Manchester City welcome Leicester City to the Etihad Stadium in a blockbuster Super Sunday clash between two teams expected to challenge for Europe.
Man City can climb into the top three with a win whereas Leicester will reclaim top spot with victory.
Team News
Aymeric Laporte and Riyad Mahrez are set to be available for Man City after recovering from positive Coronavirus tests which sidelined them for City’s opening win of season against Wolves on Monday.
Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko are ruled out until after October’s international break with muscle related injuries, joining Joao Cancelo (foot), Bernardo Silva (quadriceps), Ilkay Gundogan (Coronavirus) and Sergio Aguero (knee) on sidelines.
Leicester could be without Demarai Gray after the midfielder suffered a stomach bug this week.
Wilfred Ndidi (adductor) is ruled out alongside Filip Benkovic (hip), Cengiz Under (personal) and Ricardo Pereira (knee).
Stat Attack
- Manchester City have lost just one of last seven league meetings against Leicester (W6, L1).
- Leicester have won just one of their last five trips to the Etihad Stadium (W1, L4), with both teams scoring in four of those clashes.
- Both teams have missed one penalty each in 18 previous Premier League meetings, with Man City scoring two of three penalties and Leicester missing their one penalty against the Citizens.
- Leicester’s Jamie Vardy is just one of two players to have already scored two penalties in opening two rounds this season alongside Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.
- Gabriel Jesus and Benjamin Mendy are the only two Man City players to have lost more than one aerial battle against Wolves, with Jesus losing three duels and Mendy lost two.
Prediction
Man City produced an excellent performance to beat Wolves last Monday before a much changed team edged past Bournemouth on Thursday, yet Pep Guardiola has a selection headache with Jesus and Silva amongst those ruled out which could affect City’s attacking quality against a fierce Leicester team.
Leicester meanwhile did a great job last Sunday to weather an early storm by Burnley before allowing their high pressuring play to slowly but surely wear the Clarets down, despite conceding two poor goals themselves through careless marking.
This therefore should be a cracker because Man City are a difficult team to face at any time but if Leicester can impose their high pressure strategy and press hard then I think that they could cause issues and potentially grab a late winner given the Citizens’ striker issues up front.
Prediction: Manchester City 1-2 Leicester City
Result: Manchester City 2-5 Leicester City