Leicester City will host Newcastle United this Monday in one of the seven Premier League fixtures on Boxing Day.
Venue: King Power Stadium (Leicester)
Key Statistics
Leicester City are unbeaten in their last five games (W4, D1).
They have kept seven clean sheets in their last eight competitive games.
They still haven’t won a home league game this term against a side starting the round above the bottom six (D2, L2).
These two managers have never drawn a personal H2H (Rodgers: W6, L3).
Newcastle United have won their last five Premier League games.
They are unbeaten in their last 14 games in all competitions (including friendlies).
They are also unbeaten on the road in the league since August (W3, D1).
Head to head
Both teams have identical records in this fixture, but Newcastle edges Leicester with 13 wins for the Magpies against 12 wins for the Foxes.
Latest performances in all competitions
Leicester City: W-D-W-W-W
Newcastle United: W-W-W-W-W
Leicester City
Leicester City will look to keep their impressive momentum when they host one of the Premier League’s most in-form teams, Newcastle United on Monday.
After a very poor start to the season, the Foxes were building a head of steam before the World Cup break with four wins across their last five Premier League (PL) matches (L1). And so manager Brendan Rodgers’ challenge is to now get them to pick up where they left off in November.
As Leicester had seven players at the World Cup but none playing after the round of 16, his squad should be more refreshed than some heading into the busy seasonal programme.
Leicester City fans can expect plenty of post-Christmas entertainment as this fixture has produced an average of five goals per game across the last three H2Hs here (Leicester: W2, L1), including a 4-0 win for the hosts’ last term.
A 3-0 midweek EFL Cup win over MK Dons will add to that expectation, even though Leicester still haven’t won a home league game this term against a side starting the round above the bottom six (D2, L2).
Possible Leicester City starting line-up
Danny Ward; Timothy Castagne, Daniel Amartey, Wout Faes, Luke Thomas; Boubakary Soumaré, James Maddison, Youri Tielemans, Wilfred Ndidi; Harvey Barnes, Patson Daka.
Injured: Keiran Dewsbury-Halls, Jonny Evans, Ricardo Pereira, James Justin, Ryan Bertrand
Doubtful: Çağlar Söyüncü
Suspended: None
Newcastle United
Like Leicester, Newcastle were also in fine form before going into the World Cup break thanks to a five league games winning run and a ten-game unbeaten run.
The Magpies come into this tie on the back of a 3-0 win over Bournemouth in the EFL. The win was their seventh win on the bounce in all competitions and made it 14 games unbeaten in competitions, including friendlies.
Eddie Howe’s side were third in the table before the recent World Cup – an impressive 20 points better off than they were after 15 games last PL season.
Since August, the visitors have been unbeaten on the road in the league (W3, D1). So manager Eddie Howe has high hopes his team can start their festive programme strongly, describing a 5-0 friendly win over Saudi Arabian side Al-Hilal as “just what we needed at this stage of our preparations”.
Possible Newcastle United starting line-up
Nick Pope; Kieran Trippier, Fabian Schär, Sven Botman, Dan Burn; Sean Longstaff, Bruno Guimarães, Joseph Willock; Miguel Almirón, Callum Wilson, Joelinton.
Injured: Elliot Anderson, Paul Dummett, Alexander Isak
Doubtful: None
Suspended: None
Odds
| Leicester City to win | Draw | Newcastle United to win | |
| Odds | 3.25 | 3.50 | 2.20 |
| Probability (%) | 29 | 27 | 43 |
Prediction
Leicester 2-2 Newcastle
