Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Leicester’s Ritchie De Laet is a doubt after pulling out of Wednesday’s FA Cup tie during the pre-match warm up with a groin injury.
Matty James and Jeff Schlupp are still sidelined with knee and hamstring injuries respectively.
Stoke’s Xherdan Shaqiri could return after a hamstring injury while Marko Arnautovic, who is struggling with a similar problem, is being monitored.
Stephen Ireland, Marc Muniesa and Phil Bardsley are all now fit again.
Editor’s Note: Leicester are going to have a very important few weeks, it would be easy to say the engine is running out of steam but only 1 League win in the last 5 matches and also being knocked out of the F.A. Cup on Wednesday but Claudio Ranieri is going to have to try and get his Leicester charges back in the winning style that caught so many teams by surprise in the first half of the season.
It could have been a different story had Riyad Mahrez not missed two Penalties over the last few weeks, one at 0-0 against Bournemouth and then last week when 1-0 up against Aston Villa in what would have secured a win, those 4 extra points would have put Leicester clear at the top and leaving the other clubs to do the hard work
But to their credit they have only lost twice this season, once to league leaders Arsenal and away at Liverpool on Boxing Day. Everytime you say Leicester are done for they have a habit of proving everyone wrong so there’s no reason as to why they can’t get themselves out of this slump and back to winning ways but with Manchester City, Liverpool and Arsenal coming up soon this period is probably going to define whether they are challenging for a title or a Top 4 place for the rest of the season.
Tomorrow they play host to a Stoke side who held leaders Arsenal to a 0-0 draw last Sunday and were it not for the heroics of Petr Cech they would have undoubtedly won all 3 points at The Britannia. Stoke were certainly the better side last Sunday but failed to capatilise on Arsenal’s key absentees Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil.
Last time out they were without key man Xhedran Shaqiri but he is due to return for the trip to The King Power this Afternoon but they now could be without Marko Arnautovic so it could be a case of one in and one out for Mark Hughes’ side.
Stoke currently find themselves 7th in the League and after a slow start to the season they are steadily climbing up the table and Mark Hughes will have every right in believing that his Stoke outfit can challenge for a European place this season.
The goals are seemingly drying up for Leicester and especially Jamie Vardy as of late and much will be required Today if they are to get back to winning ways, I think it will be honours even for Leicester as the tactics are getting a bit more negative as of late they seem to be setting out just not to lose than opposed to going all out to win. A draw for me.
