Leicester City vs. Southampton
Venue: King Power Stadium
Kick off: 3PM:
Leicester City’s Kelechi Iheanacho, Wilfred Ndidi and Southampton’s Joe Aribo will be on opposing side this afternoon at King Power Stadium as both sides are still looking for their first victory of the season.
With one draw apiece from their opening two fixtures, the Foxes and Saints currently occupy 15th and 17th place in the Premier League standings.
Potential departures are currently dominating conversations at Leicester right now with the futures of Wesley Fofana, Youri Tielemans and Jamie Vardy all remaining hot topics of debate.
Brendan Rodgers will accept that it is part of the territory, and perhaps necessary if he is to make new signings, but the Northern Irishman needs to place equal focus on ensuring that his team get a win on the board as soon as possible.
Even though Leicester have netted twice in each of their games against Brentford and Arsenal, they only have one point to show for their efforts, a consequence of six being conceded at the other end of the pitch.
Speculation regarding Fofana or the exit of Kasper Schemichel should not necessarily be blamed for that.
This is a Leicester side which has collectively regressed since winning the FA Cup in 2021, and they are at risk of becoming a constant fixture in mid-table.
With Chelsea and Manchester United to follow, Rodgers knows that victory over an equally-open Southampton team would make his job that little bit more comfortable for the remainder of the month.
As far as Southampton are concerned, Ralph Hasenhuttl has already had to fend off questions about his future at this early stage of the season.
The Austrian would have been anticipating a more ferocious grilling from the media when his team were 2-0 down to Leeds last weekend, but their revival would have come as both a relief and a surprise.
Joe Aribo and Kyle Walker-Peters netted inside the final 18 minutes to give the Saints some momentum ahead of their trip to the East Midlands.
While Hasenhuttl will continue to have concerns about his defence, the show of character versus Leeds will give him confidence that his players can capitalise versus a Leicester defence who are playing with little belief.
However, Southampton is currently on a five-game winless streak against the Foxes, their last success coming in January 2020 when they emerged victorious by a 2-1 scoreline on their travels.
Leicester City possible XI: Ward, Fofana, Evans, Soyuncu, Castagne, Tielemans, Ndidi, Justin, Maddison, Iheanacho, Vardy.
Southampton possible XI: Bazunu, Bella-Kotchap, Bednarek, Salisu, Walker-Peters, Ward-Prowse, Lavia, Djenepo, Armstrong, Aribo, Adams.