After arguably one of Manchester City’s biggest announcements in the club’s history this week, Pep Guardiola was confirmed to be taking over the club for the 2016/17 season. This Saturday lunch-time City will face top-of-the-table Leicester City who have, with large help from record-breaking Jamie Vardy and winger Riyad Mahrez, been the fairytale story of this season.
With City narrowly seeing off Sunderland on Tuesday evening, with a sloppy yet rugged performance – Leicester City, on the other hand, were dispatching Liverpool at the King Power Stadium, a ground which has become somewhat of a fortress in recent months. A Jamie Vardy stunner and another goal not long after saw Ranieri’s men run out 2-0 winners. The Leicester train ploughed on.
The next two weeks of fixtures for the title race, in general, will be huge. Games against Leicester and Spurs for the Blues will, no doubt, have a large say on who lifts the trophy come May.Whilst ties against Man City and a trip away to Arsenal will be a serious test of Leicester City’s mettle and title credentials.
City will have to be wary of Leicester’s punchy, clinical and pacey brand of football. Keeping obvious eyes on Vardy and Mahrez but also on Shinji Okazaki who has benefitted from the former duo’s limelight, to be a dark-horse in the Foxes side. The deadly form of Sergio Aguero, though, will be a worry for Robert Huth and Wes Morgan, who have been a formidable pairing this term. Leicester have kept a commendable eight clean-sheets this season, so City will need to be firing on all cylinders to get anything from this one.
City, without long-term absentees Samir Nasri and Kevin De Bruyne, will also most probably be bereft of Vincent Kompany’s, Eliaquim Mangala’s and Wilfried Bony’s services, as well as Jesus Navas’ after he sustained an injury at the Stadium of Light on Tuesday evening, Pellegrini also has a Fabian Delph knock to worry about, but he should make the bench.
As for Leicester, Jeff Schlupp and Matty James are sidelined whilst new January signing Daniel Amartey is lacking match fitness.
