Match Preview: Brighton v Leicester City
Given the form that Leicester City have been in so far 2019-20, you probably wouldn’t fancy the Albion’s chances against them with a full complement of players – let alone facing the flying Foxes without two key defenders.
Yet that is the challenge that awaits Graham Potter and Brighton. Lewis Dunk is suspended and Adam Webster is injured. Jamie Vardy, James Maddison et all will come up against a back line that could feature Gaetan Bong, Bernardo or even Solly March. The visitors will be licking their lips at the prospect.
Potter’s problems don’t start and end there, either. Leandro Trossard didn’t even make it to Belgium for the international break before he picked up another knock and there are also doubts over the fitness of Aaron Connolly.
Throw in Steve Alzate flying back from the United States late in the week and you’ve got a squad that is looking pretty threadbare taking on Liverpool’s closest challengers so far. It could be a long afternoon at the Amex.
A brief history of Leicester City
Leicester were founded in 1884 and were your typical mildly-successful English football club for the first 132 years of their existence. They spent most of their time bouncing between the top divisions, reaching the odd FA Cup Final in the 1960s and winning a League Cup every now and again. The city itself was more famous for Walkers crisps than it was football.
That all changed when Claudio Raineri rocked up at the King Power Stadium in the summer of 2015. The appointment of a bloke who a few months earlier had overseen a defeat against the Faroe Islands while Greece manager led Leicester to be pinned as many bookmakers favourites for relegation.
Nobody needs reminding of what happened next. Under Ranieri, the Foxes produced the most astonishing title win in English football history, a genuine fairy tale in a sport now dominated by the money of Russian oligarchs and the petrodollars of rich Royal Families from the Middle East, under whose rule slavery is commonplace and being gay is an offence punishable by death.
Leicester City this season
Leicester have looked a little unsure of their place in the hierarchy of English football since they were crowned champions, which is understandable given that their 2015-16 campaign set a standard that they were never likely to be able to maintain.
As a result, they’re rattled through Ranieiri, Craig Shakespeare and Claude Puel as managers over the past three years and they’ve also lost a chairman, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha being tragically killed in a helicopter crash outside the King Power just over a year ago.
It says much then about the club that despite all that upheaval and tragedy, the Foxes are back in genuine title contention this season. The decision to appoint Brendan Rodgers as the fourth man in the hot seat since they won the league has proven to be inspired and an exciting young team packed with English talent is on the coat tails of Liverpool as a result.
The Foxes are the division’s second top scorers so far and just a month ago set a record for the biggest away win in top flight football – yes, even before Sky invented the sport in 1992 – by hammering Southampton 9-0 at St Mary’s. A casual reminder that we lost 2-0 at home to the same Saints line up nine weeks earlier.
Head-to-head
The head-to-head between the Albion and Leicester is surprisingly even. There have been 33 previous meetings between the two sides with Brighton winning 13, Leicester 14 and just the six draws. They’re normally entertaining games too; over the past 25 years, Jimmy Case has been sent off for being deaf, Brian Deane has scored a goal which nobody was able to see as it took place in thick fog at Withdean and Brighton have had to borrow Leicester’s away shirts because they turned up at the King Power with three kits in different shades of blue.
Brighton’s head-to-head record with Leicester City
Last six meetings
• Leicester City 2-1 Brighton (Premier League, 26/02/19)
• Brighton 1-1 Leicester City (Premier League, 24/11/18)
• Brighton 0-2 Leicester City (Premier League, 31/03/18)
• Leicester City 2-0 Brighton (Premier League, 19/08/17)
• Leicester City 1-4 Brighton (Championship, 08/04/14)
• Brighton 3-1 Leicester City (Championship, 07/12/13)
Brighton are yet to taste victory against the Foxes in the Premier League having lost three and drawn one of the four top flight meetings over the past two seasons. It was a different story in the Championship however, where Oscar Garcia’s Albion did a double over Leicester despite the fact that City won the title that year.
The 3-1 win at the Amex was arguably more impressive than the 4-1 victory at the King Power. Leicester had already wrapped up the league by the time that we arrived and as a result, they had been on a three day piss up, meaning that they were in no condition to be on a football pitch as the scoreline shows.
If only the Albion squad of 2016-17 had followed Leicester’s lead and saved their partying until after the silverware was in the bag…
Team news
In case you didn’t bother to read the introduction – and shame on you if you didn’t – then essentially, we’re up shit creek without a paddle. There’s no Dunk or Webster and probably no Trossard or Connolly either.
How does Potter cater for four crucial individuals missing in four crucial positions? If he wants to persist with 4-2-2-2, it probably means Dan Burn moving to centre back alongside Shane Duffy and Bong coming in for his first start of the season at left back.
Alternatively, he could switch to 3-4-3 which would allow a back three of Duffy, Burn and Leon Balogun with March in at left wing back. Connolly’s potential absence is also troubling given the paucity of other striking options. It could mean a rare start for Glenn Murray. Either way, we look in more trouble than Prince Andrew sitting down for an interview with the BBC.
Leicester City’s key players
Since his wife was publicly outed as being a bit of a prick on Twitter by Colleen Rooney, Vardy has been in astonishing form. He’ll fancy his chances of adding to his haul given the threadbare nature of Potter’s defensive options, which could mean we get to see another ridiculous bird celebration like the one he performed in front of the Holmesdale End when pretending to be an Eagle after scoring against Crystal Palace.
Others to look out for include Maddison, Youri Tielemans and Ben Chilwell. Should Potter go for 4-2-2-2, then Chilwell in particular could have great joy raiding forward from left back given how vulnerable we’ve looked out wide whenever that formation has been used.
At one point in the summer, it looked like we could be naming Dunk in this section but his long-rumoured move to the Foxes never materialised. Wonder what all those Albion fans who said Leicester wouldn’t have been a step up on playing for Brighton think when they look at the Premier League table this season…
A good WeAreBrighton.com memory of Leicester City at home
We loved a Will Buckley last minute winner in the 2011-12 season and although the Doncaster game takes all the glory in that regard, Buckley also hit a criminally underrated goal in the final seconds against Leicester at the Amex in February of that season.
It was a strange old game with Jermaine Beckford and Neil ‘EVERYBODY DANNS NOW’ getting sent off for the visitors and Matt Sparrow seeing red for Brighton. What happened in the wake of Sparrow’s dismissal led to one of the more outrageous rumours of the Amex era so far, one which we couldn’t possibly repeat here… if you know, you know.
A bad WeAreBrighton.com memory of Leicester City at home
One of Mark McGhee’s more interesting post-match interviews came after a home game with Leicester in 2006. Both us and the Foxes were floundering at the wrong end of the Championship and so their visit to Withdean was a real relegation six pointer.
Needless to say, we managed to go 2-0 down inside of four minutes. McGhee’s take on it afterwards? “We were the better side after that though”. Thanks, Mark…
Our favourite player to play for Brighton and Leicester City
The obvious one is Anthony Knockaert given everything that the Little French Magician did during his three-and-a-half years at the Amex. But we’ll go for Junior Lewis, a player whose arrival really helped drive Peter Taylor’s Division Two champions towards the title.
We also liked the way that him and Taylor would end up working together no matter which club Taylor ended up at. If some strange set of circumstances conspired to make Taylor boss of Barcelona tomorrow, you just know that he’d make his first signing a 46-year-old Lewis and drop Lionel Messi to make room.
What we like about Leicester
Leicester is the curry capital of Britain. Having had several curries there on various overnight visits through the years, we can say from experience that it is a well-deserved title.
Prediction
The Albion will no doubt put up a good fight as we have in every single home game to date under Potter, but when you look at the absentees, the form Leicester are in and the quality they possess, then it’s hard to look beyond an away win. 2-1 to the Foxes.
