STAR PREVIEW: Leicester City v Newcastle United

Leicester have made a strong start to their Premier League season and the market expects that to continue against Newcastle today at the Walkers Stadium.

Brendan Rodgers’ side is third at the time of writing, a strong position given that they’ve already played four of last season’s top six. Their only defeat came against Manchester United a fortnight ago, when they were perhaps unlucky not to get a point and matched the Red Devils on the stats.

Leicester were also deserved winners against Tottenham last week, when they went behind early but kept playing a high tempo attacking game that brought rewards after Ricardo Pereira and James Maddison scored within the space of 15 minutes to turn the game around.

It’s likely that Maddison will be missing today because of an ankle problem – his replacement Dennis Praet is a new signing who hasn’t been tested at this level – but they have plenty of pace and creativity in the side to make up for his absence and the presence of Jamie Vardy will mean there’s always a threat leading the line.

Leicester City v Newcastle United
Premier League
16:30 Sky Sports Premier League HD / Sky Sports Main Event HD / Sky Sports Ultra HD

HEAD TO HEAD RECORD
(Maximum 10 matches, Since 2000)
AUG 2019 EFL CUP Newcastle 1-1 Leicester
APR 2019 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 0-1 Newcastle
SEP 2018 PREMIER LEAGUE Newcastle 0-2 Leicester
APR 2018 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 1-2 Newcastle
DEC 2017 PREMIER LEAGUE Newcastle 2-3 Leicester
MAR 2016 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 1-0 Newcastle
NOV 2015 PREMIER LEAGUE Newcastle 0-3 Leicester
MAY 2015 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 3-0 Newcastle
JAN 2015 FA CUP Leicester 1-0 Newcastle
OCT 2014 PREMIER LEAGUE Newcastle 1-0 Leicester
JAN 2010 CHAMPIONSHIP Leicester 0-0 Newcastle
AUG 2009 CHAMPIONSHIP Newcastle 1-0 Leicester

Newcastle did manage to take a win as outsiders here in April when Ayoze Perez’s glancing header secured a victory that moved them 10 points clear of the relegation zone, but things have changed since then. Benitez has left the Magpies along with Perez (who is actually playing for the hosts now) and those were arguably the two people who played the biggest part in their successful survival bid last season.

New manager Steve Bruce has a solid record of keeping teams in the Premier League but Newcastle are already struggling, with just the one win so far this season. That came at Tottenham, when a Joelinton goal was decisive in a terrific backs to the wall performance that ended up with a huge upset.

That backs to the wall approach hasn’t always worked for Newcastle, however; they were beaten 3-1 at Norwich in the second week of the season and also lost 3-1 at Newcastle to boot. Those are the only two games they’ve had on the road bar Tottenham at White Hart Lane, when they lost the shot count 17-8 and gave up six corners.

The match odds look correct, but it might be worth playing in the correct score markets. All of Leicester’s wins in the Premier League so far have come 2-1 or 3-1 and those correct scores might be the best way to play things given that Newcastle have also lost 3-1 twice in this campaign.

RECOMMENDED BETS (scale of 1-100 points)
BACK Leicester 2-1 Newcastle 1 pt at 15/2 with starsports.bet
BACK Leicester 3-1 Newcastle 1 pt at 12/1 with starsports.bet

---

PROFIT/LOSS SINCE JAN 1 2017: PROFIT 230.51 points
(excluding Political Bets posted 8 August, Premier League ante-post, Cameron Brown football bets)