LEICESTER PREVIEW: NEWCASTLE (A)

Leicester City travel up to the North East to face Newcastle United at St. James’s Park on Saturday afternoon as they look to continue where they left off last weekend at the King Power.

A convincing 3-1 win over Huddersfield moved Claude Puel’s side into the top half of the Premier League table while their opponents on Saturday currently sit in the relegation zone.

TEAM NEWS:

Foxes winger Demarai Gray will miss out after spraining his ankle in the Carabao Cup on Tuesday. Puel confirmed that the England U21 international will be out for “between 3 and 6 weeks”.

Captain Wes Morgan is available after serving his suspension for the red card that he picked up during Leicester’s defeat at Bournemouth.

PUEL'S COMMENTS:

Despite Newcastle’s poor start to the season, Claude Puel praised their defensive efforts; “They’re strong together with good pressing and it’s difficult to play against them."

After conceding early against Huddersfield last week, Puel also said that he wanted his side to improve how they start games; “We’re giving ourselves a mountain to climb from behind.”

The Frenchman has taken two trips to St. James’s Park during his career in England and has respect for the stature of the ground and the noise of the fans; “It’s a fantastic stadium with 55,000 fans behind their team, it’s a big atmosphere and it’s always tough”.

BETTING ODDS/PREDICTION:

Leicester’s Jamie Vardy is at short odds of 7/4 to score at any time while James Maddison is at 8/1 to be the first goal scorer.

Newcastle are yet to win a game this season and have lost each of their three home games so I expect a similar outcome with Leicester coming away with a point at least.