Leicester vs Arsenal Predictions & Betting Tips, Match Previews

Leicester City are starting to find the problems that come along with being Premier League champions. They lost one of their key players to Chelsea in the summer as N’Golo Kante moved on, although they have found a potentially very good replacement in Nampalys Mendy.

Pre-season saw them face a host of the world’s biggest teams as they played Celtic, PSG, and Barcelona in the International Champions Cup, with them beating Celtic on penalties but losing comprehensively to PSG and Barcelona. They then had the Community Shield match against FA Cup winners Manchester United to navigate, but the Jose Mourinho led side proved too strong at Wembley and earned a deserved 2-1 victory.

Leicester’s Premier League title defence began the following weekend when they visited the newly promoted and player-short Hull, but a goal from Adama Diomande on the stroke of half-time gave the Premier League newcomers a shock lead. Riyad Mahrez levelled things up just after the break, but Robert Snodgrass netted the winner to resign Leicester to their first league defeat since the middle of February.

That loss in February came against none other than Arsenal, who were the only side to do the double over the champions last season. However, Arsenal are having some problems of their own. A lack of transfer activity has once again frustrated the fans, and a host of injury problems has left them drastically short of defensive players.

This was evident last weekend when new signing Rob Holding and Callum Chambers partnered up in the centre of defence. It did not go well for them, with Liverpool scoring four goals at the Emirates in the space of 20 playing minutes to more than cancel out Theo Walcott’s opener. Arsenal did fight back through Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Callum Chambers, but they couldn’t find the equaliser and ended up taking nothing from the game.

It’s unclear whether Arsene Wenger is willing to recall Laurent Koscielny, Olivier Giroud, and Mesut Ozil from their extended break following Euro 2016, but what is clear is that they have real problems at the back. Callum Chambers and Rob Holding proved to be out of their depth partnering up in centre back positions, and Leicester’s pacey strikeforce of Ahmed Musa and Jamie Vardy could have a field day on Saturday. The trickery and passing ability of Riyad Mahrez isn’t likely to be dealt with easily from them either.

Considering Arsenal conceded four last weekend I think odds of 5/4 for Leicester Over 1.5 Team Goals are excellent value for money. But Arsenal have some attacking talent of their own to call upon, so I’m going for a 2-2 draw at 12/1 for my correct score prediction.