Chelsea vs Leicester City – Match Preview and Prediction

Chelsea vs Leicester City – Match Preview and Prediction

As football around Europe resumes after the international break for World Cup qualifying, the Premier League is no different as Chelsea face Leicester City in the early Saturday game at Stamford Bridge with kick-off scheduled for 12.30pm local time. Chelsea had dominated this fixture in recent seasons up until last year when they drew one game and lost one to the eventual Premier League champions Leicester City as former Blues boss Claudio Ranieri had a dream season and led the Foxes to the title.

This is always going to be a special fixture now that the much loved former Blues manager is managing Leicester and indeed they needed that kind of inspiration having lost their previous six games against Chelsea before the “Tinkerman” took charge at King Power Stadium. Antonio Conte and Claudio Raneri know each other well having both operated in Serie A where Ranieri once tried to sign the then player Conte to play for him at Fiorentina when Conte was plying his trade as a player for Juventus. In fact Ranieri was very complimentary when Conte was appointed as the Chelsea manager saying that the former Italy national team manager would bring trophies to Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea come into the game on the back of a 2-0 win over Hull City and sit in 7th position just behind Man United in 6th on goal difference and only 3 points out of the top 4. Leicester on the other hand come into the match in 12th position only behind Watford in 11th on goal difference.

Jamie Vardy was a man on fire last year setting the record for the longest streak of most games played in a row and scoring a goal. The Foxes hitman has not been hitting the net so regularly this season which is part of the reason why the team have gotten off to a relatively slow start.

Many people are looking at this as a draw as Leicester City look to be improving after a slow start and you can see them playing Chelsea pretty tight as Antonio Conte is still looking for the right combination of personnel and formation in his Blues XI. There is of course the sub-plot of reunion of new Chelsea man N’Golo Kante with his former Leicester mates as the Blues midfielder will likely get to play a role in the game. We see this as a close encounter with the Blues coming out on top with a late winner 2-1. Let us know what you think the score will be in the comments below.