Swansea City vs Leicester City. Premier League.
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Saturday 21 October 2017 13:58, UK
Michael Appleton will take charge of Leicester as caretaker manager when they travel to Swansea in the Premier League on Saturday.
The former Oxford and Blackpool boss will lead the Foxes after the dismissal of Craig Shakespeare earlier this week following a poor start to the season.
Leicester have won just one Premier League game this term and none of the last six, leaving them languishing in 18th spot, two points from safety and behind Swansea, who are one of five teams above the drop zone on eight points.
Paul Clement's side jumped into 13th place after their first win in four Premier League outings last time out as they beat Huddersfield 2-0 at the Liberty Stadium and will be hoping for a similar performance this weekend.
The good news for Appleton is that he has no new injury problems to contend with ahead of the game.
It remains to be seen if he will make any changes to the team but he has the same squad to pick from, with Robert Huth (ankle) and Matty James (Achilles) still out injured.
Leroy Fer's one-match suspension means Swansea boss Clement must change a winning team for the visit of Leicester after the Dutch midfielder picked up a fifth booking of the season last time out.
Fit-again Renato Sanches and Ki Sung-yueng are in contention to replace Fer but Wilfried Bony is ruled out by a hamstring problem.
Swansea have won two of their three home Premier League games against Leicester (L1) - their first such meeting in October 2014 and last meeting in February 2017 (both 2-0).
That defeat in February ended a run of four successive Premier League victories for Leicester City against Swansea, and proved to be Claudio Ranieri's last league match in charge of the club.
Swansea City have allowed their opponents 75 more shots in total than they have attempted themselves in the Premier League this season; the biggest negative differential by a team in 2017-18 so far.
Paul Clement has the best win percentage of any Swansea manager in Premier League history (40.7%).
In Leicester City's title-winning 2015-16 campaign, Riyad Mahrez had a hand in 28 goals in 37 Premier League appearances (17 goals, 11 assists). Since then, he's been involved in just 12 goals in 42 Premier League appearances (7 goals, 5 assists).
Tammy Abraham scored as many goals in his last appearance against Huddersfield (2) as he had in his previous nine league games. The Chelsea loanee has scored with four of his six shots on target so far in this Premier League season.
Craig Shakespeare's sacking, what's all that about? Why give him the job? Where did they think they were going to finish? I know they're in the bottom three but they've played five of the top seven teams.
For me, they're in a position they should be with the games they've had, but this period coming up would have been his time to show what he's about.
West Brom at home is a hard, hard game. Ask any manager, you don't want to play West Brom at home. I just think it's a joke. Maybe it's the Wales situation, with Chris Coleman's future unknown, maybe I'm putting two and two together and getting five.
I think it's a joke how Premier League teams can go into a game with no manager. With the money and resources available now, they should have this sorted before playing the next game. They should be able to do a deal in no time. It's poor.
PAUL PREDICTS: 2-1 (9/1 with Sky Bet)
Leicester are 6/4 with Sky Bet to beat Swansea, with the hosts at 9/5 and the draw at 23/10. Both Tammy Abraham and Jamie Vardy are 4/1 to break the deadlock for their sides, with Sky Bet unable to pick a favourite. Swansea vs Leicester is included in this weekend's Super 6 round, with £250,000 up for grabs. Enter your predictions for free here.
