Claude Puel's Leicester are steadily improving.
Newcastle v Leicester – Saturday 17:30, BT Sport 1
After a tough opening run where they had to face Arsenal, Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool in their first six fixtures, Leicester have since tasted defeat just once in their last nine – against an irresistible City side. They’ve won their last two against Spurs and high-flying Burnley at the King Power, with Mahrez in particular looking back to his best, whilst on the road they’re unbeaten in five, though their only victory from these was at rock-bottom Swansea. With that in mind we’re backing the visitors on the draw no bet, rather than going for the outright win.
Newcastle have slipped into the bottom six after a sequence of five defeats from six winless games, and performances are getting notably worse. They were goalless at the break in the first two of these games before going on to lose 1-0 in each, but they’ve since lost the opening-45 in the subsequent four matches and conceded an average of three goals per game across these. Three of these saw at least four goals, and since Leicester have just one clean sheet in their last five, while Newcastle have netted in recent defeats to both Man Utd and Chelsea, we’re going to take a chance on the 3-1 correct score.
Riyad Mahrez has now netted four in Leicester’s last nine including a stunner against Spurs, with the only other players to net more than once for the Foxes during that time being Demarai Gray and Jamie Vardy. Therefore, it’s a surprise to see nine players at a shorter price than the Algerian to score anytime, including five Leicester players.
