East meets the West Midlands at the King Power Stadium on Saturday as Leicester City take on Aston Villa in the Premier League.

The Foxes are winless in two games on their return to the top flight, although they did secure an impressive point against Tottenham Hotspur in the first gameweek of the 2024/25 campaign. Steve Cooper’s side were beaten at Fulham last weekend but head into Saturday’s game having thrashed EFL outfit Tranmere Rovers 4-0 in the second round of the Carabao Cup.

Villa’s upcoming Champions League exploits mean they haven’t been in League Cup action ahead of this fixture, but they were beaten at home on their previous outing. A profligate evening for Olle Watkins at Villa Park saw Unai Emery’s side succumb 2-0 to title hopefuls Arsenal last Saturday.

Villa had started the season with a hard-fought 2-1 away win at West Ham United.

Here’s 90min’s preview of Saturday’s Premier League fixture.

Leicester vs Aston Villa H2H Record (Last Five Games)

Current form (all competitions)

The Foxes have few injury concerns heading into Saturday’s game and their emphatic win in midweek may give Cooper something to think about in terms of team selection.

Summer arrivals Oliver Skipp and Jordan Ayew are both pushing for starts against Villa, as is Conor Coady at the heart of Leicester’s defence.

Patson Daka is likely to miss out again due to the ankle injury he picked up in pre-season, but Cooper does have veteran Jamie Vardy to call upon up top.

Leicester predicted lineup vs Aston Villa (4-2-3-1): Hermansen; Justin, Coady, Faes, Kristiansen; Winks, Ndidi; Fatawu, Buonanotte, Ayew; Vardy.

Matty Cash suffered an injury setback in the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal last weekend. The right-back, who was replaced by youngster Kosta Nedeljkovic, is set to be out until after the international break with a hamstring problem.

If Emery opts against using Nedeljkovic at the King Power, he could shift Ezri Konsa over to right-back and reintroduce Diego Carlos to his defence. Jhon Duran is also pushing for a start up top, but Morgan Rogers shone playing off Ollie Watkins last Saturday.

Boubacar Kamara and Tyrone Mings remain out for the visitors.

Aston Villa predicted lineup vs Leicester (4-2-2-2): Martinez; Konsa, Carlos, Pau, Digne; Onana, Tielemans; McGinn, Bailey; Rogers, Watkins.

Cooper’s Leicester are reactive and will wait for their moments on the counter-attack and from set-pieces. With Vardy leading the line, they simply don’t have the capacity to press effectively for a sustained period.

Thus, Villa are going to have much of Saturday’s game. Will they be able to manufacture more clear-cut chances compared to Tottenham two weeks ago? Spurs should have been out of sight while Villa’s errant finishing cost them against Arsenal. All Vardy needs is a sniff to make Villa pay if they’re wasteful this weekend.

How clinical they’ll be remains to be seen, but the visitors should dominate Saturday’s contest and undoubtedly work the better openings. Leicester could have joy against Villa’s high defensive line, but Emery’s side should win on the road again.

Prediction: Leicester 1-2 Aston Villa

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