We bid farewell to a truncated Gameweek 30 as Leicester City and Newcastle collide at the King Power Stadium. The Foxes haven’t been bested on home soil since a 5-2 defeat to Arsenal in Gameeweek 7, so they’ll fancy their chances of overturning a Newcastle United outfit that have lost five of their last six – despite the x-factor that is the arrival of new boss Rafa Benitez.
Leicester posted middling attacking stats over the last four Gameweeks, recording five goals and the seventh-most attempts (56). That being said, the Foxes haven’t needed a multitude of attempts to be effective this term, as evidenced by the fact they chart top for goal conversion rate (13.4%). Notwithstanding Leicester’s recent success at the back, they’ve conceded the fourth-most shots inside the box (38) since Gameweek 26, offering Benitez a glimmer of hope in his first match in charge of the Magpies.
Newcastle didn’t perform that much better than last-placed Villa across the previous four Gameweeks, ranking joint-bottom for goals (two), second-bottom for both attempts (29) and shots inside the box (17) and joint-second-bottom for shots on target (nine). Compounding their dearth of quality up top, the Tynesiders also surrendered the joint-second-most goals (nine) during that stretch, heightening the prospects of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez as the Foxes look to consolidate their spot at the summit.
