High-flying Leicester City will be looking to start 2016 with a win as they host newly-promoted Bournemouth on Saturday. However, Bournemouth picked up 10 points out of 15 in December, the same amount as former league leaders Leicester. Moreover, Bournemouth nearly defeated the Foxes in the reverse fixture, a late goal from Jamie Vardy rescued a point for Claudio Ranieri's team in August. Leicester are unbeaten in their last five games against Bournemouth, with four wins out of those five.
Leicester had a somewhat disappointing end to 2015, after a great start to the season they failed to score in the last two matches of the year and lost one of them to Liverpool on Boxing Day. The year ended with a goalless draw against Manchester City. This time last year Leicester were struggling at the bottom of the table, they won just one of their first matches in 2015 but then embarked on a period of excellent form and lost just three of the following 28 league matches. Jeffrey Schlupp will most likely still be unavailable, along with Matty James.
Bournemouth are just three points above the relegation zone, but they are quietly optimistic about their chances of survival after having picked up a good amount of points in December. They have recorded three consecutive wins, including two unlikely ones against Chelsea and Manchester United, and finished 2015 with a draw against Crystal Palace and a defeat at Arsenal. The Cherries are a dangerous side away from home, they have won the same number of away games as Manchester City this season. There are no fresh injury problems for Bournemouth, but Callum Wiklson, Tyrone Mings, Max Gradel, Tommy Elphick and Christian Atsu remain out of contention.
Probable line-ups:
Leicester: Schmeichel - Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs - Mahrez, Drinkwater, Kante, Albrighton - Vardy, Ulloa
Bournemouth: Boruc - Smith, Francis, Cook, Daniels - Ritchie, Gosling, Surman, Arter, Pugh - King
My prediction: Leicester to win 2-1.
Here are the odds for the match at Bet365:
Leicester win - 1.91 Draw - 3.75 Bournemouth win - 4.33
Shumar4life
8 years ago
I believed that Leicester has opportunity to win this kind of game, but they only made poor draw so it is obvious that they have their form dropping down. Mahrez missed penalty but even without that detail, they must win this kind of matches if they want to maintain their position in first four teams in Premier league
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sharpe
8 years ago
Now is the crucial time for Leicester I think and they have to show if they will be a real treat to the other top four contenders or their results will getting worst and they will calmly just finish the season out of the European football places. Many mid able teams who are doing very well in the first half of the season...
Now is the crucial time for Leicester I think and they have to show if they will be a real treat to the other top four contenders or their results will getting worst and they will calmly just finish the season out of the European football places. Many mid able teams who are doing very well in the first half of the season dropping in their performance near the end of it trough the past years, for example last years Southampton was such a team, but I think Leicester has the style to be a serious top 4 contender and of course to win that one. So..2-0
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