Leicester City vs Watford

Former Leicester City idol Claudio Ranieri returns home as Watford arrive at the King Power Stadium for an exciting Premier League showdown.

After racking up back-to-back Premier League wins in late October, the hosts have gone winless in their subsequent three league outings (D1, L2), conceding the opener within 30 minutes of play on each occasion. Since a narrow 1-0 win over Wolverhampton in their opening Premier League home fixture, Leicester have won just one of their last five top-flight games at the King Power Stadium (D1, L3), failing to find the net in all three defeats in that period. By contrast, the ‘Foxes’ have only lost one of their last 12 league meetings with Watford at home (W9, D2), falling to a 2-1 reverse in April 2013 in the Championship. Since then, they’ve won five consecutive league H2Hs on home turf by an aggregate score of 11-1.

In the meantime, Watford put Manchester United to the sword last weekend, securing an overwhelming 4-1 home victory to snap a two-game losing streak in the Premier League. Interestingly, just one of Watford’s 12 top-flight matches this season has ended as a draw (W4, L7), with 63.64% of the games won/lost in that sequence seeing the winner on the day keep a clean sheet. The ‘Hornets’ have alternated between winning and losing across their last five Premier League away fixtures (W2, L3). While each of their three defeats in that five-game run yielded the identical 1-0 scoreline, both victories produced a margin of 2+ goals. Worryingly, though, only Norwich City (1) have opened the scoring in fewer Premier League matches than Watford (3) this season, which seems to be turning into a pattern.