After a comfortable victory at Peterborough in the League Cup, the Swans return to league action on Saturday with a visit to the King Power to face champions Leicester City. Here’s our preview…
Opponents
You can’t really put into words the achievements of the Foxes last season. Yours truly tipped them for relegation and I wasn’t the only one. This season will undoubtedly be tougher, one of their stars from the title success N’Golo Kante has moved on, but it looks like Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez will stay which is a huge boost. New arrivals include Kante’s replacement Nampalys Mendy, striker Ahmed Musa and defender Luis Hernandez.
Form
It hasn’t been a great start for Claudio Ranieri’s side so far this term. They lost the Community Shield at Wembley to Manchester United, then were defeated by relegation favourite’s Hull on the opening day and drew 0-0 with Arsenal last weekend. Swansea have also lost to Hull but have beaten Burnley and sit above Leicester in the table at the present time.
Memorable Moments
The King Power has been a horrendous ground for the Swans over the last few seasons. Five visits, five defeats. It reminds me of going to Yeovil where we also seemed to lose every year. Therefore memorable moments are in short supply but on our first trip there we witnessed two very rare incidents. Number one was we scored from a corner, number two was Dorus De Vries saving a penalty. I thought for a moment that new boss Paulo Sousa might be a miracle worker after that. Sadly he wasn’t and we lost 2-1 in the end.
Danger Man
Two spring to mind and I’m going for Mahrez over Vardy. The Algerian was particularly deadly against us last season scoring a hat-trick in a 0-3 win at the Liberty and opened the scoring as we lost 4-0 at the King Power in April. With pace to burn and a deadly left foot, Stephen Kingsley will face his sternest test yet against last season’s PFA player of the year.
Line Ups
Last week the Foxes started with their tried and trusted eleven from last year with the exception of Mendy who has replaced Kante. Given their consistency for selection, Claudio Ranieri is likely to stick with the same side this weekend. Francesco Guidolin is likely to be without Borja Baston again so Fernando Llorente will continue up front but Oliver McBurnie should be on the bench after his two goals in the week. Elsewhere Leon Britton may now be in contention now he’s fit again.
Prediction
Records are made to be broken, but I can’t see our losing streak at Leicester ending this weekend. 2-0 home win
