Manchester City has been leading the league, however, failed to perform in recent matches, which saw them falling down to the 2nd place with 2 defeats in the last 3 games played. Now they will travel to Leicester, where they will play against a team which they defeated on 18th of December in the EFL.
Leicester are currently sitting at 9th place in the league with an overall record of 7-4-7 and 25 points. In their last 5 games, they have won 2, drew 1 and lost 2. Most recently, Leicester managed to win against Chelsea which was an impressive result after losing 2 consecutive matches against Tottenham (0:2) and Crystal Palace (1:0). In the match against Chelsea, Leicester held the ball for only 28% of the time, had 8 goal attempts and 2 shots on goal. On the other side, Chelsea had 72% ball possession, 17 goal attempts and 5 shots on goal. Despite Chelsea dominance, it was Leicester who scored the only goal of the match in the 51st minute. Chelsea pushed for an equalizer for the whole 2nd half with 7 goal attempts and 3 shots on goal but failed to score a goal, which saw Leicester ending their losing streak and winning their 7th match of the season. Final score: 0:1.
Manchester City are currently 2nd in the league with a 14-2-2 record and 44 points. They have started off the season exceptionally well, but seemingly got caught in a bad run with 2 defeats in their last 3 games. It really is an unfortunate timing as there are a lot of games taking place right now, and if they continue with their poor performances, Liverpool will manage to increase the gap, which will cause Man. City some problems in their title race. In the last 5 games, Manchester City has been defeated by Chelsea (2:0) and most recently Crystal Palace (2:3). Looking at the mentioned match against Crystal Palace, Manchester City scored the opening goal in 27th minute, but Crystal Palace answered with 2 goals in quick succession only 6 minutes later (33′ and 35′), which meant the teams went into the second half 1 goal apart and with Crystal Palace in a surprising lead. The lead is even more impressive if we take a look at statistics, which show Manchester City dominating the visiting team. They had a 76% ball possession, 9 goal attempts and 3 shots on goal. On the other side, Crystal Palace had only 24% ball possession, 2 goal attempts and 2 shots on goal in the 1st half, but they managed to convert both of their chances, whereas Manchester City only scored once. In the second half, Crystal Palace extended their lead by 1 additional goal only 6 minutes in, after being awarded a penalty kick which was successfully converted by Milojevic. The second half as a whole was, even more, one-sided, at least ball possession-wise, as Manchester City held on to the ball 80% of the time, had 10 goal attempts and 2 shots on goal, but yet again only managed to score once. The match ended with a final score 2:3.
As it has become clear, Manchester City is playing very poorly in recent matches. They can have a really high ball possession % but that does not help if they don’t know what to do with it. Their conversion rate is simply too low and the results speak for themselves. In addition, Manchester City is making some big mistakes which give their opposition great chances to score, which were seen in the match against Crystal Palace. That becomes a problem when the opponents can only get a few chances to score against City who is known to have high ball possession, and we can all be sure their opponents will use those rare opportunities well. Looking at H2H matches between Leicester and City, Manchester City has won all last 5 matches against Leicester, 2 of which after penalties. As for the upcoming match, the AH line is set at 1.5, and I do not feel comfortable Manchester City will manage to win this one with 2 goals to spare. Instead, I believe Leicester has a better chance not to lose by 2 goals. In the last 5 home matches, Leicester has only seen 4 goals being scored against them, also we need to keep in mind 3 of the goals were scored by Tottenham (2) and Chelsea (1) which are in the top 5 teams as of now. In conclusion, Manchester City has lost their rhythm and until they find a way to improve they will not be as dominant as they were a month ago.
Prediction: Leicester +1.50 Asian Handicap
