Leicester City and Sunderland will be united in their attempts to avoid the relegation scrap by accumulating points early in the season, starting with their meeting at the King Power Stadium on Saturday.
The Foxes looked dead and buried in February as they propped up the league table, but a spirited run towards the end of the season saw Nigel Pearson’s side secure four wins from the last six league games to finish the season well above the drop zone.
Sunderland were also favourites to go down until Dick Advocaat replaced Gus Poyet with nine games to go. The experienced Dutchman brought calm to the club and secured the necessary points to keep the Wearsiders up.
His hope this campaign is to help the Black Cats avoid a fourth successive 11th-hour escape from relegation. Advocaat is trying to remodel Sunderland into a more creative side with incisive forwards as well as quicker defenders.
Younes Kaboul and Sebastian Coates have both joined to address the problem of a slow and ageing defence, while Rubin Kazan’s former defensive midfield enforcer Yann M’Vila adds the much needed physical presence in central midfield.
Leicester may begin their new campaign with a new manager but they have similar ambitions.
Claudio Ranieri will hope to build on City’s unbeaten pre-season campaign by amassing points against sides like Sunderland.
Leicester City team news
- Wes Morgan is back in contention after returning from international duty with Jamaica.
- Only Matty James is out through injury for the Foxes as the midfielder continues his long-term recovery from an ACL knee injury.
Sunderland team news
- Danny Graham recently suffered a knock and may miss out the trip to Leicester.
- Jordi Gomez is still struggling with a fractured knee cap he suffered in training over two months ago. He could miss this game as well.
Leicester City vs Sunderland prediction
Shinji Okazaki scored in the friendly victory over Birmingham City last time out and will probably be handed a start up top alongside Jamie Vardy.
Ranieri looks set to ditch Pearson’s back-three system, so Robert Huth and Morgan will probably be the only central defenders in a 4-4-2 formation.
That system would mean Riyad Mahrez will start as a wide midfielder cutting inside, rather than floating behind the strikers as he did at the end of last season. Jeffrey Schlupp could be the other wide midfielder in Ranieri’s team.
Advocaat prefers a 4-3-3 formation so Lee Cattermole could be the holding midfielder while Sebastian Larsson and Jack Rodwell complete the central midfield trio. Adam Johnson had a good pre-season despite his off-field issues so he may start as an inverted wide forward with summer signing Jeremain Lens operating from the other flank.
Connor Wickham’s move away from Sunderland and Graham’s fitness issues leave Jermain Defoe as the forward likely to lead the Black Cats’ attacks.
The Foxes will be slight favourites so Sunderland will probably approach this encounter as they did in away games under Advocaat at the end of last season; working hard without the ball in a solid defensive shape before picking off opponents on the break.
The Black Cats have pace down the flanks and industrious central midfielders who can make the game difficult for Leicester, so that could lead to an evenly matched contest ending as a score draw.
Score prediction
Leicester City 1-1 Sunderland.
