Preview: Leicester Women vs. Chelsea Women - prediction, team news, lineups

Chelsea will be searching for their 11th consecutive victory in all competitions, while the Foxes are still searching for their first points of the WSL season.

Match preview

Including last season, Leicester are currently enduring a 15-game winless run in the WSL, with 14 of those matches ending in defeat.

Leicester's poor run of form resulted in Lydia Bedford being replaced in the dugout by Willie Kirk before the Foxes faced Arsenal on November 6.

The new manager got off to a losing start as Leicester were hammered 4-0 by Arsenal, but they had the chance to bounce back in their away meeting with West Ham United.

They seemed to be heading towards their first WSL point of the season until Izzy Atkinson snatched all three points for the Hammers with an 88th-minute winner.

Although the Foxes would have taken inspiration from an improved performance against West Ham, they are four points adrift of safety ahead of a difficult meeting with the reigning WSL champions.

While Leicester are struggling at the bottom of the table, Chelsea are currently leading the pack after winning their last seven league games.

Although they are only three points ahead of Arsenal and Manchester United, who both have a game in hand over the Blues, Emma Hayes will be pleased by the fact that her side have won all 10 competitive games since losing their opening match of the season to Liverpool.

In their most outing, Chelsea recorded a 2-0 home victory over Real Madrid in the Champions League thanks to goals from Sophie Ingle and Erin Cuthbert.

As a result of that victory, the Blues have scored at least two goals in nine of their previous 10 games, while they have only conceded no more than one goal in any of those matches.

After beating Leicester 7-0 and 9-0 in their last two competitive meetings, Chelsea will be confident that they can at least maintain their three-point gap at the top of the WSL table.

Leicester Women Women's Super League form:

L

L

L

L

L

L

Leicester Women (all competitions) form:

Chelsea Women Women's Super League form:

W

W

W

W

W

W

Chelsea Women form (all competitions):

W

W

W

W

W

W

Team News

The Foxes are expected to be without the services of Jess Sigsworth, Josie Green, Hannah Cain and Lachante Paul due to injury issues.

In his pre-match press conference, Kirk also indicated that three to four unnamed players have picked up injuries, and as a result, they will miss out against Chelsea.

Natasha Flint is expected to be given the lonely task of leading the line against a Chelsea side who are looking to record their third consecutive clean sheet in all competitions.

As for the visitors, they will be without the services of Pernille Harder, who is sidelined with a hamstring problem.

With the Blues set to face Real Madrid in Spain on Thursday, Hayes may be tempted to rotate her squad for their away meeting with Leicester.

The likes of Jessie Fleming, Eve Perisset and Beth England could be among those that come into the starting lineup.

Leicester Women possible starting lineup:

Levell; Simon, Howard, Tierney, Plumptre, Vance; Bott, Whelan, McManus, Jones; Flint

Chelsea Women possible starting lineup:

Musovic; Perisset, Buchanan, Eriksson, Carter; Fleming, Ingle, Reiten; James, Rytting Kaneryd, England

We say: Leicester Women 0-4 Chelsea Women

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