Leicester City vs Aston Villa Predictions

• Both teams have scored in both of Leicester’s Premier League games this season
• Both teams have scored in 10 of Aston Villa’s last 16 top-flight away matches
• Aston Villa beat all three newly-promoted clubs away from home last season
• Jhon Duran has scored four goals in his last 249 minutes of Premier League action

Foxes face an uphill task

Leicester face a difficult task when Aston Villa head to King Power Stadium on Saturday looking to regain the winning thread. Villa were left to rue missed chances following a 2-0 home loss to Arsenal last weekend, but their record against newly-promoted clubs is impressive.

Unai Emery’s side won five of their six matches against Burnley, Sheffield United and Luton last term, only slipping up in a wasteful 1-1 draw at home to the Blades.

The nine points they took on the road against these clubs was a marked improvement on the single point that they had claimed from the equivalent matches against Fulham, Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest the season before when Steven Gerrard was the manager.

Cooper can set up to frustrate Villa

Foxes boss Steve Cooper did get the better of Emery while in charge of Forest last season, engineering a 2-0 victory over Villa at The City Ground.  But he is still getting used to the squad at his disposal in Leicester and added a bright attacking option with the capture of Bilal El Khannouss this week.

He will probably begin on the bench this weekend with Cooper set to slightly tinker with the team that lost 2-1 at Fulham last Saturday. The coach switched from a 4-2-3-1 starting formation at home to Tottenham to a 3-4-2-1 system at Fulham and may be tempted to go back to a back four against Villa.

Emery has defined a clear way of playing since he arrived at Villa Park and they will once more defend with a high line and bait their opponents into pressing them when they have the ball. But Cooper is unlikely to let that happen and will set up to defend deep and hit on the counter-attack or directly with the long ball up to Jamie Vardy.

Duran able to deliver off the bench

It should make for an intriguing watch from a tactical perspective and both teams may concede opportunities until it becomes clear which approach wins out on the afternoon.

Backing both teams to score appeals in this scenario as Vardy’s ability to frighten defenders remains even as he approaches his 38th birthday. Leicester will have issues keeping Villa at bay if they can play through them, but there was enough evidence in the second half of their 1-1 draw with Tottenham that they will be no pushovers in the Premier League.

Villa may have to bide their time for spaces to open up and that could mean their bench players get better scoring opportunities than the starters. If that is the case, then it is worth backing Jhon Duran to grab a goal as the Colombian striker, who has been a substitute in both of Villa’s matches this season, has grabbed four goals in his last seven league appearances for Villa of which only two were starts.