Visits: 10
Team news, stats and prediction ahead of Leeds United vs Leicester City in the Premier League on Monday; kick-off 8pm.
Team news
Leeds captain Liam Cooper is back in contention for Monday night’s home Premier League game against Leicester.
Cooper missed last week’s win at Aston Villa due to a groin injury sustained earlier this month while on international duty with Scotland.
Fellow central defender Diego Llorente, signed from Real Sociedad last month, also sustained a groin injury, while on international duty for Spain.
Kalvin Phillips is still out after tearing shoulder ligaments against Wolves and is not expected to return until at least the middle of next month.
Jonny Evans and Timothy Castagne have joined Leicester‘s growing injury list.
Centre-back Evans missed Thursday’s 2-1 Europa League win at AEK Athens with a back problem and Castagne is out until after the international break with a hamstring injury.
Caglar Soyuncu, Wilfred Ndidi (both groin) and Daniel Amartey (thigh) are sidelined, with Ricardo Pereira still yet to return to fitness following an Achilles injury.
1:54 How to follow
Leeds vs Leicester will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Premier League from 7pm on Monday Night Football; kick-off at 8pm. Sky Sports customers can watch in-game clips in the live match blog on the Sky Sports website and app. Highlights will also be published on the Sky Sports digital platforms and the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel shortly after the final whistle.
3:02 Jones Knows’ prediction
One thing we learnt from the Thursday round of midweek Europa League fixtures is Leicester City are taking their venture into Europe very seriously. Youri Tielemans, James Maddison and Jamie Vardy all started as they came away from Athens with maximum points. A great result, certainly, but such an arduous trip is not exactly ideal preparation for a trip to Leeds, whose intense style is a demanding experience for the opposition.
Leeds top the Premier League for average distance covered this season with 114km per game – some 10km more than the likes of Fulham or Wolves. Any heavy legs in the Leicester camp will be found out at Elland Road. Brendan Rodgers will have a plan to stop them, probably in the same defensive shape that saw them rip through Manchester City. However, Marcelo Bielsa, whose powers have turned Patrick Bamford into Dennis Bergkamp, is taken to keep Leeds rolling at their relentless level for a few weeks more yet.
JONES KNOWS PREDICTS: 2-1 (8/1 with Sky Bet)
2:51 Opta stats
- This is the first Premier League meeting between Leeds and Leicester since April 2004, with Leeds winning 3-2 at Elland Road in a season that saw both sides relegated.
- Leicester have lost just two of their last 13 league meetings with Leeds (W5 D6), with this the first such meeting between the sides since a 1-0 win for the Foxes in January 2014.
- Leeds United have won 15 of their last 20 league matches (D2 L3) and only Liverpool (66) and Manchester City (60) have won more league matches in England’s top four tiers than the Whites since Marcelo Bielsa took charge in August 2018 (57).
- Leicester City will be looking to win five of their first seven games to a top-flight season for the first time in their history.
- Since Brendan Rodgers took charge of his first Leicester City game in March 2019, only Liverpool (45) and Manchester City (37) have won more Premier League games than the Foxes (27), while their points total in this period (91) is bettered by just three sides (Liverpool 140, Man City 116, Chelsea 94).
- Leeds have scored 12 goals in the Premier League this season, the most by a newly promoted team since Middlesbrough in 1992-93 (also 12). The Whites have scored 3+ goals in three of their first six games (against Liverpool, Fulham and Aston Villa), the first newly promoted team to do that since Luton Town in 1982-83.
- Leeds striker Patrick Bamford has scored six goals in his first six league matches this season, the first Whites player to score as many as six goals in the club’s first six league games of a season since Jermaine Beckford in 2008-09, and the first to do so in a top-flight season since Eric Cantona in 1992-93.
- Leicester striker Jamie Vardy has scored 12 goals in his last 15 Premier League appearances against newly promoted teams, including nine goals in his last seven such matches.
Pitch to Post Preview: Jamie Redknapp on Man Utd v Arsenal; plus Liverpool’s CB options, and will Everton bounce back?
Jamie Redknapp joins Peter Smith on this week’s show to look ahead to Sunday’s showdown between Man Utd and Arsenal and says there are more questions than answers at Old Trafford as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer prepares for his 100th game in charge.
Sky Sports News reporter Vinny O’Connor has the latest on Liverpool’s injury problems and discusses the young players who could cover at centre-back.
And Sky Sports statistician Matt Cheetham picks out the numbers which explain why Everton’s defeat at Southampton could just be a blip, and makes his bold Pitch for what will happen in the Premier League this weekend.
Listen to the Sky Sports Pitch to Post Podcast on: Spotify | Apple | Castbox
