Leicester vs Aston Villa prediction: ENGLAND: Premier League betting tips on match 2023-04-03 18:45.
The Leicester City board declared they were "compelled to take alternative action" in a Sunday statement that confirmed manager Brendan Rodgers had been relieved of his duties. Rodgers exited stage left with what was Leicester’s sixth defeat from seven competitive matches (D1), a 2-1 loss at Crystal Palace on Saturday that consequently lowered them into the Premier League’s (PL) relegation zone.
Saturday’s defeat came despite netting the opening goal eight minutes into the second half, and as a result no other PL side has dropped more points (22) from winning positions this season. As assistant manager and now interim boss Chris Davies will know, a leaky defence has played a big part in that inability to see games out. It will now be his job to try and fix the Foxes' record of conceding in 13 straight PL games; which notably is the longest such active record in the division.
Aston Villa put the nail in the coffin of another PL departure over the weekend as their 2-0 win at Chelsea persuaded the London club’s bosses to sack manager Graham Potter. That was Villa’s fifth PL game unbeaten (W4, D1) while they impressively kept a clean sheet in all four of those wins. It’s therefore easy to see why many are tipping them to make a large charge towards the European spots, even though Villa manager Unai Emery has set a top half finish as the new aim.
The Midlands club will head into this clash just two points outside of the top six, but having played two games more than sixth-placed Brighton, it’s fair to assert they can’t afford to take their foot off the pedal. This could be a tougher clash than some may anticipate as Villa lost the last H2H in February (4-2) and have won only two of their last 13 PL away H2Hs (D5, L6).
Players to watch: Leicester forward Kelechi Iheanacho has been directly involved in more competitive goals against Aston Villa (G7, A4) than he has against any other side. Villa’s Ollie Watkins opened the scoring when these sides met two months ago and he more recently netted his seventh goal from nine PL outings at Stamford Bridge.
Hot stat: Emery has lost his last three PL games against Leicester – against no other English side has he lost more consecutive matches.