Manchester City vs Leicester City 22/12/19

22 December 2019

Fresh from their respective Carabao Cup successes, Manchester City and Leicester City return to the Premier League (PL) this weekend, as the two sides go head-to-head at the Etihad Stadium.

The reigning holders have practically already surrendered the league title to the unstoppable Liverpool side they currently trail by 14 points. Having struggled for consistency lately, the hosts have picked up just two wins in their last four PL outings (W2, D1, L1), with all of those matches producing over 2.5 goals. Interestingly, all of their previous three PL home matches have finished with the identical 2-1 scoreline (W2, L1), with each of them seeing the winners on the day score both of their goals inside one of the two halves. Still, Pep Guardiola’s men are massive pre-match favorites, as they’ve won all three of their previous top-flight home H2Hs with Leicester, even though two of those victories have come via a single-goal margin.

Meanwhile, the visitors’ stunning eight-game winning PL run came to an end last weekend, as Leicester played out a dismal 1-1 home draw with relegation-threatened Norwich. It was the first time since early October that Brendan Rodgers’ players have failed to score more than once per match, and it was only the third time in their last eight PL games that they’ve struggled to keep a blank sheet. Indeed, the Foxes boast the best defensive record in England’s top-tier, having shipped just 11 league goals so far, allowing over 1.5 goals per PL fixture only once since the beginning of the season. What’s more, the current runners-up have racked up a four-game winning away PL streak, with all of those triumphs during that run coming via a multiple-goal margin.