Leicester: The most important fixtures of the 2021/22 season

The third and final run of difficult fixtures for Leicester City is their longest and — arguably — hardest of the 2021/22 campaign (primarily due to the consistent quality of opposition). Starting on the 9th of February, versus Liverpool (A) the Foxes then have a stretch of five games that accumulate a difficulty rating of 15 (an average of 3). When you add in the game with Liverpool that’s a combined difficulty rating of 20 over six games — with an average of 3.33 per game. This run includes; West Ham United (H), Wolverhampton Wanderers (A), Chelsea (A), Leeds United (H), and ends with Arsenal (A) on the 12th March.

Interestingly, I ran the maths on how likely it is a team faces a run of six games — at any point of the season — that is as difficult as that, and it’s just over 19%. There will only be, on average, four teams out of the twenty that endure a run of fixtures with that degree of difficulty. So, as a Leicester City fan, I think there’s enough evidence to feel slightly unlucky in that regard.

Despite this, I think an interesting subset of fixtures to outline are the games that Leicester City play directly after their UEFA Europa League group stage fixtures. Of course, the Foxes will want to replicate their form from last seasons campaign and progress into the knockout stages — and perhaps aim for the Quarter-Finals or even further, but in terms of guaranteed games there’s only the group stages thus far.

I don’t think the games proceeding European fixtures could’ve been any kinder to Leicester City, facing; Brighton & Hove Albion (A), Crystal Palace (A), Brentford (A), Leeds United (A), Watford (H), and Newcastle United (H). Under the points system I’ve devised for scoring difficulty of fixtures, that is; “1”, “1”, “0”, “3”, “0”, and “1” — averaging out at 1 per game. If Brendan Rodgers is forced into rotating his starting XI between competitions, he has ample room to do so, with exciting acquisitions on the horizons, Leicester can balance European football with a higher degree of comfort — in comparison to this campaign.

The entire campaign looks to have the “harder” games of the season fairly nicely distributed for LCFC, especially when considering the run towards the end of the season. To finish of the competition, the Foxes play; Everton (H), Watford (A), and Southampton (H) in May — a more manageable task for points when compared with last seasons’ final three games versus; Manchester United (A), Chelsea (A), and Tottenham Hotspur (H).

Overall, I’m of the belief that the Foxes have been given a favourable set of fixtures for the upcoming campaign. Yes, every team will face the same opposition over the course of a season, but there’s definitely “nicer” sets of fixtures and I’d suggest that Brendan Rodgers and the Foxes have been given just that.