Leicester City vs Arsenal – English Premier League – Preview

Posted on August 20, 2016 by Sreya

Leicester City host Arsenal at King Power Stadium, London in their second English Premier League fixture of the season on 20th August, Saturday. Both clubs lost their inaugural fixture of the season, Leicester fell 2-1 to an injury-depleted Hull City while Arsenal were beaten 4-3 by Liverpool.

Both the clubs are in dire need of a win to gain momentum early into the new season. While Claudio Ranieri is trying to keep his Premier League winning team together having already lost N’Golo Kante to Chelsea, Arsene Wenger is struggling with injuries to his key players.

Team News

Robert Huth returns to the Leicester squad following his three-match suspension. Leicester City have a completely healthy squad for Claudio Ranieri to choose from.

Per Mertesacker, Gabriel Paulista, Danny Welbeck, Carl Jenkinson, Alex Iwobi and Aaron Ramsey are absent through injuries while Mesut Ozil, Laurent Koscielny, Jack Wilshere and Olivier Giroud are yet to regain match fitness.

Leicester City Possible Starting Lineup: Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Simpson, Robert Huth, Wes Morgan, Christian Fuchs, Riyad Mahrez, Andy King, Daniel Drinkwater, Demarai Gray, Ahmed Musa, Jamie Vardy.

Arsenal Possible Starting Lineup: Petr Cech, Hector Bellerin, Callum Chambers, Rob Holding, Nacho Monreal, Mohamed Elneny, Granit Xhaka, Theo Walcott, Santi Cazorla, Alex Oxlaide Chamberlain, Alexis Sanchez.

Thoughts From Both Camps

“We are now in the Champions League and we need something more to play against the big teams. Now he knows very well what I want and my expectations are higher. Not only for Riyad but for all my players.

He signed for four years, me too because I want to build. He wants to build something, Jamie (Vardy) wants to, Kasper (Schmeichel), everybody. It is good.”

– Claudio Ranieri, Leicester City.

“We have plenty of players who want to join us. To buy in itself is not a quality but to buy the good players is a quality, and I think this club has been built on that.”

– Arsene Wenger, Arsenal.

Contributor’s Pick

According to Head-2-Head statistics, Arsenal have won four and lost none of the last six matches between these two clubs. The Gunners are likely to win 2-1.