Leicester City v Wolves Preview

Wolves will look to extend their unbeaten run to five games on Sunday as they head to the King Power Stadium to face Leicester City

The Foxes look to be one of Wolves’ sternest tests yet, however, with Brendan Rodgers’ side sitting second in the Premier League table after an impressive 4-1 win at Elland Road on Monday night. 

Kick off in Leicester is at 2pm on Sunday and is available to watch on Sky Sports.  

 

Wolves form

Having stuttered and spluttered their way through the opening six games of the season, Wolves looked back to their best in last Friday’s win over Crystal Palace.

Rare first-half goals from debutant Rayan Ait-Nouri and Daniel Podence were enough to give Nuno’s side a third win in four following what was their best outing of the campaign so far.

Ait-Nouri’s introduction to the starting XI looks to have given Wolves some much-needed balance and attacking output on the left-hand side, with Romain Saiss struggling as a makeshift wing-back in the draw against Newcastle a fortnight ago.  

Since suffering a humiliating 4-0 defeat to West Ham at the end of September, Wolves have conceded just one goal in four games and look to be back to their defensively solid best. 

If Nuno’s side are to take anything away from the East Midlands on Sunday, they need to stay wary of Leicester’s counter-attacking capabilities, while also looking their usual potent selves on the break. 

Leicester form

Leicester are currently enjoying their best-ever start to a Premier League campaign, sitting three points prettier than at the same stage of their title-winning campaign five years ago. 

The Foxes have enjoyed impressive away successes at Manchester City, Arsenal and Leeds already this season while maintaining a 100% record in their Europa League group, where they have beaten Zorya Luhansk, AEK Athens and most recently Braga on Thursday.

Rodgers’ side have had a shaky start to the season in their own ground, however, with a 3-0 defeat to West Ham and a 1-0 reverse against Aston Villa coming either side of the October international break. 

As ever, Leicester’s key man is last season’s Premier League top scorer Jamie Vardy, although the 33-year-old has yet to score a goal against Wolves in his career.

At the other end of the pitch, teenage centre-back Wesley Fofana has impressed since joining from St Etienne in the summer, with the Frenchman sure to make Raul Jimenez work for any goalscoring chances. 

 

Leicester v Wolves team news

Nuno has no fresh injury worries ahead of Sunday’s trip, with Joao Moutinho surviving an ankle injury following Luka Milivojevic’s red card challenge last Friday. 

Jonny remains Wolves’ only absentee, but the Spanish international is unlikely to be seen until early 2021. 

Following an impressive performance against Palace, it’s likely Nuno will resist chopping and changing his starting line-up.

Leicester, on the other hand, have numerous long and short-term absentees. Daniel Amartey, Timothy Castagne, Caglar Soyuncu, Ricardo Pereira and Wilfried Ndidi are all certain to miss Sunday’s game, but Jonny Evans is expected to return after missing the wins against AEK Athens, Leeds and Braga with a back injury. 

 

Wolves line up prediction: Patricio; Boly, Coady, Kilman; Semedo, Dendoncker, Neves, Ait-Nouri; Podence, Jimenez, Neto. 

 

Leicester v Wolves head to head

Sunday’s game will mark Wolves’ tenth trip to the King Power Stadium, with only one of the previous nine visits seeing Wanderers leave with three points. Goals from Seyi Olofinjana, Michael Kightly, Andy Keogh and a Gareth McAuley own goal sealed a 4-1 win for Wolves on the final day of the 2006-07 season, with the win granting Mick McCarthy’s side a play-off semi-final against West Brom. 

Wolves’ last visit to Filbert Way was on the opening day of last campaign, with the sides contesting a goalless draw. The match is best remembered for Wolves’ first VAR-disallowed goal, as Leander Dendoncker’s would-be winner was chalked off for handball against Willy Boly. 

 

Leicester v Wolves prediction

With two evenly matched sides coming into the game off the back of impressive victories and performances, there is a case for either team to come out on top. 

Leicester have the better record this campaign and have performed impressively against big sides away from home, but their struggles at the King Power Stadium could cost them on Sunday. 

While Wolves picked up an impressive win at Elland Road on their last away trip, their lacklustre performances in previous games will be exploited by a clinical Leicester attack. As they have done in previous games against the Foxes, Nuno’s side will have to keep Jamie Vardy quiet if they are to have any success in the East Midlands. 

With both teams’ strengths being on the counter-attack, it will be interesting to see which side, if any, will take the initiative and attempt to control the game from the offset. As the away team, Wolves will likely be happy to sit off and let Leicester attack them for the majority of the first half at least.

Although the game looks too close to call, Leicester could play into Wolves’ strengths and Nuno’s side look the most likely of the two to pick up another win.

 

Score prediction: Leicester 0-1 Wolves

James Wynn is part of the Talking Wolves editorial team – you can follow him on Twitter here.