Leicester saw their lead in the Premier League cut to two points on Sunday when Tottenham piled further misery on Aston Villa and the Foxes have the chance to add to Newcastle’s worries on Monday night when it is their turn to respond.
Leicester gave a very impressive leaders performance at Watford last weekend but I just wonder if all this time to think about what they are achieving and what they might still achieve is a good thing or a bad thing. I’m tempted to suggest it isn’t good but they need to get used to it because very few of their remaining matches will kick off in the traditional Saturday 3pm slot.
Newcastle have been a shambles for much of the season and they probably became more of a laughing stock if that was possible by the way they handled the Steve McClaren sacking over the weekend. To be fair to them though they’ve managed a right coup to get Rafa Benitez in for the remainder of the season.
Only Arsenal have beaten Leicester at home this season. The Foxes have made the King Power a real fortress and they look so comfortable playing there so Newcastle are going to need to show an amazing improvement to get anything out of this one.
I say that because Newcastle are the second worst side in the Premier League on their travels. They have just seven points from a possible 42 and have only scored seven goals in the 14 games. I’ve no doubt Rafael Benitez will improve this Newcastle side but the improvement might not come before the derby next week.
I would have been tentative about backing Leicester if Benitez had come in much earlier last week but he won’t have had long to get his ideas across and given that Riyad Mahrez is fit to play here I’m backing Leicester to get the job done and not just get it done but to do it in style. Try as they might I don’t see Newcastle being good enough defensively to contain Leicester.
Back Leicester (-1AH) to beat Newcastle for a 4/10 stake at 2.10 with Paddy Power
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