Match Preview – Leicester City v Brighton

Leicester City – the club
Leicester City need no introduction following their shock Premier League title win in 2016. In being only the sixth club to become English champions since Sky Sports invented football in 1992, they gave hope to all humanity that miracles can still occur. If Danny Drinkwater, Wes Morgan and Marc Albrighton can become Premier League champions, then why can’t I marry Scarlett Johansson? The other good news is that such was the shock of their 5000/1 triumph, nobody actually gives a toss about anything Leicester did before that or their history. Which saves me the usual five minutes research on Wikipedia that goes into these match previews. Cheers Claudio Ranieri.

Leicester – the place
It isn’t just shock Premier League champions that the city of Leicester has given us. It kept the skeleton of Richard III pretty well preserved under a Leicester City Council car park 460 odd years. It is also the home of Walkers crisis, the visionaries who a few years ago thought cheeseburger, hotdog and lamb and mint sauce crisps might actually take off. Nearly as mad as thinking Leicester could win the league.

Leicester – the people
Leicester has given us some big television personalities down the years. Adrian Mole, star of Offally Good! grew up in nearby Ashby-de-la-Zouch. Gary Lineker may not be popular with The Sun and Daily Mail for daring to think we should probably try and help refugees but he is still a fantastic host of Match of the Day, especially when he is presenting it in his underwear. Slightly less famous than those two but still a big name from the city is Phoebe, or “fat slag who stands next to the segregation netting shouting abuse at away fans” as she is more commonly known. She even made a guest appearance on NSC after we’d lost 1-0 at the King Power in 2011 as some sort of celebrity guest. Bless.

A good memory of Leicester City away
Our last visit yielded a 4-1 victory, although this was slightly misleading as we took on a Leicester side who had been on the piss for 72 hours celebrating winning promotion to the top flight (sound familiar?). More impressive was a 1-0 win on August Bank Holiday Monday 2004. Mark McGhee’s experiment with picking the team while taking recreational drugs continued as he played Adam Virgo up front for the second game in a row and it only bloody worked, Virgo scoring a quite brilliant finish for the only goal of the game.

A bad memory of Leicester City away
Even Stevie Wonder could see that Dick Knight designing a home kit that was blue, an away kit that was blue and a third kit that was blue was going to cause a problem at some point. That problem arose away at League One leaders Leicester and as a result we played the game at the Walkers Stadium in the Foxes away kit. Even worse, the M1 was blocked by an accident which meant some supporters didn’t get to the ground until well into the second half. Worth it for the 0-0 draw and the rare chance to see Chris Birchall and Jason Jarrett in Brighton shirts we reckon.

Played for both
Of the current squads, that man from Argentina remains at Leicester despite having been angling for a move away for over a year. He is sure to get a rousing reception in the unlikely event he appears although we will be mentioning Murray this time we’re afraid, Leonardo. Going the other way, Anthony Knockaert maintains popularity with the Foxes faithful for his performances when the club won promotion in 2014. Hopefully he will show them what they are missing out on. Mahrez who?

Key Men
The only times Lewis Dunk and Shane Duffy looked in trouble last week (other than when heading the ball through Mat Ryan’s legs) were when Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus used their pace and movement to get in behind. No need to worry lads, it’s only the inform Jamie Vardy next.

Betting
Five of our last six visits to the King Power Stadium have featured one goal or less. Leicester like to counter attack and, after managing to hold the superior attack of Manchester City at bay for 70 minutes last week, it isn’t hard to see Chris Hughton telling his side to put in another ultra defensive display to prevent that from happening. Under 2.5 goals is available at 10/11 while you can back Jamie Vardy to score anytime at 7/5.

You can read our full OLBG betting preview for Leicester City v Brighton here

WeAreBrighton.com Prediction
A cagey affair in which we hold on for long periods but ultimately lose 1-0.