Leicester City’s trip to the London Stadium on Saturday could prove to be a pivotal fixture to our season, but Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson does not favour our chances.
In his weekly predictions, he has written that he believes Brendan Rodger’s side will be gifted all three-points, as Manuel Pellegrini will likely get his tactics wrong, and the visitors will come out 3-1 victors.
Merson feels the boss will incorrectly set the side up to go for the win on Saturday, and in doing so will give the Foxes more than enough space to hit us on the break, so should instead play a more structured, and defensive, XI.
The Arsenal icon even suggests we should play more akin to how Rafa Benitez organised Newcastle to cope with Leicester last time out, as players like Jamie Vardy, James Maddison and Demarai Gray are all potential threats on the counter.
He has a slight point, in that teams like Newcastle have managed to deal with Leicester’s attack more adequately than others, but it is one thing playing with your back to your own goal away from home than doing it in your own stadium having lost three in a row.
The Foxes also enjoyed 71% of the ball in their 1-0 defeat to Newcastle, and would likely have been more capable of clinching at least a point if they did not have six shots go wide of the target.
Given we are also five points behind Leicester, with just four games to play, it would be incredibly risky to sit back and not try to reduce the margin between our two sides, as anything but a win will near enough guarantee our chances of finishing seventh are over.
