Leicester City are the visitors to Stamford Bridge on Saturday with both sides looking to bounce back from disappointing but not fatal results in the FA Cup last weekend. The two sides hold the last three Premier League titles between them but it seems like neither of them will be lifting the trophy this season and dropped points for Chelsea in this game would put Manchester City even further out of reach.
Team News
Antonio Conte has no fresh injury concerns and expects to have a fully fit squad for the visit of the Foxes. Gary Cahill and Tiemoue Bakayoko are both expected to return to the starting eleven having missed out against Arsenal in the Carabao Cup on Wednesday. Danny Simpson will miss the game for the visitors with a hamstring injury sustained last month while Jamie Vardy is likely to return to action after a hip injury. Leicester skipper Wes Morgan is still out injured but Riyad Mahrez is expected to start despite rumours linking him with a move away from the club
Probable Chelsea XI: Courtois; Azpilicueta, Christensen, Cahill; Moses, Fabregas, Kante, Bakayoko, Alonso; Hazard, Morata.
Probable Leicester XI: Schmeichel; Amartey, Dragovic, Maguire, Fuchs; Mahrez, Iborra, Ndidi, Gray; Okazaki, Vardy.
Team News
Alvaro Morata is struggling for form of late but this may be his best chance of finding the net for some time with a much-changed Leicester defence expected to take to the field. Daniel Amartey has looked uncomfortable at right-back while Aleksandar Dragovic has very little Premier League experience since joining the Foxes in the summer. Riyad Mahrez loves to drift into dangerous positions in behind the midfield and will look to drift inside if he starts on the right of midfield. That means it’ll be down to Tiemoue Bakayoko and N’Golo Kante to stop him cutting inside and moving into those dangerous positions. Should Mahrez start on the right, that could leave Marcos Alonso with a lot more space and time than usual because the Algerian isn’t known for his tracking back and work rate. He could, however, drift into the space that Alonso leaves behind him so it’s up to the back 3 to shift across to prevent him getting too close to goal.
Chelsea’s record against Leicester
Since Leicester’s promotion to the Premier League in 2014, Chelsea have won two out of their three home games against the Foxes. The one game that they didn’t win came on the final day of Leicester’s title-winning season where Danny Drinkwater scored for the away side in a 1-1 draw. Drinkwater could face his old side for the first time on Saturday since joining Chelsea last summer. One man who will face his former teammates yet again is N’Golo Kante, the Frenchman scored at the King Power Stadium earlier in the season but hasn’t netted since. The last time a Leicester team came away from Stamford Bridge with a win was back in 2000 when goals from Muzzy Izzet and Stan Collymore saw the Foxes run out 2-0 winners. That game was the first game under Claudio Ranieri who watched from the stands having been appointed as manager shortly beforehand.
The Blues are still looking for their first win of 2018 having drawn all three games so far. Alvaro Morata is also looking for his first goal after four games without one so now is a good time to get behind him and the rest of the team.