Leicester City vs Aston Villa

High-flying Aston Villa head to the King Power Stadium to take on hot relegation candidates Leicester City in a high-stakes Premier League fixture.

Leicester City’s woeful run of five defeats in their last six Premier League outings (D1), bookended by a 2-1 loss at Crystal Palace over the weekend, brought Brendan Rodgers’ managerial tenure to a halt. Having been sucked back into the danger zone, the ‘Foxes’ will seek redemption when they meet a Villa side they’ve not lost to in 11 of their 13 Premier League meetings on home soil (W6, D5). After a goal-glutted 4-2 win in the reverse fixture, Leicester could complete their first top-flight double over fellow East Midland rivals since 2019/20. However, the King Power is no longer a safe shelter, with the hosts suffering five defeats in their last seven home league clashes (W1, D1). Scoring first may not be sufficient to get them over the line, though, with Leicester dropping a league-high 22 points from winning positions this season.

On the other hand, Aston Villa stunned Chelsea 2-0 at Stamford Bridge last weekend, bolstering their hopes of securing a first top-half Premier League finish in over a decade. After three consecutive league defeats in February, Unai Emery’s men have gone into overdrive, racking up four wins and a draw in their last five top-flight outings. Since each of those four triumphs came ‘to nil,’ breaking the deadlock could be paramount to Villa’s bid to take down Leicester. Adding to this sentiment, both of their Premier League away wins over this opposition have yielded a clean sheet. Playing in midweek could throw a spanner in the works, with the ‘Lions’ going winless in their last five Premier League midweek contests (D2, L3).