Aston Villa will welcome Leicester City to Villa Park this Sunday for what promises to be an exciting fixture between two British coaches.
Venue: Villa Park
Key Statistics
Aston Villa have lost their last two home games against Leicester City. They could suffer three consecutive defeats for the first time in 67 years.
Steven Gerrard suffered only his second league defeat in 55 matches last weekend and has never lost consecutive league games as a manager.
Leicester City have scored and conceded in 14 consecutive Premier League games away from home this year.
Brendan Rodgers has the best win rate against a single opponent in the Premier League and has won all six of his matches against Aston Villa.
Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy has an excellent record against Aston Villa and has scored five goals in his last five games against the home side.
Both previous meetings between Aston Villa boss Steven Gerrard and Leicester’s Brendan Rodgers ended in 1-0 home wins – one apiece for Rangers and Celtic in the 2018-19 Scottish Premiership.
Leicester manager Brendan Rodgers has won all six of his Premier League away games against Aston Villa – no manager has a better 100% win rate away against an opponent in the competition’s history (Jürgen Klopp also 6/6 vs Crystal Palace).
Ollie Watkins has scored 18 goals in 49 Premier League appearances for Aston Villa.
Leicester City striker Jamie Vardy has an excellent record against Aston Villa and has scored five goals in his last five games against the home side.
Head to head
Aston Villa have a good record against Leicester City and have won 35 out of 104 games played between the two teams, as opposed to the Foxes’ 25 victories. But Leicester City have won five of their last seven league games against Aston Villa.
Latest Performances in all competitions
Aston Villa: L-W-W-L-L
Leicester City: D-W-W-L-DD
Aston Villa
Steven Gerrard will square up against his former manager for the third time in his managerial career when he welcomes Leicester in the fourth game of his Aston Villa reign.
The former Liverpool captain began his Villa reign with two wins against Brighton and Crystal Palace before his side was beaten 2-1 by Manchester City last time out.
The loss pushed Aston Villa down to 13th place in the league standings, five points behind Manchester United in seventh. With their recruitment in the summer, the home team are targeting a top-seven finish this season. With difficult games coming against Liverpool and Chelsea, Gerrard will be desperate to get back to winning ways in this game to avoid dropping further down the table
However, Villa have a poor record at home against the Foxes as they have not kept a single clean sheet in their 12 previous home games with Leicester, conceding 23 times across those matches.
Possible Aston Villa starting line-ups
Emiliano Martinez; Matty Cash, Konsa, Tyron Mings, Matt Targett; Nakamba, Jacob Ramsey, John McGinn; Anwar El Ghazi, Ollie Watkins, Emi Buendia.
Injured: Leon Bailey, Bertrand Traore.
Doubtful: Danny Ings, Trezeguet,
Suspended: None
Leicester City
Leicester’s inconsistent start to the season continued with a 2-2 draw with Southampton on Wednesday. The Foxes had to come from behind twice to draw the game thanks to a late James Maddison goal.
The visitors are without a clean sheet in their last 14 away Premier League games, since a 0-0 draw with Wolves in February. However, they have also scored in all 14 games, with Burnley the last top-flight team having a longer away run both scoring and conceding, between April 1961 and March 1962 (16 games in a row).
Rodgers’ side are also without a clean sheet in the league since the opening day. They were expected to challenge for the top four this season but they are currently sitting in 10th place, five points behind fourth place.
They will now look to pick up just their second win since the start of November, in order to keep pace with a top-five berth that they have consistently finished over the past two years.
Possible Leicester starting line-ups
Kasper Schmeichel; Timothy Castagne, Johnny Evans, Caglar Soyuncu, Luke Thomas; Wilfried Ndidi, Keiran Dewsbury-Hall; Ayoze Perez, James Maddison, Harvey Barnes; Jamie Vardy.
Injured: Wesley Fofana, Ricardo Pereira, justin James
Doubtful: Youri Tielemans
Suspended: None
Prediction
Aston Villa 2-1 Leicester City
