Leicester City welcome Tottenham Hotspur to King Power stadium in a rearranged tie on Wednesday evening.
The sides were due to meet in November, but a Covid outbreak in the Leicester camp meant that the game was postponed, while Tottenham had issues of their own, and had failed in their own postponement request.
LEICESTER, ENGLAND – MAY 23: Youri Tielemans of Leicester City battles for possession Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg of Tottenham Hotspur during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur at The King Power Stadium(Getty Images)
Leicester and Tottenham will return to action having seen their weekend games- Burnley &Arsenal respectively canceled due to rising cases of COVID-19.
A win for the visitors would take them above north London rivals Arsenal, with whom their game on Sunday was postponed to major outcry from fans and pundits alike.
Spurs are yet to lose in the top flight under Antonio Conte, although they have lost three times across other competitions.
However, Leicester are no pushover, and have now been dealt some significant personnel updates.
TEAM NEWS
Leicester City
Speaking ahead of the clash, Brendan Rodgers provided an update on his squad and their readiness for the clash.
And, in bad news for Foxes fans, he confirmed that Timothy Castagne will be out for between 8 and 9 weeks after surgery on an inner bleed issue in his thigh.
However, there was also significant good news. The Leicester boss confirmed that seven players are returning.
All of Ayoze Perez, Boubacary Soumare, James Justin, Luke Thomas, Caglar Soyuncu, Patson Daka and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall have recovered enough to take part in the clash.
Tottenham Hotspur
Antonio Conte confirmed that there’s no injury new update ahead of the foxes clash.
“No, we have the same situation as Arsenal. Before the game it was the same.”
Cristian Romero, Eric Dier, and Son Heung-min are the absentees and not expected to be back until next month.
Steven Bergwijn has recovered and may feature from the bench.
Hugo Lloris will return in goal against Leicester while Japhet Tanganga should keep his place at centre-back, with Dier and Romero still out.
Leicester City possible starting lineup(4231)
Schmeichel; Albrighton, Soyuncu, Vestergaard, Thomas; Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall; Lookman, Maddison, Barnes; Daka
Tottenham Hotspur possible starting lineup(343)
Lloris; Tanganga, Sanchez, Davies; Royal, Winks, Hojbjerg, Reguilion; Alli, Kane, Moura
Opta Stats
- Leicester have won two of their last four Premier League games against Tottenham (L2), as many as they had in their previous 12 against them (D3 L7).
- Tottenham won this exact fixture 4-2 in May last season, last winning back-to-back away league games against Leicester in October 2003/December 2014.
- Since Leicester returned to the Premier League in 2014, their 14 meetings with Tottenham have produced 54 goals – only Arsenal vs Liverpool (62) and Crystal Palace vs Liverpool (55) have seen more goals scored in the competition in that time.
- Leicester have lost just one of their last eight midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) Premier League games (W4 D3), going down 2-1 at Chelsea in May
- Tottenham have lost five of their last eight away midweek (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) Premier League games (W2 D1), more than they had in their previous 21 such games in the competition (W13 D4 L4).
- Spurs are unbeaten in eight league games under Antonio Conte’s management, winning five.
Leicester City have played just once since the turn of the year and will be fully fresh to face Spurs.
The Foxes last outing in the league saw them overcome Liverpool 1-0 in a huge win for Brendan Rodgers’ side.
Tottenham Hotspur were given the weekend off after Arsenal requested to postpone the north London derby.
Spurs will be hoping to bounce back from the Carabao semi-final defeat against Chelsea.