Leicester to bounce back to winning ways against Baggies

Premier League
Sky Sports Premier League/Main Event, 8pm Monday

It has been a long time since Leicester beat West Brom at home but they can kick-start their season with a victory over Albion at the King Power Stadium.

Iwan Roberts notched twice the last time Leicester downed the Baggies in January 1994, although talk of a bogey team is taking it too far seeing as the Foxes have won on each of their last three visits to the Hawthorns, scoring seven goals in the process.

Jamie Vardy has bagged in all of those triumphs and the England man could be having another party with this a decent opportunity for Leicester to jump out of the relegation zone.

The bottom half of the table is congested and Leicester always looked vulnerable to making a slow start after being handed a difficult early set of fixtures which has already seen them head to Arsenal and Manchester United and host Liverpool and Chelsea.

Their five points have come in draws at Huddersfield and Bournemouth with the victory arriving in their only true winnable home contest, a 2-0 success against Brighton.

This is another chance for maximum points and Leicester have generally competed well in the difficult games with their worst performances coming in the away draws at Huddersfield and Bournemouth.

Vardy missed a penalty in a 3-2 defeat to Liverpool, they pushed Chelsea in a 2-1 loss and conceded a couple of late goals in the dramatic 4-3 reverse at Arsenal, while it took United 70 minutes to find a way past Kasper Schmeichel at Old Trafford.

Craig Shakespeare, however, could do with a win and the combination of Vardy and Riyad Mahrez can get the Foxes over the line. Leicester have scored three more goals than Albion despite collecting four points fewer.

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Visiting manager Tony Pulis has always prioritised points over performances, although the early consecutive 1-0 wins over Bournemouth and Burnley have been followed by five games without a victory in the Premier League.

Albion had 29 per cent possession against the Cherries and one shot on target at Turf Moor so perhaps the downturn is to be expected.

There was no shame in being knocked out of the League Cup by Manchester City or the league loss at Arsenal but the turgid display in a 0-0 stalemate at home to West Ham and 3-1 loss at Brighton are more concerning.

West Brom have some classy players such as Jonny Evans and Grzegorz Krychowiak, although they are defensive players and Albion are uncomfortable if they are ever dragged into chasing a game.

Recommendation
Leicester
1pt 21-20 BetBright

Bet on this game at Soccerbase.com

Team news
Leicester
Jamie Vardy, Wilfred Ndidi and Ben Chilwell have recovered from injury. Matty James and Rob Huth are ruled out.

West Brom
Tony Pulis has doubts over Nacer Chadli, James Morrison and Hal Robson-Kanu.

Key stat
There has not been a 0-0 draw between the teams since 1970, a run of 45 matches.

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