Leicester City vs Arsenal 2015/16 PL (Preview/Live Thread)

[urbaNRoots]

vs

Saturday 26 September 2015 | King Power Stadium | Kick-off 16:00 CET

Leicester City vs Arsenal 2015/16 PL (Preview/Live Thread)


Will Alexis Sanchez ever score again?

Team news:
Arsenal: Wilshere, Welbeck, Rosicky and Coquelin all unavailable for selection while Gabriel could be out if the FA ban him today. Cazorla is available for selection again.

Leicester: Dyer and James are out with injuries.

"We must play the perfect game"

Leicester have been one of the surprises of the season so far and, as the only unbeaten side in the division, sit fourth in the Barclays Premier League table with 12 points from six matches, two points clear of fifth-placed Arsenal.

And the Leicester manager is hopeful Leicester can spring a surprise if they are at their best.

"We are only thinking about Arsenal. We are ready, but they are a smart and fast team. They will fight for the title," Ranieri said. "To beat Arsenal we must play the perfect match. They don't have weaknesses, but even if they did, I wouldn't tell you."

The Italian coach can count on Riyad Mahrez and the Algeria international will be his side's man to watch at the weekend. The 24-year-old has had a hand in eight goals in the BPL this season; more than any other player.

That does not mean however that Leicester have been untouchable this season. Defensively they have been poor and Ranieri is still not sure of his best back four in defence. De Laet especially has been poor and could face another difficult game should Arsene Wenger opt for Oxlade-Chamberlain to start as a left winger.

Arsenal, meanwhile, will be keen to build on their 2-1 League Cup win over Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday and put last week's defeat at the hands of Chelsea behind them.

The Gunners are currently trailing leaders Manchester City by five points and can ill afford to drop further points against Leicester if they are to stay on the tail of Manuel Pellegrini's side.

Arsenal will be boosted by the return of Santi Cazorla, who missed the win over Spurs due to suspension, as the Spaniard has created the most goalscoring chances (23) as well as completed the most passes (471) in the top flight this season.

A view from the other side:

This will be our first clean sheet of the season.

Coquelin is a big miss for them.

Hoping for a Sunderland style race out of the blocks and an early goal. If so, then 2-1 CITY

I'm going for 2-1 to the mighty foxes

So CR has only won one game in 14 against Wenger in the past .... That's a nailed on win for us then !!!

Headline ..... "Randier overcomes Wenger Jinx !"

A draw would be a great result here, think this may be the end of our streak however

Do we start high tempo press against a side that lives to counter? I suggest this is going to be similar to the Spurs game. The manager showing his pragmatic Italian side . 4-4-1-1 is as attacking as we'll get. could even be 4-5-1. Don't expect us to go at them gung ho early on. mind you, we are used to giving sides a two goal start

http://www.foxestalk.co.uk

[Sri]

LEI fans feeling more optimistic than me

Good preview as always btw, top job!

[El Gunner]

FFS that optimism around Leicester
I wonder if they know about all the smaller clubs that have started well in then started fading away in previous seasons.

FFS I think these lot need a reality check.

[Sri]

inB4theyhumbleus

[Raptorgunner]

Good Work Urban.

You know Leiccster will be our toughest opponent this season, they are the come back kings.

Even at 3-0 we wont be safe.

[Raptorgunner]

I am worried about Sanchez, really need him to score a goal or two this weekend. Imo, his game is becoming predictable, and needs to change his ways.

We have to start shooting from outside penalty area, its like we never train on our shooting. We must take more unexpected shots, sick of passing side ways. Look at flamini goal, no other Arsenal player would have taken that shot, would have tried to walked in.

[Raptorgunner]

[Jay29]

This is one of those games where the danger of getting caught on the counter is at its highest. Mahrez and Vardy have been very threatening on the counter this season with their strong running.

Leicester fans are right to feel confident but they've plenty of flaws we can and should exploit. Villa and Stoke should have beaten them. They give up a high number of chances and if we play as well as can do then we should be able to make plenty. And with any luck Wenger won't have any crazy ideas about pairing Cazorla and Ramsey together in central midfield.

Predicted line-up:

Cech; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Arteta, Cazorla; Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis; Walcott

[RealGunner]

They are probably the most confident team in the PL atm

We need to put them down.

Should be a good match though. But it will be in our favour because if Leicester attack, we can Theo them. Expecting a big performance from Sanchez.


Also, realllllyyyy hope Flamini starts instead of Arteta. He deserves it. But Jay was right about the captain issue.

But Mertesacker>>>>

[Sina]

Theo should force their defence to errors
hopefully Ramsey central either Arteta or Flam next to cazorla is no go and can be over run

i hope Arteta starts rather than Flamini!
hope we will have the abilty to slow things down when needed ideally after leading [going by trends of Leicester in 2nd half of their matches]

[VendettaRed07]

Were going to have to play better than any other game we have played so far this season in order to win it. They aren't going to let us dominate the ball for 80% of the game and scrape by a 1-0 win.

Start Walcott. Let them take their chances. Work on the counter.

Also start Flamini and Coq in the pivot. Bench Cazorla.

[Lucifer]

If Sanchez doesn't perform its going to be a long evening for Wenger and co.

[El Gunner]

Spoiler:

Injured

[urbaNRoots]

Wenger will surprise us all and start Ramsey-Cazorla in midfield.

Cech; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Ramsey, Cazorla; Alexis, Özil, Chamberlain; Walcott

Very attacking but then if we score first it'll be a lot easier for us to keep the lead and add more goals on the counter.

[Jay29]

Team:

Cech; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Flamini, Cazorla; Ramsey, Ozil, Alexis; Walcott

Bench: Ospina, Chambers, Debuchy, Gibbs, Arteta, Chamberlain, Giroud

Leicester:

Schmeichel; De Laet, Huth, Morgan, Schlupp; Mahrez, Drinkwater, Kante, Albrighton; Vardy, Okazaki

[RealGunner]

Flamini-Cazorla....

....

......
......

[Rev]

Dat back-four tho :fap:

[VendettaRed07]

Of course

[VendettaRed07]

THEEOOOOOOO

I thought for sure that was going to hit to post

[Rev]

Flamini injured
Arteta on
dis gon be fun

[Sri]

Flamini injured
Arteta on
dis gon be fun

fackng stream - missed that.. was wondering wth happen

[Rev]

http://ifirstrow.eu/watch/374002/2/watch-leicester-city-vs-arsenal.html

this works for me Sri

[VendettaRed07]

SANCHEZ!

He needed that goal desperately. Hopefully he gets back in form soon

[getdarker]

Great play . Great running from theo for both goals.

[Twoism]

Entertaining half, we're playing with cool head

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