Match Preview: Leicester City vs Tottenham

Leicester City 9th (6-4-5) vs Tottenham 3rd (11-0-4)

Live on Saturday at 2:45 PM ET on NBCSN at the King Power Stadium

In the late, late afternoon game here in America the Foxes will host Spurs for an after dinner kick-off at the KP.

The Opposition

Spurs recovered from their soul crushing defeat to Arsenal by defeating a Southampton side with a classic walk in the park effort. Charlie Austin managed to score from one of the Saints 18 total shots, but Hugo Lloris was hardly tested otherwise. Harry Kane kept his form up and scored a quite easy one, but the Saints are probably used to giving up cheapies.

With the return of Son, Spurs had their best performance of the season when they walloped Chelsea 3-1. They quickly returned to their levels after a 1-0 victory over Inter to disappear after going 2-1 up over Arsenal. I believe he’ll play a huge role in this match, and Marc Albrighton will have to start in order to provide whoever plays RB some cover.

The Foxes

Depending on who Spurs send out to play on Saturday, Leicester need to look more like they did against Watford than Fulham if they want to win at home. Jamie Vardy will not be playing in this game, which means Kelechi Iheanacho will really have to step his game up. I’m still in shock at how poor his finish was against Fulham and that really would’ve set the tone for Leicester going forward. While I think Nacho is a better solution up front, the substitutes Claude Puel made, primarily the Shinji Okazaki one, really turned it around.

Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

I think Vicente Iborra gets the nod on Saturday in midfield. I would honestly prefer a way where Puel could get Namplays Mendy, Wilfred Ndidi, and Iborra all into the match because I think if you just sat Iborra in front of the back four with the sole purpose of marking Harry Kane, Mendy and Ndidi would sweep up the rest of the midfield. For that to happen though, either James Maddison would have to move to the left with Demarai Gray being droppped, or dropping Maddison, which would be silly given his form.

The Prediction

This is a tough one since you have Spurs who obviously want to go to the next round of the Champions League, but that road is through Barcelona, so they may look to rest some players. On the other hand, if they did do that, they could be looking at the real possibility of dropping out of the top 4 and landing at 5th place. That would mean Chelsea beat Manchester City, but I digress. Leicester need this win more than Spurs, and I think they edge them 4-3 with a James Maddison hat trick.