The opening weekend of the Premier League season concludes on Monday night when the action heads to the King Power Stadium as the champions Leicester City return to the top flight with a home clash with Tottenham Hotspur.
Tottenham go into the new campaign fancied to be improvers over the course of the season while Leicester will just be looking to establish themselves back in the Premier League, particularly if rumours of a point deduction come true.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live and in full on the Monday Night Football programme which airs on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Premier League. The show begins at 6.30pm ahead of the 8pm kick off.
Leicester City
Leicester City proved far too good for the Championship last season, as many expected them to be, but a lot has changed at the King Power Stadium since the final ball was kicked in the second tier. The Foxes have lost their manager Enzo Maresca who saw the bright lights of London too hard to refuse and he took star player Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall with him. Steve Cooper has taken over the reins and with his Forest connections he isn’t a universally popular replacement so he’ll have to win over some Leicester supporters.
Heading into the opening game of the season, Leicester haven’t really been that active in the transfer market, which is surprising when you consider that a change of playing style has to happen with Cooper nowhere near as possession based in his approach as Maresca was. With that in mind, you sense Leicester will be a work in progress and will build into the season so anything they get out of this one could be considered a bonus. One good thing is the crowd should be right up for it on their return to this stage.
Tottenham Hotspur
I don’t think too many people were willing to judge Tottenham Hotspur last season. It was the first season under Ange Postecoglou and the Australian had to turn around what had become a bit of a circus under Antonio Conte and Jose Mourinho. He has had a year in charge to sort all that out though and this is his third transfer window to try and mould the squad into one which he can work with and I think it is much fairer that he be judged on what happens from here on in.
Spurs haven’t been hugely active in the market this summer but the players they have signed have come in for decent money so they certainly look like they are backing the Australian and after he secured European football this term you could argue why wouldn’t they. There is still a question mark over the depth that they have at the back but Ange ball is all about being on the front foot and keeping the ball away from their own goal so I can see why many of his transfers have been forward thinking ones.
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Team News
Steve Cooper announced in his pre-match press conference that Patson Daka would be out for months with an injury picked up in pre-season. Jamie Vardy is out with an injury too while Conor Coady also misses out with injury. Tom Cannon could be left to lead the line.
Tottenham Hotspur will be without Yves Bissouma after the club imposed a one-match ban on him for a video of him inhaling laughing gas went viral on social media. Archie Gray, Dominic Solanke and Wilson Odobert could make their debuts.
Betting
I look at Leicester City and I just think they are a little underprepared for the new season and the injury picked up by Patson Daka last week certainly hasn’t helped them so I find it hard to see past a Tottenham Hotspur win here. Only the eventual top four took more points on their travels last season than Tottenham so that is encouraging and Spurs were the best team in the league for the opening two months of it a year ago so that bodes well for expecting a fast start as well.
There might be an ounce of improving as they go along for Tottenham because of the relatively late arrivals of Dominic Solanke and Wilson Odobert but there was more than enough in the building to take care of Leicester prior to them coming along. Spurs look really strong in offensive areas and we saw last season that when their first choice back five including the keeper are fit they were tough to breach. This just looks a really tough assignment for a Leicester side who look like they need a few reinforcements. Both the promoted sides who have already played this weekend have lost without scoring and I think Spurs have it in their hands to win this relatively comfortably too.
Tips
Back Tottenham to beat Leicester for a 4/10 stake at 1.73 with Bet365
