Since this article was published, this game has been called off due to COVID-19 cases in the Burnley squad. A new date for the game will be confirmed in due course.
Having now lost one of their chief goal threats, relegation-threatened Burnley play host to a depleted Leicester City side at Turf Moor on Saturday afternoon.
The two sides suffered differing fortunes in the FA Cup last time out, with the Clarets bowing out to Huddersfield Town while Brendan Rodgers's side comfortably saw off Watford.
Match preview
© Reuters
In what can only be described as an astute piece of January business by Newcastle United, the Magpies strengthened their bid for survival and simultaneously weakened a relegation rival by securing the signature of Burnley's top Premier League goalscorer Chris Wood.
The New Zealand international was only one strike away from hitting 50 Premier League goals for the Clarets, but he will now attempt to salvage Newcastle's top-flight status, and a coronavirus-hit Burnley could have done with his goals against Huddersfield.
Jay Rodriguez opened the scoring against the Terriers before Wood went off with a groin issue, and Huddersfield came back in the second half to dump the Clarets out of the cup courtesy of Josh Koroma and Matty Pearson's efforts.
Sean Dyche can at least now solely focus on his side's relegation dogfight, with the Huddersfield loss representing Burnley's eighth game on the bounce without a win and their third successive defeat, with three losses from four in the Premier League seeing them remain 18th in the rankings - two points behind Watford with a game in hand.
Burnley surely could not have let their top Premier League goalscorer head to a direct rival without a replacement lined up, so it will be interesting to see what incomings arrive at Turf Moor this month, and they have at least strung together a four-game unbeaten run at home in the league before a depleted Leicester pay a visit.
© Reuters
With the Foxes dealing with a plethora of absentees through injuries, coronavirus and the Africa Cup of Nations, their proposed Premier League encounter with Everton on Tuesday - which had already been postponed once - was again rescheduled for a later date.
Despite barely being able to scrape 11 first-team players together for the visit of Watford in the FA Cup, Brendan Rodgers's men still saw off the Hornets with ease, as Marc Albrighton, Youri Tielemans, Harvey Barnes and James Maddison all netted against former manager Claudio Ranieri.
With the hope that at least some players with niggling injuries will be able to shake them off in time for Saturday's game, there is currently no reason to suggest that the encounter will not be played as Leicester aim to improve their mid-table standing and lead another charge into Europe.
A paltry tally of three wins from their last nine in the top flight has left Leicester down in 10th - six points adrift of seventh-placed Manchester United having played one game fewer - but a run of four games without a win away from home in the Premier League will concern Rodgers somewhat.
However, not since February 2021 have Leicester failed to find the back of the net in the top flight away from home, although they were held to a 1-1 draw at Turf Moor last term before a 2-2 stalemate at the King Power back in September.
- D
- D
- L
- D
- L
- L
- D
- L
- D
- L
- L
- L
- W
- D
- L
- W
- L
- W
- L
- W
- L
- L
- W
- W
Team News
© Reuters
Burnley suffered their own COVID-19 outbreak before the defeat to Huddersfield, with Nathan Collins, Dwight McNeil, Charlie Taylor, Erik Pieters and Matej Vydra - alongside manager Dyche - all reported to have tested positive.
Maxwel Cornet remains away at the Africa Cup of Nations, and Ashley Barnes is also a few weeks away from a return, but the hosts will be hopeful of having Johann Berg Gudmundsson back in the fold.
Should Gudmundsson indeed be fit to return, Dyche may elect to start Aaron Lennon further forward alongside Rodriguez as he works around a selection dilemma in the final third.
As for Leicester, Rodgers will once again have to make do without AFCON quartet Wilfred Ndidi, Nampalys Mendy, Kelechi Iheanacho and Daniel Amartey.
The Foxes' current injury concerns include Ryan Bertrand, Timothy Castagne, Jonny Evans, Jamie Vardy, Ricardo Pereira and Wesley Fofana, but there is hope over James Justin, Patson Daka, Caglar Soyuncu, Luke Thomas and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall.
Boubakary Soumare will also miss out again, but Vontae Daley-Campbell's services are unlikely to be required at left-back as Thomas makes a timely return to the XI.
Burnley possible starting lineup:
Pope; Bardsley, Tarkowski, Mee, Lowton; Gudmundsson, Cork, Westwood, Brownhill; Lennon, Rodriguez
Leicester City possible starting lineup:
Schmeichel; Albrighton, Soyuncu, Vestergaard, Thomas; Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall; Lookman, Maddison, Barnes; Daka
We say: Burnley 0-2 Leicester City
With Leicester hoping to be boosted by several major returns from injury, a Burnley side lacking a proper presence up top will surely fall short again once more.
The Clarets have their own COVID-19 cluster to worry about, and confidence will not exactly be high after bowing out of the FA Cup to lower-league opposition, so a win and clean sheet should be on the menu for Leicester.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Leicester City win with a probability of 45.99%. A win for Burnley had a probability of 29.21% and a draw had a probability of 24.8%.
The most likely scoreline for a Leicester City win was 0-1 with a probability of 9.66%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (9.28%) and 0-2 (7.66%). The likeliest Burnley win was 1-0 (7.39%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (11.71%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 7.7% likelihood. Our team at Sports Mole correctly predicted a 0-2 win for Leicester City in this match and our data analysis correctly predicted the win for Leicester City.
