Leicester City vs. Liverpool Odds, Preview and Predictions

The derby of the Boxing Day round in the English Premier League will take place at King Power Stadium in Leicester. The Foxes are meeting Liverpool, the undisputed ruler of the championship so far this season. It is a similar situation to the one from last year when Reds’ decline started after Leicester got away with a draw from Anfield. It would turn out to be the critical game for losing the Premier League title. Hosts’ and Man City’s fans are hoping to see some history repeating. Liverpool’s are quiet before this derby.

Preview

Leicester (+240) is the second-placed team in the Premiership with 10 points fewer than the Reds. Also, Brendan Rodgers’ guys have one game more than their opponents. They are coming into this event after a loss at Etihad stadium, vs. Manchester City, 1-3. That is also an additional motive for the Foxes to bounce back and stay in front of the Citizens, who are just one point behind. Although some might believe that City routinely defeated Leicester, that wasn’t the case. The hosts in that match had a little push from the officials who awarded a suspicious penalty for them, two minutes before the end of the first half. Leicester has one of the best defenses in the league, the same as Liverpool. These two sides are topping the list with only 14 allowed goals since the start of the EPL campaign. But in recent times, the champions from 2016 started conceding more frequently. For example, over the last six matches in all competitions, in five both teams scored. As hosts, Foxes are superb, and they have four wins and a draw in previous five events, with the note that in all triumphs, they netted at least twice. It is mostly due to fantastic Jamie Vardy who has 17 goals in 18 EPL appearances this season.

Liverpool (+105) is dominant, like just a few teams before them. Klopp’s heavy artillery is demolishing anything that stands in their path. But in recent times, there is some sort of a slowdown. For all of you who didn’t see Liverpool playing lately, their results might be a bit deceiving. They defeated Watford with 2-0, but weren’t too confident, and after that had two very pale performances at the FIFA Club World Cup in Japan. Now we come to our next point. The fatigue from a long trip to Japan was evident against Monterrey and Flamengo. Surely, the Reds won the title and became the world champs, but their performances weren’t at that level. It is a bit odd to say that over the past few weeks, their defense is a better part of the team, and without it, the results would have been much different. In the last five away games across all competitions (and not counting the one against Aston Villa where U-23 appeared), only one ended with under 2.5 goals. Also, do know that Liverpool often concedes goals on the road.

Head to Head

These two sides met for the first time in 1895, with Liverpool winning the inaugural contest, 3-1. Since then, the Reds posted 48 wins, while Leicester has 39, and 25 matches ended without winners. In the most recent, during the first part of the season, the Reds beat Foxes at Anfield, 2-1. At the moment, L’Pool hasn’t lost against Leicester in five straight games, and each one of them saw both teams scoring and over 2.5.

Prediction

If there is a perfect place for Liverpool to drop points, then it would be King Power stadium. Leicester is playing very good, and they are superb in front of their own fans, while on the other hand, the Reds are visibly slower than before. Plus, they had a long trip to Japan and back. We have a hunch that this might be a chance for all the punters to get some money on their failure, and that is why our first suggestion would be a double chance, Leicester or draw (-138). For the braver ones, go with the hosts to take all three points. We went with a double chance to decrease the risks. As for goals, over 2.5 and both teams to score (-110) is our choice.

 

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