Leicester City vs Chelsea preview, team news, match tickets, and prediction 

After both being knocked out of the Carabao Cup last night, Leicester City and Chelsea will head back to Premier League action in our previewed week 12 clash on Saturday 23rd November.

Leicester City, one of the newly promoted teams before the start of this campaign, have a lot of work to be done on their hands and they will be looking to get a major scalp when they face the Blues.

On the other hand, Chelsea is on their way to redemption under Enzo Maresca, manager of the month in September. It is the Italian’s first game against his former employers and both parties will be aiming for a result.

Leicester Form

Leicester City dominated the Championship last term as they returned to the elite division under the guidance of Maresca.

As expected, the Premier League has been tough for them but they have made some terrific fight by picking a point off Tottenham on the opening day and defeating Bournemouth for their first Premier League win of the campaign, with a recent away win at Southampton. It seems Steve Cooper’s side is on the rise as of the time of writing and they cannot be written off just yet.

Leicester City lost players following their promotion back to the Premier League. Veteran Marc Albrighton, Kelechi Iheanacho, and Dennis Praet were released after the season finished, while Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall left for Chelsea in a deal worth €35.40m.

In terms of the arrivals, electric winger Issahaku Fatawu, who was on loan last term, made his move permanent for €17.00m, Caleb Okoli joined from Atalanta for €14.00m, while Bobby De Cordova-Reid joined the club on a free transfer after the expiration of his contract at Fulham. Jordan Ayew joined the team from Crystal Palace, and Oliver Skipp made a big move from Tottenham to the King Power Stadium. Odsonne Edouard also signed for them from Crystal Palace on loan.

Having replaced Maresca, it has taken time for Cooper to get going with the team and it is well understandable. However, there will be no excuses if they fail to get quality results that will improve their chances of survival by the end of the season. The atmosphere at the King Power Stadium has been electric but it needs a run of massive results to keep the fire alive.

Leicester City, as of the time of writing, have won two, drawn three and lost four of their opening 9 Premier League games this season. They have been unfortunate in some games but they need to do better with closing out games if they want to stay up. They have two away games before this fixture and will hope to pick up some points at Ipswich this weekend.

Veteran striker Jamie Vardy is top league scorer with 4 goals from 11 shots, impressive for a 37 year old, while strike partner Mavididi has 2. Young midfielder Facundo Buonanotte, on loan from Brighton, has 3 goals and 2 assists, with defender James Justin chipping in with 2 goals too.

Chelsea Form

On the other hand, Chelsea have made some incredible progress under Maresca and it looks like they will compete for one of the European competition slots by the end of the season. The Blues, who spent extensively last season, did the same thing this past summer as they searched for solutions in critical areas of the team.

Tosin Adarabioyo came in on a free transfer, Estevao Willian also arrived from Palmeiras, Omari Kellyman from Aston Villa, Marc Guiu from Barcelona, and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, who many felt is not supposed to be at the club, from newly promoted Leicester City. Jadon Sancho and Joao Felix were part of the other additions to the squad.

As many as the Blues signed, they also let go left-back Ian Maatsen who left for Aston Villa after his exploits with Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga last season, while Lewis Hall made his move to Newcastle United permanent, Callum Gallagher to Atletico Madrid, and Omari Hutchinson moved to Ipswich. The likes of Thiago Silva, Hakim Ziyech, and Malang Saar left the club on a free transfer. Meanwhile, Raheem Sterling joined Arsenal on loan on deadline day

Maresca has been able to work on the Chelsea squad a lot and that has seen some belief from the fans in their capacity to get into the top four at the end of the season. However, they still have a few challenges with goalkeeping and defending, and if it can be sorted quickly, they might be unstoppable.

Despite some improvements this season, Chelsea have struggled to get results against the top 4 with losses to both Man City and Liverpool and that might be their undoing in the course of the campaign. They also unexpectedly dropped points against Nottingham Forest and Crystal Palace at home so there is a need to get a result against one of the newly promoted teams on the road.

In the premier league so far, Chelsea are on the fringes off the Champions League spots, although I was at the Amex Stadium on Saturday and still can’t believe the 4 on 1 miss that saw Wolves break to get a late equaliser to deny them 5th place.

Chelsea though have 5 wins and 2 draws from 9 games, although defence is the concern. Not just 11 conceded and 2 clean sheets, there have been no assists from defenders either so question marks over creativity down the flanks.

Luckily at the other end there are no such worries, being the second highest scorers in the league with 19. Cole Palmer is stepping up once again from midfield, with 7 goals and 5 assists, including all 4 against Brighton which I also watched.  Nicholas Jackson is also showing signs of finding his feet in English football with 6 goals and 4 assists. Noni Madueke has 4 goals, including a hat trick at Wolves. Both Felix and Nkunku have one apiece.

Former Manchester United man, Sancho racked up three consecutive assists in his opening three games before blanking the next two, but seems settled in the side.

Talking of the Red Devils, Ruud Van Nistelrooy got a result in his first match as interim Manchester United manager beating Leicester last night, and then face Chelsea at home this weekend. It’s a shame Amorim is all but confirmed as I wanted Ruud to be the next Ole Gunnar Solskjær, and do well enough as caretaker manager to get the full time job, then eventually be sacked for poor performances. But I’m tipping the Blues to struggle against the new-manager effect on Sunday either way.

Leicester City vs Chelsea Previous Meetings

In the head-to-head record, since 1996 the two sides have met 39 times. Leicester City have won 7, Chelsea have won 23, while the remaining nine meetings finished as a draw. Chelsea won the previous league fixture 3-1 in 2023.

Match tickets

The epic match at King Power Stadium in Leicester kicks off on Saturday 23rd November 2024, at 13:30 UK time.

The 32,262-capacity stadium with its electrifying atmosphere will host the Premier League clash between the Foxes and the Blues.

Getting tickets for the Leicester City vs Chelsea tickets could take a lot of work given the standard of this game. Hence, you are advised to search ticket reselling sites should they be expectedly sold out on each club’s channels.

Team news

Lineups

Well, Leicester kept a good number of their squad that helped them gain promotion. Manager Cooper is expected to still field some of them in this contest. As of the time of writing, Patson Daka, Nathaniel Opoku, and Jannik Vestergaard are all injured.

Goalkeeper Mads Hermansen has been impressive this term and should keep his place for this game, Caleb Okoli should start alongside Wout Faes at the heart of the defense if Vestergaard fails to recover. In the attack, changes might be seen based on the players available.

Leicester City XI: Hermansen, Justin, Faes, Okoli, Kristiansen, Ndidi, Winks, Skipp, Buonanotte, Mavididi, Vardy.

Maresca has found a team of his own in the Premier League and another in the Europa Conference league. Without any major shuffle, most of the following players should start this game at the King Power Stadium especially with an easy European campaign on the horizon (FC Noah are Armenian, and no, I’ve never heard of them either).

Chelsea XI: Robert Sanchez; Wesley Fofana, Levi Colwill, Tosin Adarabioyo; Marc Cucurella, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez, Cole Palmer, Nicolas Jackson, Jadon Sancho. 

Prediction

From the head-to-head records, it is obvious the two teams are not closely matched with the Blues enjoying a large share of the dominance. Based on the current form at the time of writing, the Blues would be expected to take all three points, but things could have changed before this game is eventually played. Regardless, the Blues are the favourites and any other result than a win with Cold Palmer heavily involved will be considered as an upset.

Leicester City 1-3 Chelsea