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AUTHOR: Star Sports Content

STAR PREVIEW: Man City v Leicester

At the beginning of the season, few would have imagined that this would be a game between second and third but with Christmas fast approaching, Manchester City face Leicester today with the pair respectively 14 and 10 points behind runaway leaders Liverpool.

That huge gaps sees Liverpool as short as 1/8 to win the title with Star Sports, whilst the market still gives City a slight chance to claim a remarkable third victory in a row, making them 7/1 shots to turn around a 14 point deficit – Leicester, perhaps disrespectfully, are 40/1 to do the same.

Today’s game is almost a nine pointer in that regard, as there’s a chance to put some pressure on Liverpool, who are out attempting to win the Club World Cup, and City are the odds on favourites despite being four points behind Leicester.

That Leicester arrive here ahead of City is a testament to the fine work they’ve done under Brendan Rogers this season, but the hosts are unlucky not to be a lot closer to Liverpool. They top the table on expected goals metrics, and a number of their failures to win have come in extremely unlucky circumstances.

When they dropped points at Newcastle (drew 2-2) they won the expected goals count 2.6 to 0.6 along with winning the shot count 24-9, and the shots on target count 9-3. Early in the season, when they had the same result against Tottenham, they won the shots on target count by an astonishing margin of 3.3 to 0.2, winning the shot count 30-3.

They have picked up the winning habit since their defeat in the Manchester Derby, with three wins in different competitions including an absolute stroll at Arsenal last week when Kevin de Bryune and Raheem Sterling took the gunners apart.

Today is going to be an awful lot harder against a Leicester side that has been the surprise of the season so far. Jamie Vardy’s brilliant season sees him leading the line – and the Premier League goalscoring charts – with 16 goals. Much of that is due to the way that Vardy is brilliantly supported by James Maddison and Ayoze Perez, making Leicester into one of the league’s most clinical forces going forward.

Man City v Leicester City
Premier League
17:30 Sky Sports Premier League / Sky Sports Main Event / Sky Sports Ultra HD

HEAD TO HEAD RECORD*
(Maximum 10 matches, Since 2010)
MAY 2019 PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester City 1-0 Leicester
DEC 2018 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 2-1 Manchester City
DEC 2018 CARABAO CUP Leicester 1-1 Manchester City
FEB 2018 PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester City 5-1 Leicester
DEC 2017 EFL CUP Leicester 1-1 Manchester City
NOV 2017 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 0-2 Manchester City
MAY 2017 PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester City 2-1 Leicester
DEC 2016 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 4-2 Leicester
FEB 2016 PREMIER LEAGUE Manchester 1-3 Leicester
DEC 2015 PREMIER LEAGUE Leicester 0-0 Manchester City

The Foxes have also been brilliant at the back, with the pairing of Jonny Evans and Caglar Soyuncu giving Kasper Schmeichel brilliant protection whilst Ben Chilwell and Ricardo Pereira can push forward thanks to extra midfield protection from Wilfried Ndidi.

It explains a lot about how they won eight Premier League games in a row before their draw against Norwich when they won the shot count 18-10 and the corners and shots on target count too.

Their last Premier League defeat came at League Leaders Liverpool, but it took a 90th minute penalty from James Milner to seal the result that day despite Liverpool putting an expected goals Number of 3.75 to 0.10. That was the only time Leicester conceded more than one goal this season and it could be that they push City all the way, although Guardiola’s side do have the skill needed to win out in the end; It might be worth backing Leicester to make their imprint on the game in an attacking sense – 11 teams have managed to score against City this season.

One special that does appeal is the 9/2 Leicester City to score over 0.5 goals and over 4.5 Leicester City corners – the Foxes racked up six against Liverpool and have won six or more corners in their last three Premier League games.

RECOMMENDED BETS (scale of 1-100 points)
BACK Manchester City to win and Both Teams To Score 3 pts at 29/20 with starsports.bet
BACK Manchester City to win 2-1 at 15/2 with starsports.bet
BACK Leicester City to score over 0.5 goals and over 4.5 Leicester City corners 1 pt at 9/2 with starsports.bet


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