Leicester vs Crystal Palace Prediction: Vardy strike to prove futile at the King Power

Leicester City thrashed Queens Park Rangers 6-2 in the FA Cup third round on Saturday but have lost their last five Premier League games ahead of Wednesday's King Power Stadium clash against Crystal Palace (19:30, TNT Sports 4), who are unbeaten in their last three league matches and edged past Stockport County 1-0 on Sunday.

Below is my Leicester vs Crystal Palace prediction, complete with all the latest team news.

Team News

Leicester are still without first-choice goalkeeper Mads Hermansen, defender Ricardo Pereira, midfielder Wilfred Ndidi and forward Abdul Fatawu, while Odsonne Edouard, a peripheral figure anyway, is ineligible under the terms of his loan agreement from Crystal Palace.

Jannik Verstergaard is also a doubt after limping off in the 2-1 defeat at Aston Villa on January 4 and missing Saturday's victory, but Kasey McAteer made his return from a four-game absence as a substitute against QPR.

Football Odds

Will Hughes has missed both of Palace's games in 2025 but head coach Oliver Glasner has confirmed the midfielder is back available for selection on Wednesday while Jean-Philippe Mateta, Maxence Lacroix and Tyrick Mitchell, all of whom were struggling with illness last week, have trained "without any problems".

Adam Wharton is still ruled out, however, while it's likely too soon for Matheus Franca to make his return from a long-term injury. Chadi Riad is back in contention again, though, after making his comeback in Sunday's FA Cup win.

Leicester vs Crystal Palace Odds

Leicester nearly won the reverse fixture at Selhurst Park in September, taking a two-goal lead and staying in front until the second minute of second-half added time when Mateta scored his second of the match to level it at 2-2. Still, the Foxes are 11/4, or a 26.7% chance, to triumph on Wednesday, which is probably fair considering they have lost five league games on the trot since Ruud Van Nistelrooy beat West Ham United 3-1 and drew 2-2 with Brighton in his first two in charge. The visitors, meanwhile, are 19/20 to streak 10 points clear of Leicester, giving the Eagles an implied win probability of 51.3%.

The draw, which landed last time out between these two as well as in the last head-to-head at the King Power in October 2022 (0-0), is priced at 11/4, and both teams to score, a winner in six of the last seven Premier League meetings, at 8/13.

Price Boosts - Crystal Palace to Win & Both Teams to Score @ 9/4 11/4

Palace have only won one of their last four Premier League games but two of those were respectable draws away to Bournemouth (0-0) and at home against Chelsea (1-1) while their only defeat in the last nine was at Selhurst Park against title hopefuls Arsenal (1-5). The Eagles have won three of their last seven and two of those victories were against sides lower than them in the table (0-1 v Ipswich Town and 2-1 v Southampton), which Leicester are.

The Foxes, meanwhile, have suffered five straight defeats in the competition and have only won one of their seven league games under Van Nistelrooy, who replaced Steve Cooper. They've faced some difficult fixtures post-Christmas, losing 3-1 at Liverpool and 2-1 at Aston Villa either side of a 2-0 home defeat to Manchester City, but they've also lost 3-0 at home to Wolves under the former Manchester United centre-forward.

Palace are proving difficult to beat in the last couple of months and Glasner will be targeting this fixture as one they can secure all three points in to create further distance between themselves and the relegation zone.

I'm confident the visitors can win this one but we can up the odds by also backing both teams to score which has been boosted from 9/4 to 11/4 by Betfred. 75 per cent (15) of Leicester's league games this season have seen both teams score including two of their last three while BTTS - Yes has landed in 60 per cent of Palace's matches and eight of their last 11, including their last two.

Price Boosts - Jamie Vardy (LEI) to Score at Anytime @ 2/1 5/2

Another Betfred Price Boost here, this time focusing entirely on one man - Leicester striker Jamie Vardy, who has struck six times in 18 Premier League appearances for the Foxes this season and ended a four-game wait for a goal in Saturday's big win over QPR.

The 38-year-old may not be at the peak of his powers anymore but he's still a hugely important figure for the Foxes, both on and off the pitch, and with Edouard out of favour and ineligible to play on Wednesday, and Daka out of form, the veteran centre-forward will surely lead the line against Palace at the King Power.

Vardy will be buoyed by his goalscoring record against the Eagles which stands at seven goals in 17 Premier League games and the most recent of those efforts came in September's reverse fixture as he opened the scoring at Selhurst Park.

I am, of course, backing the visitors to triumph in the East Midlands, but both teams to score is included in my first tip and that's because I fancy Vardy to trouble the Palace backline again and at least make things competitive between the two teams.

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