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Preview: Swansea City vs. Leicester City - prediction, team news, lineups

sportsmole.co.uk, 19 October 2023, 12:00
Leicester City will hope to retain their position at the top of the Championship standings when they travel to Swansea City on Saturday afternoon.

However, they face opponents who sit behind them as the form team in the division, albeit remaining in 12th spot despite a four-game winning streak.

Match preview

The season may only be 11 matches old - less than a quarter of the way through 46 fixtures - yet there is an acknowledgement that Leicester look on course to breeze to promotion.

A total of 10 wins have come from that period, the only defeat being posted at home to Hull City on September 2, and a six-game streak of victories has left the Foxes 10 points clear of third place.

There will have been times this season when Enzo Maresca would have expected more from this team, yet they were able to net 16 times from their six second-tier fixtures during the last batch of fixtures.

Conceding just six goals in the Championship is an impressive feat, yet the most notable is Leicester prevailing from each of their five fixtures on their travels, shipping just three strikes.

Maresca's team have also scored four times in two of the last three away matches in the Championship, but Saturday arguably represents their toughest test so far.

While that is open to interpretation, Leicester are taking on a Swansea side who have now started to develop into the side that many thought they could be under Michael Duff.

Thirteen points have been collected from their last five outings, with 11 goals being scored in wins over Sheffield Wednesday, Millwall, Norwich City and Plymouth Argyle.

Previous leading marksman Joel Piroe is now being forgotten, even though this is a squad of players that have been sharing goals around them.

Just two players have scored more than once with an astonishing 13 different players netting in their opening 11 league games, but Jerry Yates and Jamal Lowe appear ready to contribute on a regular basis with at least one of the pair scoring in the most recent four fixtures.

Swansea City Championship form:

L

D

W

W

W

W

Leicester City Championship form:

W

W

W

W

W

W

Leicester City form (all competitions):

W

W

L

W

W

W

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Team News

Barring any injury issues, Duff may opt to select the same Swansea starting lineup from the comeback win over Plymouth Argyle.

Although Oliver Cooper came off the substitutes' bench to score in that match, three of the four attacking quartet also chipped in with a goal or assist.

Ben Cabango is expected to be sidelined for a number of games with a hamstring injury, joining Nathan Wood, Joe Allen and Josh Ginnelly as an absentee.

Maresca rotated players for the Stoke fixture and that should lead to the likes of Wout Faes and Wilfred Ndidi returning to the Leicester starting lineup.

Jamie Vardy will also hope to get the nod over Kelechi Iheanacho, with Harry Souttar and Cesare Casadei potentially missing out in defence and midfield.

Swansea City possible starting lineup:

Rushworth; Key, Darling, Humphreys, Tymon; Grimes, Patino; Cullen, Patterson, Lowe; Yates

Leicester City possible starting lineup:

Hermansen; Pereira, Faes, Vestegaard, Choudhury; Winks, Ndidi, Dewsbury-Hall; Akgun, Vardy, Mavididi

We say: Swansea City 0-2 Leicester City

This has all the makings of the match of the weekend with both teams eager to pick up where they left off. We expect Swansea to push Leicester hard in front of their own supporters, yet we cannot back against the visitors at this stage as they bid to move a small step closer to a return to the Premier League.

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