English Premier League: Leicester City vs. Nottingham Forest Preview, Odds, Prediction

Leicester City and Nottingham Forest didn’t start their respective English Premier League campaigns well. These two clubs are sitting at the bottom of the standings for the moment, looking pretty poor, helpless and, let’s be honest, broken. The Foxes are the biggest disappointment of the year up until now and have just one point in seven games. Meanwhile, Forest won once, which is why they have three points more but showed multiple flaws and weaknesses. A win is a necessity for either unit, especially for the hosts, whose manager Brendan Rodgers is under heavy pressure.

Preview

Leicester City (-125) lost six games and has only one draw, which was on an opening day, when they wasted a 2-0 lead against Bournemouth, saving their skin in the final moments of the event. On Friday, Rodgers stated that the board trusts him, but even if that is true, the Foxes’ owners don’t have much patience.

The defense has been highly problematic for Rodgers. Fofana forced his way out of the club, vacating his teammates in the worst possible situation, boycotting games and practices, all in order to leave. Schmeichel was sold to Nice, a couple of other players had injuries, and there we had a collapse.

Leicester allowed 11 goals in the past two events, and all but one in the EPL were with both teams netting or with under 2.5 scores. Their matches are efficient but without results.

Nottingham Forest (+333) lost the last four games in a row and is also in disastrous shape. After winning against West Ham at home, playing 1-1 at Goodison, and beating Grimsby in the English Football League Cup, it seemed that the former European champions might rise to the occasion.

But the reality check was hard for Lingard and the crew, and one by one, losses against Tottenham, Manchester City, Bournemouth, and Fulham happened. In these four events, Forest allowed 14 goals.

The main problem of this unit is poor physical shape, as we almost always see them disappearing in the second half. That was against Bournemouth and Fulham in the most recent two events, in which they took the lead but lost the game in the end.

Latest News

Ricardo Pereira is out, Patson Daka probably won’t play, while Wilfried Ndidi remains doubtful.

Mckenna, Dennis, Mangala, and Richards are out or have minimal chances to be in the protocol, while Gibbs-White and Niakhate sit as doubtful.

Head to Head Games

Nottingham hosted Leicester in the FA Cup game back in February 2022, when they rolled over the hosts, beating them 4-1, thus exiting the reigning champions from the competition. Prior to that, they played in 2014 in the Championship.

Prediction

This is one of the ultimate chances for the Foxes to post their first win of the year and change the course of the campaign. They are in a pretty bad situation, which is why the imperative of success is all over the Kings Power Stadium. Simply, Leicester needs to beat the mediocre rival. Odds on Leicester’s triumph are -125 and that is our choice.

Pick: Leicester wins -125