Champions Manchester City host a high-flying Leicester side at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday afternoon for what promises to be a hugely entertaining game, reports agencies.
It is the battle of the two cities - the Sky Blues against the Foxes - as the league's second and third ranked sides face up against one another in what is likely to be a tense affair in the north west. No other teams - not even Liverpool - can match the incredible goal differences that these two have this season, and we can expect even more goals in this one.
City know that they must win this in order to stay in the race to retain their Premier League crown as they currently sit a considerable 14 points behind leaders Liverpool. Defensive duo John Stones (hamstring) and Aymeric Laporte (knee) remain sidelined with long-term injuries, meanwhile David Silva (knock) and Sergio Agüero (groin) are doubts for Manchester City this weekend.
Gabriel Jesus is expected to lead the line for the Citizens again, Kevin De Bruyne will be tasked with pulling the strings in midfield. Leicester City have a remarkably clean bill of health when considering the high tempo football they play, as they have just one absentee in Matty James (achilles).
Leicester City have usurped Manchester City as the nearest rivals to runaway leaders Liverpool in recent weeks and the Foxes have won their past four away games by an aggregate score of 17-1. However, Leicester's away record against reigning champions does not make great reading, having failed to win the past nine such encounters. The hosts are aiming to avoid back-to-back home defeats for the first time since February 2016 under Manuel Pellegrini (one of those losses was against Leicester).
If Pep Guardiola's side triumph, they will have won 250 Premier League matches since 2010 – only once has a team in the top flight managed such a milestone in a single decade (Manchester United in the 2000s). If you were looking to be shocked, I'm afraid that you have come to the wrong place, folks. As you would expect, Manchester City have been fairly dominant in this fixture over the years, winning 59 (50%) of their 118 meetings since 1895.
The Foxes have been victorious 30 times, and there has been nothing to split the two sides on 29 occasions. In recent meetings? Well, once again, no surprises. City have won six out of the last seven, one being the famous match in which Vincent Kompany scored an absolute peach, however, they did fall to a 2-1 league defeat at the King Power Stadium last December. As you'd expect with two sides that make up the top three in the Premier League, both have been hard to beat this season.
Leicester have only lost twice, while City have been beaten four times in the opening 17 games of the season. The Foxes have picked up an impressive 39 points out of an available 51 - one more than at the same stage in their title winning season. Guardiola's men have been impressive in comparison to the rest of the clubs in the league, but have fallen massively below their own expectations. They are in fact closer in regards to points to Newcastle in 11th than they are to Liverpool.
