Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Champions Leicester play host to Burnley fresh off of a succesful start to their maiden Champions League voyage. They may be finding the task of defending their Premier League title but there were no such issues as they breezed past Club Brugge on Wednesday night.
Claudio Ranieri’s side approached the game with the same free spirit that led them to last season’s title as they recorded a comfortable 3-0 win. Marc Albrighton got the Foxes off to a perfect start after just 5 minutes and from there they never looked back.
Riyad Mahrez showed an overdue return to form and his brace wrapped the tie up and gave Leicester the perfect start to their Champions League campaign. Only it hasn’t been as plain sailing when it comes to matters on a domestic front.
They were well beaten by Liverpool last Saturday as they suffered a 4-1 defeat. Anfield was one of only three destinations in which they lost last season and they have already been handed out two defeats in their opening two matches.
Losing N’Golo Kante was always going to be a massive blow but it’s quite apparent that adjusting to life without the French international is taking longer than hoped. They were easily over ran in the middle of the park against Liverpool last weeek and maybe Ranieri needs to rethink his tactics for the rest of the season.
The first aim is always to get the 40 points required to stay up and they will look to get three more with the visit of Sean Dyche’s Burnley. The Clarets were denied a second home win of the season last weekend due to Robert Snodgrass’ late late freekick.
Steven Defour fantastic goal was though to have been enough and Dyche will be ruing dropping two all important points even at this stage of the season. They will travel to The King Power with almost a free hit, they’ve got nothing to lose and will hope that Leicester have a hangover from their European adventure.
That said Leicester’s squad has got bigger over the summer so they isn’t necessarily the reliance on the same 11 players each week, so it wouldn’t be that big of a surprise for Ranieri to live up to his old name and do a bit of tinkering to his Leicester line up.
I think Leicester will have enough in their locker to edge past whatever Burnley throw at them this afternoon. Sean Dyche’s sides are always hard working but for me they still lack that quality needed throughout the side. A routine home win for me.
