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Leicester vs Liverpool – Match Preview

It’s the start of a bold new era for Leicester as they play their first game since Claudio Ranieri was sacked last Thursday. With results going against them the situation for the defending Premier League champions looks even more precarious as they now find themselves in the relegation zone.

They will look to get a much needed win this Evening to pull themselves out of the bottom three but standing in their way is a Liverpool side that will be looking for maximum points in a bid to re-enter the top four and the all important Champions League places.

So the two teams playing Tonight may very well be at polar opposites of the table but that does mean the need to win is any lesser for either Liverpool or Leicester. It’s very much high stakes at The King Power later on but for very differing reasons.

Liverpool will have made use of their somewhat unplanned F.A. Cup hiatus by going on a mid-season training camp. After the shaky start to the year, the cobwebs were well and truly blown off a fortnight or so ago when they made east work of fellow Champions League chasers Tottenham.

That game highlighted just how important Sadio Mane is to Liverpool. He had endless joy up against Ben Davies and his two goals were the difference as Liverpool kept themselves in the hunt for one of the three remaining Champions League spots, that is if we assume that Chelsea are champions elect.

The win over Tottenham was a first win in 6 matches for Liverpool in the league and a victory that was most welcome as Liverpool’s season was in real danger of evaporating in front of their very eyes, many felt that the pace that they started the campaign could not be sustained as 1 win in 10 matches across all competitions had pundits ready to write them off.

But the manner in which they beat Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham will have no doubt given them a boost and they will look to use that as a springboard as we enter the final third of the season. In a sense the week off would have been welcome but after such a dominant display against Spurs they would have also wanted to play again as soon as possible.

Can they same be said for Leicester though? No goals in 2017 in the Premier League and just a solitary point since the turn of the year. A run of five defeats has now seen them not only drop to 18th in the table but also drop the man who delivered that fairytale league title last season.

Whether there was a mutiny at Leicester from the players that won the league back in May we perhaps will never really find out but the club owners had is that you cannot sack the players in February and it was left for just one man to die on his sword.

Craig Shakespeare will take charge of The Foxes this Evening and the most pertinent question will be whether or not there is a new manager bounce or whether or not the rot has really set in with this group of players.

I guess it would be all the more galling for Claudio Ranieri if the same nucleus of players then turned out a performance which not only got them a vital three points but also subsequently drags them out of the bottom three.

On the way to winning the title last season this was one of only three matches that Leicester lost, will history repeat itself Tonight? Liverpool will undoubtedly be favourites but could a galvanised Leicester play something nearer resembling defending champions.

A win for Liverpool would put the pressure on the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United. We’re getting to the point where points on the board are better than games in hand, I think it will be an away win as Leicester’s misery continues.

 

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