Leicester City v Manchester City - The Opposition

Manchester City travel to Leicester on Saturday lunchtime, knowing victory will take them to the top of the Premier League summit, albeit for 24 hours until Arsenal host Nottingham Forest.

The blues have been in excellent form, having won eight and lost just one of their 11 matches so far. The blues edged past Brighton in their last outing and won the corresponding fixture last season when Bernardo Silva’s 62nd minute goal was enough to bring the three points back to Manchester.

But Leicester are no pushovers, despite their current position and the faithful will need no reminding of the fact that the Foxes battered City 4-2 in Pep Guardiola’s first season in Manchester.

Form

After a difficult start that saw the Foxes swapping places at the bottom, Leicester have started to put a run together. Last time out, they beat Wolves 4-0 in the Black Country and that victory came off the back of a 2-0 home win over Leeds. Leicester have not concede a goal in three games, after drawing 0-0 at home to Crystal Palace two weeks ago. A 4-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the start of the month was followed with a 2-1 loss at Bournemouth, meaning Leicester have only conceded twice in October.

September saw some dreadful results, with the Foxes losing 6-2 at Spurs and 5-2 at Brighton. Prior to that was an embarrassing 1-0 home loss to Manchester United. The Foxes lost three of their opening four fixtures and had to rely on penalties to get past Stockport County in the League Cup.

Despite their recent run, Leicester are still at the wrong end of the table. They currently sit in 17th, having won just three of their opening 12 matches. Two of those have been at home and they have also drawn and lost two of the six matches played at the King Power this term. They have scored nine and conceded five in those six fixtures.

Ones to watch

James Maddison has taken on the goalscoring responsibilities this season, notching six goals in 11 games. with 22, he has attempted the most shots and has a goal conversion rate of 27% and a shot accuracy of 59%.

Harvey Barnes has scored four from 11 matches, while Patson Daka could be more dangerous than both of them. Daka has only scored three from 12 matches, but has the same conversion rate as Maddison and a better accuracy percentage with 82%, the highest in the Leicester side. Jamie Vardy has scored just one goal this season, which is likely to be four by Saturday afternoon.

Vardy has, however, taken up assist duties. So far, he has four to his name, yet, according to the BBC, he has only created one chance. Best of luck working that one out. Maddison has created the most chances for his teammates with 23, two of which have been converted, but it is Youri Tielemans that City will need to be wary of.

Tielemans has created 17 chances, one of which has been converted, however, he has attempted the most passes in the team with 766, with 660 being completed. This gives him a pass accuracy of 86% from 13 games, the highest in the Leicester team.

Who's the boss?

Brendan Rodgers has defied the bookies by avoiding the early season sacking and is still in charge at the King Power Stadium. Rodgers has been in charge since February 2019 and has presided over 182 matches, winning 84 and losing 58. Rodgers has a win percentage of 46%.