step by step,” said Brendan Rodgers.“We made a solid start last weekend and we were defensively very good.“The competition is very tough, but we’ve got a talented squad that we’re developing over time.”"

How Leicester City should approach Chelsea away this weekend. dark. Next

Predicted XI

Schmeichel; Chilwell, Soyuncu, Evans, Pereira; Barnes, Ndidi, Tielemans, Perez, Maddison; Vardy.