Key events
Some pre-game thoughts from Daniel Farke: “Everyone’s looking forward to this game, between two teams in a good position in the table. We always try to play from the front, not park the bus. We will have to defend, dig in and suffer at times – we’re prepared for this.”
With last season’s promoted trio currently all in the Premier League relegation zone – and Leeds, Leicester and Southampton in the Championship’s top four – Jonathan Wilson asks if the gulf between the top flight and second tier is growing.
Today’s Football Daily features a big Premier League preview, FA Cup anger and Mamadou Sakho’s hunger for respect.
Leeds make just one change from the team that thrashed Huddersfield 4-1, with Archie Gray replacing the injured Jamie Shackleton at right-back. Joe Rodon is fit to start at centre-back.
Two changes in the Leicester defence, with Wout Faes replacing Conor Coady in the middle and Ricardo Pereira in for Hamza Choudhury at right-back.
Team news
Leicester (4-3-3): Hermansen; Ricardo Pereira, Faes, Vestergaard, Justin; Casadei, Winks, Dewsbury-Hall; Fatawu, Vardy, Mavididi.
Subs: Coady, Albrighton, Iheanacho, Souttar, Choudhury, Daka, McAteer, Marcal-Madivadua, Stolarczyk.
Leeds (4-2-3-1): Meslier; Gray, Rodon, Struijk, Byram; Kamara, Ampadu; James, Piroe, Summerville; Rutter.
Subs: Ayling, Firpo, Cooper, Bamford, Anthony, Poveda-Ocampo, Darlow, Gnonto, Gruev.
Referee: Dean Whitestone (Northamptonshire)
The teams have landed …
Preamble
This was a Premier League fixture last season and might well be again next term, judging by both of these exiled sides’ starts to life back in the second tier. Leicester went down through sheer apathy, but have rediscovered their groove in some style. Enzo Maresca’s league leaders have more points from 14 games (39) than they managed all last season (34) – and even before Bonfire Night, an immediate return to the top flight is starting to look a certainty.
Things have been less straightforward for Leeds, with early inconsistency to be expected after their squad was picked apart in the summer. A recent upturn in results sees them kick off tonight in third place, albeit 14 points behind the Foxes and nine adrift of second-placed Ipswich. In Daniel Farke, they have a manager who knows how to get out of this division – and a win here will put them firmly in the race for automatic promotion.
To varying degrees, both clubs are also enjoying some welcome stability after a turbulent 12 months. When the sides met here last October, Brendan Rodgers and Jesse Marsch were the respective managers; at Elland Road in April, it was Dean Smith and Javi Gracía. Both clubs now appear to have the right men in the dugout for what should be a less stressful, more entertaining contest tonight.
