Although this week was put aside for the FA Cup fifth round, two clubs who are not involved in that competition are taking the opportunity to play a rearranged game from when Covid hit the Premier League earlier in the season as Burnley host Leicester City.
Both these teams are lower in the Premier League table than they would like to be as we head into the final third of the campaign so they will both be eager to come out on top here. Unfortunately for those of us who are in the UK there is no TV coverage of this match.
Burnley
Until recently this was a season that just couldn’t get going for Burnley. As hard as they tried they couldn’t find any consistency and then when Covid hit it set them back even further. They went an extended period without playing a match and when they returned to action they were in a bit of a sticky situation. This isn’t anything they haven’t seen before but somewhere in the back of the mind is the old adage that all scenarios catch up with you eventually.
Nobody appears to have told Burnley that is the case though because they have picked up form in recent weeks. A couple of wins and a draw has lifted them off the bottom and they now head into this match knowing that a victory here will move them up three spots in the table to 15th and all of a sudden they will be looking forwards rather than over their shoulder. Burnley have only lost one of their last seven now, which was against Liverpool so that isn’t a loss that is going to hurt them in the grand scheme of things, but goals remain an issue. Only once since November have they score more than once in a game.
Leicester City
I think it is fair to say that the expectations for this season were far higher than what has been delivered by Leicester City. They have been able to show the best side of them in European competition recently but they haven’t been able to get any sort of consistency going in the Premier League, and make the trip to Lancashire without a win in their last five in the league. There is no immediate threat to them being relegated or anything like that but they would like to find three wins pretty soon just to make sure.
Leicester are creating plenty of chances in their matches and they are finding the back of the net pretty much at will but the problem is they are conceding equally as many and you sense their struggles will continue until that stops. A lot of that is down to a pretty horrendous run of injuries that they have had but even allowing for that they should be doing better than they are. The Foxes haven’t won any of their last six on the road.
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Team News
Burnley are expected to be boosted by the return to action of attacking player Maxwel Cornet while Ashley Westwood is also set to return. The Clarets will be without Erik Pieters and Matej Vydra for this clash however.
Leicester City could have Jamie Vardy back from injury which would be a huge boost to them. Whether he starts to returns from the bench remains to be seen however. Ricardo Pereira and James Justin could be fit but Wesley Fofana is still building up his fitness.
Betting
The potential return of Jamie Vardy makes this match an interesting proposition and probably sways me from backing Burnley in this match. I wouldn’t be surprised if they won the match but I’m not sure there is as much value with Leicester City having a more obvious goal threat at their disposal whenever he is on the pitch. I still don’t think it is wise to trust this Foxes defence until one of Wesley Fofana or Jonny Evans returns.
That makes me think the best bet in this match is for both teams to score. At 1.75 it isn’t much of a price but in a match where there are reasons to oppose both sides and where both have players coming back making their exact starting XIs a little harder to predict it does look a solid bet. Burnley are definitely a better attacking unit since they have added Wout Weghorst to their ranks and he could feast on a Leicester defence whose aerial prowess isn’t really there. At the other end Leicester can open any side up so both teams scoring makes a lot of sense to me in this one.
Tips
Back Both teams to score for a 3/10 stake at 1.75 with Bet365
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