Shot at making League Cup history for Brighton at Leicester
The League Cup has been around for over 60 years now and in that time, the Albion have only ever progressed beyond the fourth round once – in the 1978-79 season. That is why Leicester City v Brighton presents something of an opportunity for Graham Potter’s band of merry men.
Leicester have bigger fish to fry than this particular competition. They have enjoyed a mixed start to the Premier League campaign and as a result, they need to start picking up points soon if this is to be the season when they return to the Champions League.
The Foxes also have Europa League commitments to worry about, not to mention the defence of their FA Cup which will get underway in the new year. The League Cup is arguably their fourth priority in 2021-22.
Brighton meanwhile could view the competition as a realistic route to winning a first ever piece of major silverware, not to mention the bells and whistles of a European tour that would come with it.
The Premier League campaign is going well and relegation seems further away than it has ever been, so why not take the League Cup a little more seriously than usual – or at least, a little more seriously than Leicester will?
Over to you, Graham Potter.
Leicester City this season
Leicester spent virtually the whole of the 2021-22 season in the top four, before falling away right at the death. That disappointment seems to have left a bit of a hangover and the Foxes find themselves in ninth position as we approach the quarter stage of the campaign.
The Foxes have four Premier League wins to their name and have failed to beat Burnley, Crystal Palace and the Albion so far – all matches which you can ill-afford to drop points in if you have ambitions of Champions League qualification.
Things have begun to pick up in recent weeks however, so perhaps Brendan Rodgers and his players are just doing things in reverse in 2021-22?
Normally, they start the campaign like a steam train before finishing weakly. A poor opening two months followed by seven months of largely victories might be enough to get them over that line and into fourth spot – especially if Manchester United stick with Ole Gunnar Solksjaer for too much longer.
Team news
Both Brendan Rodgers and Potter have clouded their plans in secrecy with one very notable exception – we know Jamie Vardy will not feature.
The Foxes’ talisman felt a twinge in the warm up before their weekend win at Brentford and although he completed 45 minutes before being withdrawn at the interval, Rodgers has said that he will sit the League Cup out with bigger fish for Leicester to fry over the coming weeks.
Rodgers named a relatively strong line up for Leicester’s 2-0 win at Millllllllllllllllll in the previous round. Caglar Soyuncu, Jonny Evans, Youri Tielemans, Onyinye Ndidi, Kelechi Iheanacho and Ademola Lookman all started with Lookman and Iheanacho in the goals.
Potter meanwhile has mixed Under 23 players with senior squad members who did not start the previous league game. If he sticks to that policy, then Tariq Lamptey, Enock Mwepu, Alexis Mac Allister, Shane Duffy and Adam Webster could all expect to feature at the King Power Stadium.
That would be a pretty strong looking line up, even if the likes of Lamptey and Webster only play one half or an hour as they continue their returns from injury.
Key battles
It is hard to pick a key battle when not even Mystic Meg could predict what either Rodgers or Potter will do when it comes to their starting line up.
If Brighton are to progress, then they will clearly need to score. Seeing as Aaron Connolly is the Albion’s only available reserve striker because of the club’s summer decision to ship out five centre forwards in the summer and bring none in, the burden falls on Shoosh’s number one customer to get the goals.
At the other end, Ihenacho has history for eliminating Brighton from cup competitions. He scored the winner in last season’s FA Cup fifth round meeting at the King Power Stadium when both Potter and Rodgers named strong second choice XIs.
The Albion were the masters of their own downfall that evening, somehow conceding in the final seconds of normal time despite having 10 players back to defend a corner against only two Leicester players in the box.
It was the worst bit of set piece defending across the whole campaign, which is saying something as there was a lot of competition for that particular accolade.
Recent form
The weekend defeat against Manchester City was a bit of a wake up call for the Albion. Having conceded only five goals in eight matches, Brighton shipped three in 30 minutes on their way to a 4-1 hammering.
Leicester’s second string will obvious be nowhere near as good as City’s strongest line up. More telling is to look at the Albion’s League Cup form, which is quite impervious so far having beaten two decent Championship outfits without conceding a goal.
- 23/10/21: Brighton 1-4 Man City
- 16/10/21: Norwich 0-0 Brighton
- 02/10/21: Brighton 0-0 Arsenal
- 27/09/21: Crystal Palace 1-1 Brighton
- 22/09/21: Brighton 2-0 Swansea City
- 19/09/21: Brighton 2-1 Leicester
As already noted, Leicester have begun to show signs of improvement in recent weeks. They are unbeaten in domestic competitions since losing against Brighton and have defeated Manchester United and Brentford in their two most recent Premier League matches – not many teams will be victorious at the Brentford Community Stadium this season.
- 24/10/21: Brentford 1-2 Leicester
- 20/10/21: Spartak Moscow 3-4 Leicester
- 16/10/21: Leicester 4-2 Man United
- 03/10/21: Crystal Palace 2-2 Leicester
- 30/09/21: Legia Warsaw 1-0 Leicester
- 25/09/21: Leicester 2-2 Burnley
Last time we met
Nobody can have forgotten events at the Amex last month when Brighton beat Leicester 2-1, surely? The Albion certainly haven’t as it left them with a VAR credit card bill that will take some time to pay off.
Neal Maupay converted a contentious penalty to give the Seagulls a half time lead. Danny Welbeck doubled the advantage before Leicester had two goals ruled off for identical offside decisions from corners against Harvey Barnes.
Needless to say, the Foxes were incensed. Gary Lineker led the moans on Twitter afterwards with tears more salted than his crisps, the celebrity cheerleader for a quite spectacular meltdown amongst Leicester fans.
There is no doubt that the Foxes will be out for revenge following the manner of that defeat and that means that, even if Rodgers does shuffle his pack, they will be dangerous opponents.
Brighton v Leicester City head-to-head
Games between Brighton and Leicester have only become a frequent occurrence this century. In the past 20 years, the clubs have met in Premier League, Championship, League One, FA Cup and now League Cup.
Overall, 39 matches have taken place between the two. Leicester have won 18, the Albion 14 and there have been seven draws. That victory last month was Brighton’s first over the Foxes in 10 attempts.
In terms of the League Cup, the Seagulls have a perfect record from two action-packed second round games in the 1994-95 campaign.
Those were the days when ties in the early stages of the competition were played over two legs. Liam Brady’s Division Two Albion shocked their Premier League opponents by winning 1-0 at the Goldstone Ground through Kurt Nogan.
Even better was to come in the second match at Filbert Street. Nogan again scored and Stuart Munday hit a thunderbastard from 40 yards which remains one of the greatest goals ever registered by a Brighton player in a 2-0 victory.
It was also the evening when Jimmy Case was infamously sent off for the crime of being deaf. The referee told Case to hurry up as he felt the 40-year-old midfielder was time wasting.
Case however had forgotten his hearing aid, could not hear the official and so was shown a red card for dissent. In the 2021, that is a discrimination law suit.
A reason why Leicester will win
Last season’s FA Cup fifth round tie showed that Leicester’s second string was stronger than Brighton’s. If that is the route that both managers go down with their selections and it remains the case in the current campaign, then the Foxes will fancy their chances of progression.
A reason why Brighton will win
The Europa League means that Leicester are already guaranteed to face six more matches than Brighton this season. It will be even more if the Foxes progress through the group stage.
That is a lot of football. Winning the Europa League is surely a bigger priority for Leicester than the League Cup, seeing as it would write more history and enable the Foxes to qualify for the Champions League even if their traditional late tumble from the top four takes place.
Leicester have less reason to want to win the League Cup than Brighton. So, if you’re reading this and fancy letting the Albion through, Brendan, then that would be very much appreciated.
Leicester City v Brighton betting
As always with League Cup betting, it is hard to predict what will happen until an hour before kick off and teams are revealed.
Neither side has conceded a goal in the competition so far however and that – combined with the tightness of February’s FA Cup meeting – suggests that a low scoring tie could be on the cards.
Under 1.5 goals is a best priced 29/10 with both teams to score no at 6/5.
Predictions
Prediction of score: Leicester 0-0 Brighton
Prediction of penalty shoot out score: Leicester 3-1 Brighton
Prediction of Gary Lineker mood afterwards: Happier than last time
