Saturday 19th November 2016 15:00 – Vicarage Road. Leicester City eh? We've had some humdingers over the past few seasons with that rabble up the M1. Until recently Watford has been a thorn in Leicester City's side – THAT Deeney goal, THAT Chalobah goal; yeah good memories folks. Since some of those memorable wins, Leicester City has fared considerably better than us and won the Premier League last season. They proved that a team can compete with the big 6 by compiling a team of largely unknowns. They were the plucky upstarts who 'experts' kept writing off until they realised that the Foxes were not a one-off and would not fade away as many were expecting (or hoping). This season obviously the Premier League has re-convened its status quo with the usual suspects at the summit throwing their cash around and stripping the likes of Leicester and Southampton of their star players. Looking back to the beginning of the 15/16 season, many had written Leicester City off as relegation fodder (along with Watford) and both teams had surpassed expectations that season; Leicester eclipsing Watford somewhat. Leicester's form could have been attributed to their great escape the season prior when Nigel Pearson guided the team from 19 points from 29 games to a 14th place finish. Many thought that Leicester made a bizarre appointment in Claudio Ranieri but it worked somehow, not only does Ranieri look like a Maths teacher but even his lookalikes have been wallowing in Leicester City's success – notably Alan Ashcroft from Glasgow: http://www.marca.com/en/football/international-football/2016/05/16/5739c19c468aeb4a528b45e5.html The Foxes haven't fared as well as last season so far, this could be down to N'Golo Kante's departure to Chelsea (and their upturn in fortunes). Furthermore, players such as Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy haven't been able to hit the form they had last season. Kante's replacement Daniel Amartey hasn't managed to fill the void and Leicester City are missing Kante's engine in midfield. They are also participating in the Champions League which could well be hampering their league form. Last out Leicester lost at home to West Brom, their line-up was – Zieler; Simpson, Morgan, Huth, Fuchs; Mahrez, King, Drinkwater, Musa, Slimani, Okazaki. Watford themselves have had their Jeckyl and Hyde performances this season – performances against Man Utd and Liverpool are polar opposites. The Liverpool performance in particular was absolutely dire and the players didn't even bother to turn up for the match. WM's persistence in the 3-5-2 formation has come under question rightly or wrongly but he has been known to vary his tactics accordingly. He needs to show a bit more tactical nous however, in particular not always starting 3-5-2. It doesn't take a tactical guru to realise that 3-5-2 formation against Liverpool's high pressing, their front three are going to cause you problems especially when your wing-backs aren't renowned for their ace defending. It'll be interesting to see whether Watford up their game against Leicester, mind you they really couldn't drop their standard from that debacle at Anfield! We can analyse the whole Watford team after the last performance by area but the adjective 'feeble' pretty much covers the job lot. Prediction Both teams seem pretty hard to predict at the moment, so, I'll go with a sitting-on-the-fence 1-1 prediction. Injuries Well it looks like Gomes is out. Prodl, Cathcart, Okaka and Success could be back after the international break. Famous Fans Kasabian – This boy band with guitars are Leicester City fans. Aside from knocking-off Oasis, they enjoy watching Leicester City with their matching 'Drinkwater' replica shirts. Willie Thorne – Snooker player Willie is a Leicester City fan. He is easy to pick out in the crowd due to his uncanny resemblance to a cue ball. Miles 'Tails' Prower – Sonics trusted sidekick Tails is a Leicester City supporter. When he isn't rushing about collecting rings and jumping on mechanical creatures' heads he enjoys giving Danny Drinkwater abuse from the stands. and finally Leicester City's animated GIF: http://thumbs.newschoolers.com/index.php?src=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.uproxx.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2013%2F02%2Fski-jump-fail-gif.gif&size=400x1000 Thanks for reading.
Meh, if you want to get in the Leicester Mercury then you need to be a bit more controversial than that mate. Poor effort.
As with us, it's hard to know which team is going to turn up for this game. Lesta were truly awful against the West Brummies. It's amazing that they can win the title, be great in the Champions League but average to poor in The Prem this season.
Amrobat needs to be put up top or put on the bench Pereyra needs to be put in the middle Behrami need to be put out to pasture Iggy needs to be put on Ebay Other than that I think we will do marvellous
Have they managed to get over Troy's last minute winner against them yet? Must be a bit sore in the memory still.
You forgot to mention Family as famous Foxes fans...best thing to come out of Leicester since the M1.
Sat at Leicester station at this very moment. Could be a make or break game for both in the 8 game run in to the new year. Looking forward to this as both sides will be expecting to win and will set their stalls out accordingly. Personally always liked games v Leicester, and is a great away game too. Don't they have a key Champions League match the following Wednesday? That might be a factor in our favour in a tight game.
They have Brugge at home who can't qualify and they have a league game of their own on the Friday and think Leicester only need a point to secure qualification. So doubt this game will have any bearing on their line up/performance.
They would need to win to ensure winning the group and avoiding getting one of the giants in the next round.
They wouldn't face City as you can't play a team from your own association in the round of 16; but point taken.
I would have bet my mortgage that he'd be fine for the next game. Player of the season or not he's feigned injury too many times now.
Yes, exactly that. I don't think he fancied it at Liverpool. I've seen him do that at the Vic more than once, pulling that face. He's a bit of a drama queen.
Gomez in fake injury fixing scandal (anyone from the Echo reading?). I doubt he was feigning it. Precaution probably. I get knocks regularly in footy that at first feel like I can't walk and my leg is going to fall off. Once the initial shock wears off and a bit of bruising comes out a few hours/days later it's easier to re-assess and I'm generally playing the next game. What's really good nowadays is that with Pants we've genuinely got someone really decent to step in where before we've been pretty weak after the number 1.
I mostly agree with that. I do think he made more of it but he doesn't like being hit - this happened at Spurs as well as previously with us. This time it was Milner that hit him hard on that 50/50 and not long after that he let the shot in under his body and that was that.
One of the problems with older keepers, even if they're still very good, is that they are a bit fragile. That's why IMO we could do with a better backup option than we currently have. I wouldn't want The Pantyman in goal for anything longer than a game or two.
I rather wish he'd stayed in the dressing room, instead of reappearing for the sympathy vote with the two walking sticks, a la Joel Ekstrand. A zimmer frame might have been more appropriate. All a bit Almunia.
Think it was before they embarrassed us 0-3 at home (after we had shown the highlights of said game on the big screen) and then went onto get promoted, perform the great escape and then win the Premiership the season after.
This season is a bit rubbish isn't it? All bloody stop start. We're good, we're boring, we're crap, Success is good, he's crocked, next moment another international break. Needs a 4-3 win and a mild punch up on the pitch to sort this season out imo.
I'm predicting a routine 8-5 win for this one. A largely dull affair, but 3 important points nonetheless. Ighalo (4), Deeney, Proedl (3) for us, Okazaki (3) and a couple of Deeney own goals for them. Discontented boos at full time following another defensive shambles.
