Third placed Leicester City will be hosting nineteenth placed Aston Villa at King Power Stadium on Monday 9 March, 8pm Kick off.
This is a chance for Leicester to make it a double against Aston Villa in the league. Leicester’s last victory over them ended 4-1 with Jack Grealish scoring for Aston Villa, Vardy scoring twice, with Iheanacho and Evans sealing all three points for the Foxes.
Leicester City are back to winning ways. The Foxes won against Birmingham City 1-0 in the FA Cup with a late Ricardo Pereira goal to proceed into the fifth round. Aston Villa got knocked out in the cup by Fulham in the third round, however Leicester will certainly be looking for revenge from their League Cup semi final defeat.
Head to Head
Played twenty one. Leicester City have won eight, Aston Villa have won four and there have been nine draws in the league.
AVL 1-4 LCFC – Villa Park – 2019
AVL 1-1 LCFC – Villa Park – 2016
LCFC 3-2 AVL – King Power Stadium – 2015
LCFC 1-0 AVL – King Power Stadium – 2015
AVL 2-1 LCFC – Villa Park – 2014
Aston Villa currently sit nineteenth in the league table with 25 points and a game in hand. Aston Villa have only won seven games and lost sixteen, they’ve also conceded 52 goals compared to Leicester City who have only let in 28. Leicester will be looking to make it sixteen league wins on Monday. Leicester’s goals per game has now dropped to 1.93 with Aston Villa currently on 1.26. With this in mind, and the number of goals Villa have conceded, we’ll be expecting goals on Monday night.
James Maddison vs Jack Grealish
This comparison has been ongoing throughout the season, with the 2 midfielders separated by less than a year in age. The debate started when the Englishmen were both linked to Manchester United and the media began debating who should go to Euro 2020 with England. The truth is, they should both go to Euro 2020, each having something different to offer during the games. This is a golden period for England’s midfield and a great problem for England manager Gareth Southgate to have.
James Maddison has played twelve games in central midfield this season and has six goals from that position, with Jack Grealish mostly playing on the left wing. He has played there eighteen times and has got six goals and three assists from the position.
James Maddison has played 43 games this season and Jack Grealish has played 31 games. Jack’s minutes per goal is 233’ and James’ stat is 306’ MPG.
Leicester City
Whilst Leicester beat Aston Villa convincingly in December, and despite occupying the third spot in the league, Leicester have still not seen a win in the Premier League since January 22nd which came against West Ham (4-1)
Leicester will just need to take one game at the time, as they look to secure European football and also have one eye on the FA Cup.
Wilfred Ndidi should start against Villa as he went off in the 60th minute against Birmingham while the question will be if Jamie Vardy is going to start, however he has been training with the squad and looks likely to feature.
In the midweek FA Cup tie, Leicester City stuck to their game plan against Birmingham as they wore them down and the foxes finally scored late on, with a deserved victory.
Previous Results
Leicester 1-0 Birmingham – 4th March 2020 (FA Cup)
Leicester 0-1 Manchester City – 22nd Feb 2020
Wolves 0-0 Leicester – 14th Feb 2020
Leicester 2-2 Chelsea – 1st Feb 2020
Leicester 4-1 West Ham – 22nd Jan 2020
Burnley 2-1 Leicester – 19th Jan 2020
Aston Villa
Since the start of February, Aston Villa have been on a losing streak as they have lost to Bournemouth, Tottenham and Southampton in the league. Villa can move out of the relegation zone if they do win on Monday, however Villa have four tough fixtures coming up, hosting Chelsea, rivals Wolves, a trip to Liverpool and back home to face Manchester United. Which really pushes the importance of Monday’s clash.
Previous Results
Southampton 2-0 Aston Villa
Aston Villa 2-3 Tottenham
Bournemouth 2-1 Aston Villa
Aston Villa 2-1 Watford
Brighton 1-1 Aston Villa
Aston Villa have recruited well in January as they signed centre forward Mbwana Samatta for 10 million. Despite only playing four games, Samatta has shown great promise for the squad who will be helping the likes of Jack Grealish and co to survive relegation.
The veteran Pepe Reina should be back as their goalkeeper and the goal scorer in the last match between the two sides, Trezeguet, likely to be handed a spot in the starting eleven. In midfield, former Fox and Premier League winner Danny Drinkwater joined on loan from Chelsea until the end of the season,
Tom Heaton and Wesley remain on the sideline, while the match will also come too soon for key midfielder John McGinn, as he is recovering from an injury. He has been out since the end of December
Score Prediction
Hoping Leicester continue their winning ways, it will be a great treat if they can beat another midlands side back to back. We think it will be 2-1 to Leicester with James Maddison getting the better over Jack Grealish.
Predicted Line up
Leicester City vs Aston Villa will be broadcasted on Sky Sports – Monday 9th March 2020 (8pm)
Check @LCFC on Twitter – for more information about the squad as time gets nearer to kick off
Words by Riaz Adam.