Match Preview: Tottenham Hotspur vs Leicester City

Tottenham Hotspur 3rd (19-0-6) vs Leicester City 11th (9-5-11)

Live on Sunday at 8:30 AM ET on NBCSN

Whilst Tottenham have ridden their lucky horse for the last month through the likes of Fulham, Watford, and Newcastle, Leicester will present a very different test for them. While it’s fact that Leicester haven’t tasted victory since their 1-0 win over Everton on New Year’s Day, apart from the first 10 minutes of each game, or the 90+ debacle against Wolves, Leicester have consistently outplayed the opposition in their last few league outings. Will it be the same ol’ song and dance for the Foxes? Or will they finally break their duck and punish an injured Spurs side?

The Opposition

I would describe Spurs’ form like a full volley shinner going top bin from 35 yards out. While their victory over Newcastle wasn’t that surprising given they just went all out to defeat Manchester City, I was shocked that Watford couldn’t get anything out of their match against them. Mauricio Potchettino will be pleased that his side keep finding a way to win in the league through all theses injuries, especially since securing Champions League football next year is becoming increasingly tough with the resurgence of Manchester United.

Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

All Hueng-Min Son does against Leicester is score goals and it tears a piece of my soul out each time he does it. I think it’s because he’s genuinely so happy when he scores a la Toto Schillaci 1990 that it just inflicts the pain even more. It also doesn’t help he’s scored three times and assisted twice in his last two matches vs the Foxes.

The Foxes

YOU CAN’T START TO PLAY AFTER YOU’VE ALLOWED A GOAL. I don’t know why this is so hard for everyone at Leicester to comprehend. How they continue to float like Aladdin on a magic carpet without a care in the world for the first X minutes of the match until you’re down one-nil is beyond comprehension. It’s not like they don’t know how to play with intensity or know when crunch time is and need a goal, it just comes way too late. Maybe I’m just being too harsh and this is just a super young team working out the kinks. Interestingly enough, if you take out Jamie Vardy, Jonny Evans, and Kasper Schmeichel, the oldest person to have started for Leicester vs Manchester United would have been Papy Mendy at 26.

Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images

When Jamie Vardy scuffed his left footed effort eight yards out into the hands of David de Gea, you just knew if he had any sort of form in him, he would’ve buried it. He even had time to switch it over to his preferred right foot, which for me, made it even worse to watch him miss that glorious opportunity to equalize.

The Prediction

Leicester have a very poor record on Sunday and could quite literally only win twice in a month of Sunday’s. With one win in their last 15 matches in all competitions on Sundays, it doesn’t fair well for Leicester going in to this match. The one thing they do have in their arsenal is a proclivity to earn more points away from the King Power Stadium. I think this result will ultimately come down to which side Puel picks to face Spurs. I would hope it’s more attacking than the three center mids we’ve deployed against Manchester City and Chelsea given there injuries, but I could see Hamza Choudhury sitting back with the center backs so they can’t easily dink the ball over to Son whenever they want. I think Leicester will come out firing and finish all those chances they missed against Liverpool and United and win 3-0.