Chelsea visits Leicester City Tuesday night in a match-up of two sides still dreaming about winning the Premier League title this season, but will likely have to settle for top four. While the league title race is still wide open, Manchester City have emerged as the favorites.
Meanwhile Manchester United remain top of the table and Liverpool, the defending champions, are not going down without a fight. After those three, it’s all a battle to grab that fourth and final Champions League qualification slot.
Chelsea FC at Leicester City FYIs
Kick off: 8:15pm GMT, Tue Jan 19, King Power Stadium
Team news for both sides: go here
Premier League Position: Chelsea 7th, 29 pts Leicester City 3rd, 35 pts
Premier League Form Guide: Chelsea WLDLW, Leicester City WWDDW
Leicester are exceeding expectations once again this season, even more than last term, but given what happened last season, one wonders if they can last. As for Chelsea, they are playing at a level that’s far below what was expected of them this summer.
With everybody available in this one, manager Frank Lampard can select whomever he wants, and he admitted later that perhaps Callum Hudson-Odoi was worthy of a start. There are certainly plenty of Chelsea fans on Twitter who agree with him. This means that someone will have go to the bench, and we’re guessing that could be Christian Pulisic, who just doesn’t look himself right now, despite being fully fit.
Like Timo Werner and Kai Havertz, Lampard/Chelsea just can’t seem to figure out how to get the most out of him right now.
Chelsea FC Starting XI Prediction at Leicester City
Mendy; James, Zouma, Silva, Chilwell; Kante, Mount, Kovacic; Ziyech, Hudson-Odoi, Abraham
Prediction: Leicester City 2, Chelsea 1
In a match-up of two sides with nearly fully fit squads, we’re going with Leicester City, because they have just more looked the part than Chelsea this season. They also have the home field advantage, for what that’s worth, given the lack of supporters allowed into the facility, due to covid protocols.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.