Last updated & checked: 10/08/2021
Brendan Rodgers brings his increasingly impressive Foxes side to Falmer to face a Brighton team that has proven tricky to evaluate so far this season. The Seagulls sit 11th in the table, and in that regard are exceeding expectations. Yet their inconsistency can be summed up in the fact that they have hit the highs of a 3-0 win over Spurs within weeks of somehow managing to lose 2-0 at home to Southampton.
Rodgers’ men know all about Southampton, having gubbed the Saints 9-0 just under a month ago in the second match of a four-game winning streak which has seen them score fifteen times and concede once. All things being equal, this should be a fifth win in a row for Leicester, but in the South Coast Twilight Zone that is the AMEX Stadium, who really knows what could happen?
Brighton and Hove Albion vs Leicester City Prediction: Brighton and Hove Albion 1-3 Leicester City
Twelve games into the Graham Potter era, Brighton have plenty of reasons to be cautiously optimistic, including a solid home record that has seen them lose just once in six outings. At the moment, the side does seem to be lacking a specific identity. Under Chris Hughton, they were solid at the back and picked up goals at set-pieces and while Potter is showing signs of evolving their approach, these things take time. Leicester, by contrast, know precisely what they’re trying to do and that should see them over the line here.
Our recommended tip: Over 2.5 goals
In trying to make the Seagulls a more dynamic side, Graham Potter has had plenty of positive early signs, not least among them the impressive form of Neil Maupay and Aaron Connolly as alternatives to the prolific but creaky Glenn Murray. Inevitably, though, greater attacking flexibility comes at the price of being more fragile at the back, and that’s never good news for a side facing an in-form Jamie Vardy. William Hill have 17/20 on this game having more than 2.5 goals in it – that should be the case, with maybe a goal to spare.
Previous matches
Brighton are still looking for their first win over Leicester since the South Coast club were promoted to the Premier League in 2017. The closest they have got was almost exactly a year ago, in the corresponding fixture last season. Murray put the hosts ahead, nodding in a corner from former Foxes winger Anthony Knockaert on 15 minutes. Things got more promising for the Seagulls when James Maddison saw red for a second bookable offence with less than half an hour on the clock. However, Leicester battled away and came out of the game with a point when Vardy fired home a penalty on 79, after Kelechi Iheanacho was felled in the box.
Top 3 Premier League Bookies
Players to watch: Shane Duffy & Jamie Vardy
A keen Gaelic footballer in his youth in Derry, Shane Duffy has brought that sport’s rugged workrate and occasional flashpoints of outright aggression to his professional career as a soccer player. Duffy has bounced back from a horrific injury at the age of just 18 to become one of the most dependable centre-backs in English football, and he won’t let much get past him in this game. Leicester should expect nothing from set-pieces in this encounter, as the Irishman’s aerial qualities are impeccable
It almost seems too easy to pick Vardy as the standout for Leicester, but with 11 goals from the first 12 games of the season he’s the Premier League’s leading scorer. The last time he showed early-season form like this, the Foxes won the league. Everyone knows by now what Vardy will do in a game, but stopping him doesn’t seem to have got any easier. If anything, the former non-league journeyman has improved his game since 2016, and he’ll continue to be a handful for a while yet.
