Leicester City return to the Championship with a M69 derby at home to Coventry City at the King Power Stadium.
This clash marks the Foxes’ first match in the second tier since May 2014, whilst Coventry fell short of promotion in last season’s Play-Off Final to Luton.
Team News
Summer signing, Conor Coady is unlikely to feature for Leicester after he suffered a foot injury during pre-season.
Victor Kristiansen is definitely ruled out with an unspecified injury but could return for Wednesday’s Carabao Cup trip to Burton Albion.
Mads Hermansen, Harry Winks and Stephy Mavididi could all make their competitive debuts for the Foxes here.
Coventry could be without goalkeeper, Ben Wilson after he suffered a back injury during pre-season.
Fabio Tavares (Achilles) and Callum O’Hare (ACL) remain absent.
Jay Dasilva, Ellis Simms, Tatsuhiro Sakamoto, Bradley Collins, Joel Latibeaudiere, Bobby Thomas, Milan van Ewijk and Haji Wright look to make their debuts for the Sky Blues.
When is Kick-Off?
Leicester meet Coventry at King Power Stadium in a 12pm BST kick-off on Sunday 6 August, live on Sky Sports.
Stat Attack
- Leicester have lost just one of their last 16 meetings against Coventry (W8, D7, L1).
- Coventry have won just one of their last 11 visits to Leicester (W1, D2, L8).
- No players from the last meeting in March 2012 between Leicester and Coventry remain at either clubs, with Leicester having won that particular meeting by a 2-0 result.
- Leicester have kept just one clean sheet in their last 15 matches at home in all competitions (W4, D2, L9).
- Coventry are unbeaten in their last ten away matches excluding last season’s Play-Off Final (W5, D5).
Prediction
Considering that they could of lost a host of players following their relegation, Leicester have done well to hold onto the likes of Timothy Castagne, Dennis Praet and Kelechi Iheanacho whilst adding fresh quality like Coady, Winks and Mavididi.
My biggest concern though lies in midfield because Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Harvey Barnes are all difficult to replace sufficiently, so new manager – Enzo Maresca faces a tricky task in terms of midfield tactics although Maddison’s exit offers Will Alves a chance to step up.
Coventry meanwhile doesn’t seem to have that traditional hangover of previous losing play-off finalists – having once again gone unbeaten in pre-season, whilst they have invested well following Viktor Gyokeres’ exit with Simms and Wright looking like a dangerous pair if can click quickly.
On that note, I do expect a competitive start to the season for both teams and there isn’t much to split them in my opinion, especially if Simms can rediscover his Championship spark of last season at Sunderland before he was recalled by Everton.
Prediction: Leicester 1-1 Coventry
Result: Leicester 2-1 Coventry
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