Friday night football brings the biggest night of the Championship so far as Leeds United travel to Leciester, 14 points behind the leaders. Will the hosts stretch their lead or can Leeds close the gap? George Elek from NTT20 has picked out a 14/115.00 Bet Builder on how he sees this one going..
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Summerville has had 2 or more shots in every game
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James Justin has been booked twice already this season
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Leicester City v Leeds United
Friday, 20:00
Live on Sky Sports Football
A whopping 14 points separate these two promotion hopefuls, with Leicester having made the best ever start to a Championship season after 13 wins in 14 games. They edged past a 10-man QPR side last time out thanks to a late Harry Winks screamer, and seem to have that enviable knack of edging past teams even when not at their best.
The same cannot be said of Leeds, who have shown flashes of brilliance this season but have let themselves down on occasion. Most recently this was the case at Stoke, where Patrick Bamford insisted on taking a penalty at 0-0, duly missed it and then watched the home side go up the other end and secure all three points.
It may only be November, but Leeds fans are already praying for slip-ups from Leicester and Ipswich. Having already beaten the latter away from home, this is another chance to be the masters of their own destiny by eating into that 14 point deficit.
Summerville is one of the in-form players in the Championship, with five goals and three assists in his last five games. His ball-carrying and willingness to take a shot on has never been lacking, but he looks like he is finally backing up that promise with goal output.
The Dutch wide player has had at least two shots in every game he has featured in this season, including two when playing just 20 minutes off the bench and five last time out against Huddersfeld when he was given a rest after an hour.
For all of their dominance, five teams have conceded fewer shots than The Foxes and Summerville should have some joy down the left given Maresca's expansive playing style. Jack Clare managed three shots from the same position in Sunderland's trip to Leicetser, so this is a solid first leg of the bet builder regardless of game state.
Leicester have nominally played without a genuine right-back for much of this season, but in the aforementioned 1-0 win over Sunderland Maresca looked to specifically counter the threat of Jack Clarke by employing James Justin there.
Justin was booked in that game, picking up his second yellow card this season in just 587 minutes, and then committed three fouls in Saturday's win over QPR.
With Summerville, and then at some point Willy Gnonto, likely to provide a key outlet for Leeds on Friday night, Justin may well be shifted to the right hand side again in which case he looks ripe for another caution.
If he is kept at left-back, the task doesn't look much easier with the rapid, in-form and combative Daniel James then the likely opponent.
With two attacking sides lining up here, we should see plenty of action in the final third and especially out wide. We've already discussed Leeds quality in those areas, but with Stephy Mavididi and Abdul Fatawu, Leicester themselves are short of talent there themselves.
Against more expansive sides, Leeds' games have hit double figure corners regularly. There were 14 against Norwich, 11 against Southampton and 12 against Ipswich. This was also the case for Leicester against Norwich (11) and Southampton (12), while there were 11 against the ultra-attacking Blackburn.
It would be a huge surprise if either side abandoned their attacking philosophy here so corners should be a reliable last leg.
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