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Full Record of Spurs -v- Leicester City

Premier       Pl  W  D  L   For- Ag Pts
Home          17  9  3  5   39 -28  30
Away          17  7  2  8   30 -31  23
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Total(Prem)   34 16  5 13   69 -59  53  1.56 Pts per game
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Football Lge
Home(Div 1)   29 13  6 10   64 -46  34
Away(Div 1)   29 16  4  9   53 -54  40
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Total(Div 1)  58 29 10 19  117 -100 74
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Football Lge
Home(Div 2)    7  3  3  1   12 - 7   9
Away(Div 2)    7  4  1  2   14 -13   9
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Total(Div 2)  14  7  4  3   26 -20  18
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Total(Prem)   34 16  5 13   69 -59  53
Total(Div 1)  58 29 10 19  117 -100 74
Total(Div 2)  14  7  4  3   26 -20  18
=======================================
Grand Total  106 52 19 35  212 -179 143
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Last Six League results:-

Leicester   -     LLWWWL

Millwall   1-0    Leicester
Plymouth   1-0    Leicester
Leicester  2-1    West Brom
Leicester  5-0    S'hampton
Preston    0-3    Leicester
Leicester  0-2    Blackburn

Spurs       -     LLLWLW
           
Spurs      2-3    Arsenal
Chelsea    2-0    Spurs
Liverpool  4-2    Spurs
Spurs      2-1    Burnley
Spurs      0-2    Man City
Sheff Utd  0-3    Spurs

Pos            P  W  D  L   F-A   GD  Pts
5. Spurs      38 20  6 12  74-61   13   66
1. Leicester  46 31  4 11  89-41   48   97 (Championship)

Ready? Set? Go!

Not that we've been starved of football since the end of last season, thanks to Euro 2024 and Spurs' six-match pre-season programme, but we do have to wait longer than most for the new season to start, as our opening game at Leicester was selected for SKY's Monday Night Football coverage.

Young players such as Lucas Bergvall, Archie Gray and Mikey Moore have excited us in their friendly match appearances, but we will all be looking forward to seeing record signing Dominic Solanke lead the line against "The Foxes". Dominic officially arrived last Saturday and was presented to the fans, but he too will be itching to play. He will surely start with Richarlison having had no pre-season due to his recovery from injury.

We can expect to see a first choice defence (Vicario, Pedro Porro, Romero, Van de Ven and Udogie), but we won't see Yves Bissouma as Spurs have made the decision to suspend him for this game after he put up a social media picture of him apparently inhaling nitrous oxide (laughing gas) from a balloon.

I assume the midfield three will be Pape Sarr, Bentancur and former Leicester star James Maddison, but Archie Gray and Bergvall do offer real competition in these positions. Kulusevski, Solanke and Son will surely be the front three. Maddison captained the Leicester side which beat Spurs 4-1 at The King Power Stadium the last time we played.

My thanks go to Jane Sparrow for this picture.

Our 4-1 defeat in the February 2023 away game was Leicester's first win against Spurs in five games. Their previous win over us by a three-goal margin was at Filbert Street in September, 1997. The 4-1 was Antonio Conte's biggest defeat as Spurs manager.

Meetings between the two sides have produced 76 goals since Leicester returned to the Premier League in 2014, the most of any fixture in the division over that time. That's an average of over 4 goals per game in 18 matches.

The previous time Leicester scored four goals against us was in the crazy 5-4 Spurs win at Wembley in May 2018.

Leicester lost 2-1 away to Crystal Palace on 1st April 2023 and the next day Brendan Rodgers left "by mutual consent". Leicester had dropped into the relegation zone. With 8 games to play, Leicester appointed the interim coaching team of Dean Smith, John Terry and Craig Shakespeare, after talks with former Leeds coach Jesse Marsch apparently fell through.

Until Everton scored in the 57th minute Leicester had hopes of last-day survival on 28th May 2023, but the 2015-6 champions and 2021 FA Cup winners returned to the Championship whence they came in 2014. Their fans were not such happy clappers. Soyuncu left for Atletico Madrid, and now plays for Jose Mourinho's Fenerbahce. Tielemans was signed by Aston Villa and James Maddison came to Spurs. It will be interesting to see what sort of reception he gets from his former fans.

When they were relegated in 2004, Leicester accompanied Leeds in their drop, as they did in 2023.

On August 1st this year Craig Shakespeare, died aged 60. Craig was a highly rated coach who was adored by players at every club he worked at and was best known for helping Claudio Ranieri turn Leicester City into shock Premier League champions in 2016. As caretaker, after Ranieri was sacked the following year, Shakespeare led "The Foxes" to the Champions League quarter-finals.

Craig Shakespeare's playing career (between 1982 and 1987) included a spell at West Bromwich Albion where he was managed by Ossie Ardiles in the 1992/3 season.

Leicester's immediate return to the Premier League was secured when promotion rivals Leeds lost their penultimate Championship game 4-0 at QPR on Friday 26th April, 2024. The following Monday, "The Foxes" secured The Championship title with a 3-0 win at Preston. 37-year-old Jamie Vardy scored twice and topped Leicester's scorechart with 18 league goals for the season.

Leicester had topped the table for 6 months but had to endure a tense run-in with Ipswich and Leeds closely contending the automatic promotion places. Leeds finished third but lost to Southampton in the play-off final.

Leicester boss Enzo Maresca was soon being linked to the vacant position at Chelsea. His release fee from Leicester was £10 million.

In June this year former Nottingham Forest and Swansea manager Steve Cooper signed a three-year deal at King Power Stadium.

Jamie Vardy signed new deal at Leicester City valid until June 2025, ready for Premier League return. Danish international defender Jannik Vestergaard has signed a new three-year contract.

Leicester signings include centre-back Caleb Okoli from Atalanta, Bobby De Cordova-Reid from Fulham, winger Abdul Fatawu from Sporting (Lisbon) and midfielder Facundo Buonanotte on loan from Brighton. Dennis Praet, Marc Albrighton and Kelechi Iheanacho all left Leicester City. Iheanacho has joined Sevilla.

A notable departure was midfielder Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall who joined former Leicester manager Enzo Maresca at Chelsea.

Leicester's feud with the Premier League over an alleged breach of financial controls is threatening to drag on into next year. Leicester are facing a possible points deduction after being charged with breaking Profitability and Sustainability Rules [PSR], but a verdict is likely to be months away.

Former Spur Harry Winks was a mainstay in midfield in Leicester's Championship campaign and will be relishing the chance to play against his old team.

This will be the seventh time we have taken on a newly-promoted side on the opening day of a Premier League season - no other side in the competition's history has done so on more occasions. The other times we have done so were in 1993/94 (Newcastle United), 2000/01 (Ipswich Town), 2007/08 (Sunderland), 2013/14 (Crystal Palace), 2017/18 (Newcastle United) and 2019/20 (Aston Villa).

We are currently on a run of eight opening games without a defeat - since August, 2015, when we lost 1-0 to Manchester United at Old Trafford. Kyle Walker scored an own goal. Nabil Bentaleb played in that game. Sadly, Nabil suffered a heart attack this summer and has been forced to retire from the game. He played for Lille last season and his last game was in June for Algeria.

This will be the 23rd time in 33 seasons (69 per cent) that we have started the campaign away from home.

My prediction is a 2-0 win for Spurs.

Chris Kavanagh refereed our last pre-season game and is in charge of Spurs for the 16th time. His last away game with Spurs was our 4-0 win at Villa Park in March!

Did you know? - Not one Premier League club is located in a Conservative constituency after this year's election. In fact the only Football League club which has a Tory MP is Bromley, newly promoted from the National League!

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