Consent Preferences Spurs Odyssey Premier League match preview - Spurs v Leicester, 10.02.19
Spurs Odyssey Banner

Over 25 years of archives at Spurs Odyssey

Main Page
News and views from Paul Smith, and links to the interactive features of the Spurs Odyssey Site. [more..]
Features
Articles, reports, views, opinions, comments and other features all related to Spurs. [more..]
News

Harry Hotspur's Tribute Pages to the late great Bill Nicholson

A Commemorative plate that was issued to celebrate the Spurs Double Season

Match Reports
Thanks for visiting Spurs Odyssey!

Spurs Odyssey Preview - Spurs v Leicester, 10.02.19

· Last season's game - Spurs 5 Leicester 4 - 15.05.18
· This season's away game - Leicester 0 Spurs 2, 08.12.18
· This week - last year
· What happened in the Premier League on Matchday 26 2017-18

· See the current injury list for all Premier League Teams
· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats


Full Record of Spurs -v- Leicester City

Premier       Pl  W  D  L   For- Ag Pts
Home          12  5  3  4   24 -22  18
Away          13  5  2  6   21 -21  17
======================================
Total(Prem)   25 10  5 10   45 -43  35
======================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 1)   29 13  6 10   64 -46  34
Away(Div 1)   29 16  4  9   53 -54  40
======================================
Total(Div 1)  58 29 10 19  117 -100 74
======================================
Football Lge
Home(Div 2)    7  3  3  1   12 - 7   9
Away(Div 2)    7  4  1  2   14 -13   9
======================================
Total(Div 2)  14  7  4  3   26 -20  18
======================================
Total(Prem)   25 10  5 10   45 -43  35
Total(Div 1)  58 29 10 19  117 -100 74
Total(Div 2)  14  7  4  3   26 -20  18
=======================================
Grand Total   97 46 19 32  188 -163 125
=======================================

Last Six Premier League results:-

Spurs      -    LWLWWW
           
Spurs      1-3    Wolves
Cardiff    0-3    Spurs
Spurs      0-1    Man Utd
Fulham     1-2    Spurs
Spurs      2-1    Watford
Spurs      1-0    Newcastle

Leicester  -    LWLLDL

Leicester  0-1    Cardiff
Everton    0-1    Leicester
Leicester  1-2    S'hampton
Wolves     4-3    Leicester
Liverpool  1-1    Leicester
Leicester  0-1    Man Utd

Pos            P  W  D  L   F-A   GD  Pts
 3. Spurs     25 19  0  6  51-24  27   57
11. Leicester 25  9  5 11  30-31  -1   32

The gulf in class.

Who can forget last year's end of season high scoring game of crazy football against Leicester? Spurs needed to match Liverpool's result (they beat Brighton 4-0) to keep third place, but we were already assured Champions League Football for this season. We ran out 5-4 winners, but had to come back from 3-1 down, taking a 4-3 lead before Jamie Vardy made it 4-4 with his second goal of the game. Harry Kane matched Vardy and secured an entertaining win.

Leicester fans might sing "Champions of England, you'll never sing that" (forgetting Spurs past achievements pre-Premier League, of course), and who knows yet what might happen this season, but we can confidently sing "Champions League Football, never again" to the visiting fans.

After 25 games three years ago when Claudio Ranieri's "Foxes" did astound the football world with their title win, they were just five points ahead of Spurs, who remained mathematically in the race until the last three games of the season. Three years later, Claude Puel's Leicester are a team whose best realistic objective is to scrape into the Europa League, provided teams above them win a cup or two. Now they sit in 11th place, 25 points behind Spurs, whose class over the East Midlands side has been proved by their three consecutive Champions League campaigns, likely to become a fourth this year.

Spurs' average position including their current placing over the last 10 seasons is 3.8. Leicester's is 17th - calculated on the basis they were in the Championship between 2009 and 2014. Enough said!

We thought when we played Leicester last May that it would be our last league game at Wembley. Yet, here we are 9 months later, still at our temporary home. This week, the club confirmed that the Arsenal game on 2nd March will be played at Wembley. Realistically, it could be April now before we move into our new stadium.

Our league record in the circumstances is simply astounding. Every game is "away", and when we are away in the true sense, we have won 11 of our 13 games. One of those was our 2-0 win on a Saturday night (7.45pm) kick off at Leicester on 8th December, thanks to stunning goals by Son Heung-min and Dele Alli. Spurs were again fighting for third place, and succeeded in that quest. The following Tuesday we had to play what turned out to be a historic Champions League game at Barcelona, and Pochettino held Kane and Eriksen on the bench until late in the game.

Pochettino said in December that the Premier League had not been helpful with such a late Saturday night fixture, and yet here we are again, having to play on Sunday, before another crucial Champions League game next Wednesday night. At least we will be at "home" again.

I wrote before last May's game about Claude Puel's job being at risk, and he really seems to go from week to week with his position on the line. The situation is no different at present, after the "Foxes"' ignominious exit from the FA Cup at Newport (who play Man City in next week's fifth round). Leicester have not won any game since New Year's Day, which was a 1-0 win at Goodison Park. Spurs had beaten the "Toffees" 6-2 away just over a week previously. There's another demonstration of the gulf between the two teams.

To their credit, Leicester have given both Liverpool and Man Utd tough games in the last two weeks, and I do expect a tough game on Sunday. Pochettino has to balance his resources (limited) and team selection with a view to the forthcoming Champions League game.

Spurs' official team news discloses that both Harry Kane and Dele Ali have "commenced on-field rehabilitation". There have been rumours that Harry might yet make the Dortmund game, but we will have to see. Ben Davies is continuing rehabilitation, and Eric Dier will miss this game with a virus. Vincent Janssen got a mention to the effect that he is unavailable with a knee injury. Leicester will be without midfielder Marc Albrighton, who has appeared in 22 Premier League games this season. Albrighton has a hamstring injury. Daniel Amartey has been out since November with a broken ankle and is not expected to return for a month yet. Maddison and Vardy remain Leicester's danger men.

I think this will be a close game, and that Spurs will win 2-1. Please note that due to family commitments, the website will not be updated before Monday.

We've only seen match referee Michael Oliver in the middle for two of our games so far this season. Those were the home defeat by Liverpool and the Carabao Cup home win against Chelsea. The only official who has been in charge of Spurs more times than Mr Oliver in the last 8 years is Mike Dean. Mr. Oliver has the highest average grade of any of our long term referees, but has been criticised heavily by voters in recent games.

· "It was Twenty Years ago today!" - On 6th February 1998, we drew 0-0 at home to Coventry. It was our fourth goalless draw in 7 games. The manager was George Graham.

Top of page | Index to 2018-19 Match Reports

Last season's match
Read the full report of the corresponding fixture from last season here
Statistics
Fixtures, appearances, current league table, form guide, reserves fixtures, and Spurs Honours. [more..]
Archives
Find match reports, appearances, goalscorers and features from previous seasons. [more..]
Pick of the Week
Selected Spurs related sites are highlighted in this section. [more..]
Links
View a comprehensive list of links to other Spurs related sites. (With a few extras) [more..]
About this site
· Overview
· History
· Contributors
Contacts
Site Owner
· Paul Smith

We use cookies to personalise content and ads, to provide social media features and to analyse our traffic. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Full details van be found via the Spurs Odyssey Privacy Policy