Preston vs Leicester Prediction: Foxes have the quality to be besting Preston

Preston North End welcome Premier League champions-turned-yo-yo-club Leicester City to Deepdale on Saturday, August 16 (15:00). In an interesting parallel, Leicester’s historic 2015/16 season was also Preston’s first back in the Championship after four years in League 1. 

This past decade has seen the Foxes win the Premier League, the FA Cup, the Community Shield, reach a Champions League quarter-final and a Conference League semi, while also getting relegated twice. In that same period, Preston have remained a Championship club and until last season’s dicey 20th place, they had never gone higher than 7th or lower than 14th.

What will happen when stability meets chaos on Saturday? Read on for my Preston vs Leicester predictions.

Team News

Danish midfielder Mads Frokjaer-Jensen misses out with a groin injury he picked up midweek in the EFL Cup. The club are hopeful to have him back up and running for Ipswich Town next weekend. 

Ex-Manchester United pair Robbie Brady and Will Keane were sidelined for the season’s opening day trip to Queens Park Rangers and will not return here. They share shelf space with Brad Potts, Daniel Jebbison and Jordan Thompson.

Football Odds

James Justin may have played his last game for Leicester, with Leeds United reportedly in advanced talks with the one-cap England defender. The 27-year-old has spent the bulk of his career at the King Power, moving from Luton Town in 2019.

Justin’s potential absence complicates matters at full back, with Ricardo Pereira and Victor Kristiansen on the injured list. The defensive woes are exacerbated by Harry Souttar’s long-term absence with an Achilles tear that ended his season last winter. Bobby De Cordova-Reid is also set to miss out.

Match Result - Leicester City to win @ 21/20

Playing this one with a fairly straight bat, but it makes sense this early in the season when patterns have not yet been established. An expensively-assembled relegated Premier League side should, by all logic, have too much for a Preston team who kept hold of their Championship status by a single point.

It has been a monumentally quiet summer for the Foxes, with Asmir Begovic the only acquisition on a free transfer. The ex-Chelsea and Stoke stopper arrives after Mads Hermansen’s sale to West Ham and the free transfer departures of Daniel Iversen and Danny Ward. Intriguingly, Iversen will be on the opposing side on Saturday after signing for Preston.

Some post-Prem blood-letting was inevitable. Club legend Jamie Vardy, 300-appearance mainstay Wilfred Ndidi and England defender Conor Coady took plenty of experience out of the door with them. But there is still some real quality in this side.

Ex-Crystal Palace forward Jordan Ayew is 33 years old but still a capable attacking threat. Winger Stephy Mavididi bagged 12 goals in his last Championship season two years ago and shone at times in a difficult Premier League campaign for the club. Oliver Skipp is a tidy and composed midfielder with plenty of experience of the top two divisions. At 24, he remains young and ambitious enough to help lead a Foxes fightback to the top flight.

This is without mentioning the inconsistent but direct Patson Daka, Belgium international Wout Faes or veteran defender Jannik Vestergaard. It is a deep squad more than capable of picking up the away win.

Stephy Mavididi anytime goalscorer @ 11/5

Predicting where Leicester’s goals are going to come from has been tough this season. Not because they have struggled to score them. The Foxes have netted two apiece in their Championship opener and EFL Cup first round tie. 

But of the four separate goalscorers in those two matches, not one of them was a forward. Defenders Vestergaard and Faes took the responsibility in last weekend’s 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday. It was the turn of the central midfielders in midweek, with Harry Winks and Hamza Choudhury hitting the onion bag in a 2-2 draw with Huddersfield Town that Leicester won on penalties.

I am going to lean on the front line to do what it’s there for this time. But I have avoided backing a centre forward. Daka and Ayew are competing for that role. Persistent rumours of a new signing up-front hint that manager Marti Cifuentes is yet to make his mind up on a first-choice.

So I have gone to a man who got 12 goals in his last Championship season. Mavididi will have learned a lot in his maiden Premier League season. Look for the Derby-born winger to make an impact on Saturday.

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