Leicester v Arsenal: Foxes can pile more misery on Gunners

High-flying Leicester will look to continue their fine early season form when Arsenal arrive on Saturday evening. Mark O'Haire previews the encounter.

Leicester v Arsenal
Saturday November 9, 17:30
Sky Sports

Leicester consolidate in the top four

Leicester consolidated their third-placed position in the Premier League last Sunday when sealing a 2-0 success at Crystal Palace. Jamie Vardy's 10th league goal of the season confirmed victory for the Foxes 10 minutes from time after Caglar Soyuncu had headed Brendan Rodgers' boys into the lead with his first goal for the club before the hour mark.

Ben Chilwell came close to adding a third in stoppage time but saw his angled strike come off the inside of the post as City moved to within two points of Manchester City. Leicester have now accrued one more point than they did at this stage during their title-winning campaign in 2015/16, although Rodgers did not want to put any pressure on his players.

The Foxes boss said, "The spirit is very good and they understand we are trying to create something here we can sustain. People asked about European football at the beginning of the season and I said, 'listen, we don't want to get ahead of ourselves' because there are some incredible teams in this league." Matthew James is Rodgers' only injury absentee.

Emery under pressure at Arsenal

Unai Emery takes charge of his 50th Premier League game as Arsenal manager this weekend with an air of crisis and consternation surrounding his Gunners squad. Having dropped points from leading positions in successive Premier League matches at the Emirates, the Spaniard then confirmed midweek that Granit Xhaka had been stripped of the captaincy.

Boos rang out inside the Emirates last week as Wolves fought back to earn a deserved 1-1 draw in Arsenal's latest Premier League outing. Stand-in skipper Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang notched his 50th goal for the club against the run of play and Wolves continued to repeatedly carve the hosts open thereafter with Bernd Leno called into plenty of action.

The performance did little to allay concerns over the team's perceived fragility in defence whilst questions were also asked about Arsenal's invention on the ball. Despite given starts to Mesut Ozil, Alexandre Lacazette and Aubameyang, Emery's men failed to have a single shot on-target after the 32nd minute. Nevertheless, Arsenal arrive here injury-free.

Leicester have won their last two home Premier League encounters with Arsenal, as well as two of the past three league meetings with the Gunners at any venue, that despite the Foxes securing top honours just once in the duos previous 30 head-to-heads (W1-D9-L20).

Leicester 2.08 have secured 12 Premier League triumphs under Brendan Rodgers (W12-D4-L5) with only Liverpool (19) and Man City (17) winning more; the Foxes have returned W7-D2-L1 across their 10 King Power outings in that same sample. The hosts were 2.60 for this contest in April and haven't been shorter when welcoming a top-half team since 2016.

Arsenal 3.75 have only been a bigger price for away trips to Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs under Unai Emery's watch. Remarkably, only Pep Guardiola (76%) currently enjoys a higher win ratio in the Premier League than Emery (59%) but the Gunners are untrustworthy travellers, picking up three points from 12 trips to top-half teams (W0-D3-L9) during the Spaniard's stewardship.

Goals likely as Foxes face Gunners

Leicester have scored twice or more in all seven home wins since Brendan Rodgers pitched up in March and will fancy their chances of breaching an Arsenal rearguard that's recorded only two shutouts in 24 away Premier League trips under Unai Emery. A chunky 16 (67%) of those road trips saw Over 2.5 Goals 1.60 pay-out with half seeing Over 3.5 Goals collect.

The hosts have kept clean sheets in five of their 10 King Power outings, although Over 2.5 Goals has still landed on six occasions. With the Foxes looking well capable of causing their guests concerns in the final-third, this contest looks ripe for a play in Betfair Sportsbook's Same Game Multi market.

Here we can support Leicester in the Double Chance market, whilst also adding Over 1.5 Goals and Jamie Vardy to score for a generous 2.40 offering. Vardy has scored 19 goals under Brendan Rodgers - five more than any Premier League rival - with the 32-year-old also bagging eight goals in eight starts against Arsenal at this level.