Leicester City vs Tottenham Hotspur. Premier League.
The King Power StadiumAttendance31,950.
Tuesday 28 November 2017 18:44, UK
Erik Lamela could make his first Tottenham appearance for over a year at Leicester on Tuesday.
The 25-year-old has undergone operations on each of his hips and has not played since October 25, 2016.
However, after returning to training early last month, he is expected to be on the bench to face the Foxes, as Spurs look to bounce back from their 1-1 home draw with West Brom on Saturday.
The result has left Spurs 13 points behind runaway leaders Manchester City, but Mauricio Pochettino has called for perspective.
"I think if you remember everything that happened three years ago, no-one would believe we would be talking about finishing first, beating Dortmund and Real Madrid and finishing first in the Champions League, and have the capacity in the last three seasons to fight for the top four and the Premier League," he said.
"We were talking about in the next three or four seasons arriving to the new stadium and trying to reduce the gap to the top four, and now we are involved in the battle for the best competitions in the world."
Leicester's form has improved since the appointment of Claude Puel, with their only defeat under the new manager coming against Man City. They drew 1-1 with West Ham on Friday.
Leicester will have an unchanged squad. Central defender Robert Huth (ankle) and midfielder Matty James (Achilles) remain out injured but they are the only players unavailable.
Few changes are expected from the team that started the draw at West Ham on Friday but the likes of Ben Chilwell, Andy King, Kelechi Iheanacho, Islam Slimani and Shinji Okazaki are options for Puel.
Along with Lamela, Danny Rose is also likely to come back into the Tottenham squad. However, Harry Winks has fallen ill and will have to be assessed while Toby Alderweireld (hamstring) and Victor Wanyama (knee) are both out.
Leicester have kept only one clean sheet in their last 21 home matches against Tottenham in all competitions - 3-0 in September 1997, with Kasey Keller in between the sticks that day.
Spurs have netted 11 Premier League goals in just four matches at the King Power Stadium (W3 D1 L0), compared to netting just seven goals in seven visits at Filbert Street in the competition (W1 D1 L5).
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Tottenham have lost their last two Premier League away games - they haven't lost three in succession on the road in the competition since March 2014 under Tim Sherwood.
After netting four goals in their victory over Liverpool on October 22nd from 14 shots (29 per cent conversion rate), Tottenham have scored two goals in their four games since despite attempting 64 shots in total (3 per cent conversion rate).
Christian Eriksen hasn't scored or assisted a goal in his last five Premier League appearances - his longest run without a goal involvement within a single season since January 2016.
A shocking result for Spurs on Saturday. I just think with Tottenham that if teams do not have a go at them, they struggle. If you do not have a go at them and just sit back into shape, they do not have anybody who can break you down. Harry Winks is not one of those players who is going to put a ball through an eye of a needle, nor is Eric Dier and Dele Alli is better running off the ball.
So they just have Christian Eriksen and if he has an off day, I just do not see where it happens for them. Tottenham slaughtered Leicester last season, absolutely ripped them to shreds, but I think Leicester will stay in their shape, sit back and make it tight for Spurs and then they will go from there, so I am going to go 1-1 again.
PAUL PREDICTS: 1-1 (11/2 with Sky Bet)
Tottenham are Sky Bet's odds-on favourites at 3/4 to see off Leicester, who are 7/2 for the victory and 14/5 to hold Mauricio Pochettino's side to another draw. Harry Kane heads the first goalscorer market at 11/4 while Jamie Vardy is enhanced from 5/1 to 6/1 in Sky Bet's Price Boosts.
Leicester v Tottenham is included in Tuesday's round of Super 6, with £250,000 up for grabs for predicting six correct scores.
