Leicester City vs. Crystal Palace
Venue: King Power Stadium
Kick off: 3PM
A faltering Leicester City side will resume their search for a first win since lockdown when they welcome Crystal Palace to the King Power Stadium this afternoon.
The Foxes still sit third in the Premier League table but are winless in four games, while Palace go into the contest on the back of successive defeats.
Leicester’s current struggles must be viewed with perspective in what has been a superb 2019-20 campaign as a whole, but they will still be worrying for manager Brendan Rodgers.
Today’s hosts have not won a game since March 9, and in the Premier League have only picked up one victory in eight games since January.
The fact that they still sit third in the table is testament to how impressive they were during the opening half of the campaign, but they needed a Chelsea defeat against West Ham United on Wednesday night to keep hold of that spot while Manchester United and Wolverhampton Wanderers are now also hot on their heels.
Leicester’s season has been a tale of two halves so far; in their opening 16 matches they won 12 games and lost just twice, whereas in the next 16 they have won four times and lost seven.
Many of their recent top-flight defeats have come in pairs too, so Wednesday’s 2-1 loss at Everton does not bode particularly well for them heading into this contest.
The Foxes need to turn their form around sooner rather than later, though, and if they do end up earning Champions League qualification then they would have done it the hard way, with matches against fellow European hopefuls Arsenal, Sheffield United, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United still to come this season.
Crystal Palace may still group themselves in with those teams, but successive defeats to Liverpool and Burnley have damaged their own hopes of breaking into the European places.
Seventh place is by no means out of reach, though, and before those losses they had been on a run of four consecutive victories without conceding a goal for the first time in their top-flight history.
The trip to Anfield aside, conceding goals has not been Palace’s issue this season – only six teams have shipped fewer in the entire league – but rather putting the ball in the back of the net at the other end has proved problematic.
Only rock-bottom Norwich have scored fewer, and they have drawn a blank in 12 matches throughout the campaign, including the last two.
Even if they are not pushing for it themselves, Palace could end up having as big a say on the top-four race as anyone with matches against Leicester, Chelsea, Manchester United, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Tottenham Hotspur to come in five of their six remaining games this season.
The Eagles will be underdogs heading into this one considering that Leicester’s home points tally has only been bettered by three teams this season, although they have only won two of their last eight at the King Power Stadium while Palace have a respectable record on the road.
Leicester possible XI: Schmeichel, Justin, Evans, Soyuncu, Chilwell, Maddison, Ndidi, Tielemans, Barnes, Vardy, Iheanacho.
Crystal Palace possible XI: Guaita, Ward, Sakho, Cahill, Van Aanholt, Townsend, Kouyate, Milivojevic, McArthur, Zaha, Ayew.
