Leicester City vs Birmingham Predictions

• Birmingham are unbeaten in their last 16 league games
• The last five Championship clashes between these sides have gone over 2.5 goals
• Five of Birmingham’s last seven away league games resulted in 2-1 wins

Big-spending Blues to take another step forward

Two divisions separated Leicester and Birmingham last season but it is the reigning League One champions that have made the more convincing start to life in the Championship and are considered by bookmakers the more likely of the pair to challenge for the title.

Having stormed to last season’s League One title with a record-breaking 111 points, Birmingham have taken that form with them into the Championship, taking seven points from three games with wins over Blackburn and Oxford following on from a 1-1 draw with Ipswich.

The Blues’ wealthy owners means that they have been able to splash the cash in England’s second tier and they should be fancying their chances at the King Power Stadium with Leicester having been heavily weakened following last season’s Premier League relegation.

The Foxes have seen a number of influential performers depart – hottest asset Bilal El Khannouss is another reportedly set to leave – and various financial issues have contributed to their summer inactivity.

Weakened Foxes still have plenty to prove

Given the circumstances, six points from three games can be considered early-season success, but that doesn’t tell the full story for Marti Cifuentes’s men.

Leicester were forced to come from a goal down to defeat crisis club Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 at home in their Championship opener before they registered only two shots on target in a defeat by the same scoreline at Preston.

The Foxes did respond with last weekend’s 1-0 win at Charlton but they lost the count 20-6 and that was a very smash-and-grab success.

The Addicks finished 26 points behind Birmingham in League One last season so this promises to be another tough test for Leicester and they may fail to manage the challenge.

Correct-score punters can side with a 2-1 victory for Birmingham, who won by that scoreline in four of their final six away games in League One last term and also prevailed by that margin in their opening Championship road trip at Blackburn.