Chelsea Preview by Simon Mack!

Leicester City vs Chelsea

Saturday 1^st February 2020 12:30pm

King Power Stadium

With the disappointment of not making the League Cup Final behind them the foxes are looking to dust themselves down and get back to the hunt for Champions League football with a home tie against Chelsea at King Power Stadium.

Despite dominating the statistics mid-week it felt like lady luck had deserted city against the villa but with Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy back in the match day squad there will be hope for a victory and something to celebrate after a bitter pill.

For the blues the trip to the east midlands affords them the opportunity to close the gap on their fellow top 4 challengers. Chelsea lie in 4^th place in the Premier League eight points behind their hosts, and their last 4 matches have yielded an FA Cup victory against Hull City, a London derby league draw against Arsenal, an away defeat at struggling Newcastle and a resounding 3-0 win against Burnley with top scorer Tammy Abraham adding to his tally.

For the blues Ruben Loftus-Cheek remains on the side lines with a leg problem whilst American play maker Christian Pulisic will be out until mid-February with groin issues. Top scorer Tammy Abraham has had foot issues and is 50/50 for the foxes match and might have to settle for a place on the bench and fellow forward Olivier Giroud is also not certain to feature in the East Midlands having felt pain in his groin.

With Tammy Abraham’s scoring boots seeming lost in the post of late, Olivier Giroud not fully fit and Michy Batshuayi finding it tricky to fill the void the blues challenge at the weekend will be to provide a genuine goal threat cutting edge in a match that could set the tone for just where both clubs remainder of the league campaign will settle.

For the foxes the late late loss at Villa Park mid-week was a bitter pill to swallow for the fans and players alike. The season to date has been one of achievements beyond most fans and pundits expectations going into the campaign and with huge desire within the club to put a trophy into the cabinet the loss of opportunity over in the West Midlands will be a tricky one to put in the past and take to the pitch against Chelsea in the right frame of mind. Since the festive period the foxes fixture pile up has delivered a collection of results that are more inconsistent than what had gone on before, but with the coming weeks being less frantic there will be more time for Rodgers to work with his charges on the finer details of the coming games and the weekend’s fixture affords Rodgers and all of his staff and team an opportunity to slay the ghosts of disappointment and go into the sharp end of the season focussed on attaining Champions League football.

Jamie Vardy was on the bench for the semi-final defeat but having had a few more days to recover from his glute injury the city striker should be available for selection in the starting eleven. Club captain Wes Morgan is ill and will not feature in the match day squad whilst midfieder Nampalys Mendy will have to wait until March to return to contention with a knee problem. Apart from that there are no new injury issues to report and the team that will line up against the blues will almost certainly largely resemble the one that was defeated so cruelly on Tuesday.

Leicester City possible line up:

Schmeichel, Ricardo, Evans, Soyuncu, Chilwell, Ndidi, Barnes, Tielemans, Perez, Maddison, Vardy

Chelsea possible line up:

Arrizabalaga, James, Zouma, Tomori, Azpilicueta, Kante, Jorginho, Kovacic, Willian, Batshuayi, Hudson-Odoi