Match Preview: Burnley vs Leicester City

Burnley 7th (13-10-9) vs Leicester City 8th (11-10-11)

Saturday 10:00 AM ET, Live from Turf Moor on the NBC Sports Gold App

While finishing seventh does not guarantee either side a place in Europe, finishing just outside the top six would give either side huge ground to build upon next season.

The Opposition

In the early days of the season Burnley found themselves in fourth place, causing many to speculate them “doing a Leicester” and crashing the party on a Champions League spot. While time and result has made that an uncertainty, the potential remains for Burnley to earn the chance to play in the Europe League next season.

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Unbeaten since their loss to Swansea in February, Burnley have only dropped 2 of a possible 15 points. Their two comebacks against Everton and most recently Watford, coupled with some poor Leicester results, means they now sit six points clear of the Foxes.

Ex-Leicester man Chris Wood has been doing a lot of the goal scoring work of late since joining Burnley in August from Leeds United, with four goals in his last five games. He has had some help from Ashley Barnes, who is in fine form himself also scoring four times in his last five games. It seems that whenever one scores, so does the other, maybe something to look out for on Saturday.

Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

The Foxes

Well, what can you say. Another dreadful start from Leicester culminating in an easy opening goal for the visitors. Newcastle certainly deserved their win at the KP, playing Leicester up and down the field, but once they kicked into gear, you wouldn’t have been surprised if they tied it up. While that wasn’t the case, Leicester need to find that gear much sooner against Burnley on Saturday.

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A depleted midfield, and the loan of Andy King, means the Foxes had to pull from their very successful U-23 squad to help steady the ship. Enter Hamza Choudhury. I have no doubt he will become a future Leicester star and I would be the first to purchase any afro wig the club shop wanted to sell in his honor. He looked comfortable when coming on for the injured Vicente Iborra, and Claude Puel has said he will start along side Adrien Silva tomorrow. Once Wilfred Ndidi is back from his garbage suspension, Hamza will most likely be relegated to the bench, but if Puel got adventurous, I would be fine with them in a midfield three.

The Prediction

I know last week I picked Leicester to walk away victorious by a scoreline of 4-1, and am about as unbiased as Mark Lawrenson, but why not blindly assume your team will win each week? I think Leicester squeaks by with a 2-0 win, you never know, like a broken clock, I might be right.