Burnley face Leicester City in the King Power Stadium on Wednesday night hoping to pick up their first points on the road this season.
The Pre-amble:
The Clarets play the first of three away games now starting with a visit to Leicester City this Wednesday night in the King Power Stadium. The game was rearranged from the Tuesday night due to Leicester`s game against Wolves being arranged to Sunday last weekend because of television coverage rights..
Leicester lost that one 2-1 at Molineux whereas Burnley put their recent poor form to one side defeating Posh 5-2 at Turf Moor following three successive league defeats. The psychological advantage therefore could be with the Clarets. The teams are so far this season very evenly matched with both having had a moderate start each picking up six points from five games and both lying jointly in 15th spot on the same zero goal difference. There could be more pressure on Foxes gaffer, Nigel Pearson too with expectations high and Leicester being one of the fancied teams for automatic promotion this season. Burnley will need to be on their guard though with the Foxes already defeating one local ‘B` clubs on home soil this season. Blackpool have had a good start to the season and are currently enjoying second spot in the Championship but Leicester beat them 1-0 earlier this month.
Leicester City Team News:
Leicester are waiting to find out the extent of the hamstring problem midfielder, Andy King sustained in Sunday’s defeat at Wolves. He went off after half an hour at Molineux. Defender Cian Bolger currently on loan to Bristol Rovers is likely to be sidelined for three months with a cruciate ligament injury. Not that it would have mattered for this game but 20-year-old rejoined the Pirates on loan from Leicester last month for his third spell at the Memorial Stadium and signed until January.
Player to watch: Kasper Schmeichel
If Burnley hope to come away with any points on Wednesday night they will have to thwart the Foxes keeper and captain, Kasper Schmeichel. The 25 year old son of father, Peter signed for Leicester in June 2011 from Leeds United penning a three-year deal for an undisclosed fee. His prowess in goal last season earned him the club`s and players` player of the year award. Schmeichel played a total of 52 games overall, making 17 clean sheets and saving four penalties
Burnley Team News:
Danny Ings appears to be the only player sidelined with injury at the moment and even he could be back earlier than expected following a successful operation to fix his torn cartilage. David Edgar is presumably also back in the reckoning for a start after recovering from International duty with Canada and ‘jetlagged` return across the Atlantic.
Player to watch: Charlie Austin
Austin is on fire after scoring a hat-trick (stuff the own goal theory) against Posh on Saturday. He must surely be the one that the Foxes will be the most wary of and it`s up to Charlie to put the fear of God into them!
Team & Tactics:
I can see this being virtually the same eighteen as the line-up against Posh at Turf Moor last Saturday. David Edgar though is likely to return after being rested and confined to the bench as an unused sub on Saturday following his tiring International duty with Canada across the pond! Michael Duff will probably return to the bench. One does wonder if Brian Stock will be given the chance to shine in the starting eleven sometime but with both McCann and Marney having good games against Posh he may well have to wait his turn with also Marvin Bartley seemingly ahead of him in the pecking order.
Wallace could also be at risk having not been too impressive on Saturday and Cameron Stewart breathing down his neck. I will stick with the following eighteen though in 4-4-2 formation :
Grant, Trippier, Shackell, Edgar, Mills, Wallace, McCann. Marney, Stanislas, Austin, Paterson
Jensen, Mee, Duff, Stock, Bartley, Stewart, Vokes
Ref Watch:
Northampton referee, Dean Whitestone gets this one! In 7 games so far this season, he has only sent off one player also showing 20 yellow cards. His last game involving the Clarets was last season against Crystal Palace at home back in March. That game finished 1-1 but one player for Palace (Zaha) was sent off and four other players (two from each side) saw yellow.
Match Prediction:
Leicester were many pundits and neutral fans favourites for automatic promotion this season. The truth so far has been somewhat dismissive of that idea. In fact the Foxes are no better than the Clarets and both are joint 15th equal in the league with the same zero goal difference after five games. On paper should be a tight game and one in which Burnley are perfectly capable of sneaking. A draw though is more realistic and I will go with 2-2.
Next Match:
Once more on the road just three days later! The second of three successive away games, this time we are at Pride Park hoping to de-horn the Rams on Saturday 22nd September (Kick-Off 3pm)
