How many points Leicester will likely get from tricky festive spell

Leicester City have a harsh period of games coming up during the Christmas and New Year festivities. Ruud Van Nistelrooy will have his work cut out for him. Here are our predictions for the matches and how many points we will realistically take back.

Leicester City FC v West Ham United FC - Premier League
Leicester City FC v West Ham United FC - Premier League | Michael Regan/GettyImages
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Fixtures predicted

Newcastle United has an equal record for wins, draws, and losses due to their current status of not creating much more than their opponents. This has put them at the mercy of goalkeepers, defensive errors, and decisive counterattacking moments. Nistelrooy's Foxes are more creative than Newcastle and also less defensively sound. You can expect both teams to score twice. A draw is realistic.

Wolverhampton Wanderers have won less, drawn less, lost more, are less creative, given away more clinical chances to their opposition, and are struggling to hold onto the ball in dangerous areas. That is precisely the opposite of Nistelrooy's King Power team. We create good chances even though we concede a lot of chances, and we hold onto the ball well in midfield. A win is realistic with RVN's team scoring thrice to Wolves' one.

Liverpool will be a loss. There is no point trying to pretend we can be competitive with the league leaders. They create such a maelstrom of chances, that the Reds invalidate any killer chances the Foxes might make with the sheer volume of goal attempts. However, Vardy will continue his goalscoring run, so a 4-1 loss is what I expect.

Manchester City remain a dominating force in games. They still beat Nottingham Forest 3-0, and still continue to create a swell of chances. Their issue has been giving away strong chances to their opponents and being unable to cope with the scrambling pressure when either going behind or being held to a draw for some time. The best chance for the Pride of the East Midlands will be to - again - park the bus and play on the counter. Still, this will be a loss, probably 2-0 and ending Vardy's run.

If things go as I expect them to, then four points should be the best we hope for over the next four fixtures with Newcastle and Wolves our best chances for success, Liverpool a lost cause, and Manchester City the only game I am struggling to predict. If things go the best way they can, five points with a draw to Manchester City could realistically happen.