Coventry City vs Leicester City

Coventry Building Society Arena sets the stage for the Midlands derby between Coventry City and Championship pacesetters Leicester City.

Coventry’s memories of the recent M69 derbies are mostly painful, with the playoff hopefuls going winless in their last seven encounters against Leicester (D4, L3) after turning an early lead into a 2-1 defeat on the opening weekend. However, Mark Robins’ men seem well positioned to claim local bragging rights for the first time since February 2008 following an impressive seven-game unbeaten streak in the Championship (W4, D3), bookended by a 3-1 win at Middlesbrough last time out. The ‘Sky Blues’ followed that victory with a 6-2 rout of lower-league Oxford United in FA Cup action, extending their undefeated home streak across all competitions to seven matches (W4, D3).

Meanwhile, runaway Championship leaders Leicester City demolished Huddersfield Town 4-1 in their opening league game of 2024 before squeaking past Millwall 3-2 in the FA Cup, making it 11 matches unbeaten across all competitions (W9, D2) since a 1-0 away loss to Middlesbrough in early November. But as the best-performing second-tier side on hostile turf this season (W10, D2, L1), the ‘Foxes’ are confident of maintaining their flawless record in 2024. Another win should produce entertainment, considering none of Leicester’s ten away league triumphs have seen them score 2+ goals. Against this backdrop, they’ve failed to net more than once on any of their last seven visits to Coventry, with five of those encounters ending level (W1, D1)! On that basis, Leicester’s porous backline, which has only kept one clean sheet in their last nine away league games, must step up.