We look ahead to Sunday’s Premier League game at the King Power Stadium with our Leicester City vs Man City prediction and preview. Can the champions stop the rot?
Leicester City vs Man City Stats: The Key Insights
- Despite their recent struggles, the Opta supercomputer still has Manchester City as the favourites after winning 66.3% of the pre-match simulations.
- City have only lost their final league game in one of the last 23 calendar years (W12 D10).
- Leicester City have not lost four consecutive matches while conceding multiple goals in each game since 2003.
Manchester City‘s troubles continued over the festive period, but Pep Guardiola will be eyeing a positive finish to the year when they travel to Leicester City on Sunday.
It will be a landmark day for the Spaniard, who is taking charge of City for the 500th time in all competitions, becoming just the second manager to hit that milestone.
He won his 100th, 200th and 300th matches in charge, and drew the 400th, but celebrations could be dampened given Man City’s recent slump. They have now won just one of their last 13 matches in all competitions, that run extending thanks to their 1-1 draw with Everton on Boxing Day.
Man City are just about clinging on to seventh place in the Premier League table, with Fulham and Aston Villa level on points with them, but perhaps Leicester are the perfect opponents for them to turn their fortunes around.
City have won 19 of their last 20 Premier League games against promoted sides (D1), including each of the last 10 in a row.
Man City have also only lost one of their final league games in the last 23 calendar years (W12 D10), going down to Liverpool in 2016, which they will hope is a good omen.
However, City aren’t enjoying their travels at the moment, having lost seven of their last eight games on the road in all competitions (D1). It is their longest streak without an away win since a run of 10 back in 2011, and it could continue as Man City’s injury troubles continue to pile up, with the likes of Ederson, Rúben Dias, John Stones, Oscar Bobb and Rodri all out.
So, there may be some hope for Leicester, who sank back into the relegation zone on Boxing Day after their defeat to league leaders Liverpool.
After a bright start under Ruud van Nistelrooy, which saw them go unbeaten in their first two games, three consecutive heavy losses mean the Foxes are still firmly in the relegation fight.
They have lost 4-0, 3-0 and 3-1 in those games, though they have not lost four in a row while conceding multiple goals each time since a run of five in 2003.
Letting in the first goal against Man City might not spell further misery for Leicester though, as Guardiola’s men have dropped 12 points from winning positions in the Premier League this season, more than they did in the whole of the last campaign (10).
Leicester City vs Man City Head-to-Head
Manchester City have won their last four Premier League away games against Leicester without conceding a single goal, including a 1-0 victory on their last trip to the King Power Stadium.
In their entire league history, Man City have never won five in a row away against an opponent while keeping a clean sheet each time.
Leicester, meanwhile, have lost 11 of their last 13 Premier League meetings with Man City (W2), while they haven’t kept a clean sheet in any of their last 15 against City (W4 L11).
It is the first time since 1974 that the Foxes are facing the reigning top-flight champions in their final game of the calendar year, losing 2-0 at home to Leeds United on that occasion.
Leicester City vs Man City Prediction
Despite their torrid form in recent weeks, Man City are predicted to end their slump, coming out on top in 66.3% of the Opta supercomputer’s 10,000 match simulations.
Leicester came out on top in just 15.0% of the sims, with the draw (18.7%) deemed a likelier outcome.
Leicester City vs Man City Predicted Lineups
Opta Power Rankings
The Opta Power Rankings are a global team ranking system. They assign an ability score to over 13,000 domestic football teams. This score is on a scale between zero and 100, where zero is the worst-ranked team in the world and 100 is the best team in the world.
Ahead of kick-off on Sunday, here is the Opta Power Ranking for both sides.
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