Premier League Big Match Focus: How to back a 9/1 Man Utd win at Leicester

The 20 Premier League teams are back in action for a full midweek programme, and that means there's another chance to build momentum or pull away from danger before another game at the weekend.

Leicester City certainly fall into the latter camp, having dropped to the foot of the table after losing to 10-man Chelsea on Saturday, and relegation could be a worry if results don't improve. For a while, Manchester United were also in the bottom three, but successive wins against Liverpool and Southampton have helped lift Erik ten Hag's team into the top half.

Last season's trip to the King Power Stadium was the beginning of the end for Ole Gunnar Solskjær, with a 4-2 defeat contributing to the spiral which saw the Norwegian sacked. A year on, though, much has changed at Old Trafford while arguably not enough has changed for Brendan Rodgers' hosts.

The stats

The 4-2 victory for Leicester last season was followed by a 1-1 draw at Old Trafford, with Kelechi Iheanacho putting the visitors ahead before Fred's quickfire equaliser. That took the Foxes' unbeaten run against United up to four games - their longest such run in the Premier League era and in fact their longest since way back in 1979.

If they want to take all three points on Thursday, though, they'll need to do something they haven't achieved this season - namely, go ahead and stay there.

Against Brentford on the opening weekend of the season, and against Southampton in their next game on home soil, Rodgers' team led but failed to win. A repeat on Thursday would see them become the first team in 30 years to post three home leads and no home wins record in the Premier League, dating back to Aston Villa in the competition's first ever season.

Speaking of Thursdays, the visitors have the best win rate of any team to play five or more Premier League games on a Thursday. It's a good day for Cristiano Ronaldo, too, with Man Utd's top scorer from last season looking to open his account for the new campaign and keep up a 100% record of scoring on Thursday games.

The signings

Much of the lead-up to this game has focused on Manchester United's pursuit of Antony. One of the summer's longest-running transfer sagas finally ended on Tuesday with United confirming a deal in principle for the Brazil international, taking their spending for the transfer window up above £200m.

While the former Ajax winger won't be involved on Thursday, another of Erik ten Hag's new signings could be handed a full debut. Casemiro was tidy enough during his brief cameo at St Mary's, and the £60m man will expect to start more often than not for his new club.

Leicester's cupboard is looking comparatively bare. Experienced goalkeeper Alex Smithies is the only arrival, while Kasper Schmeichel has left for Nice and - at the time of writing - Wesley Fofana is on the verge of completing a move to Chelsea. Essentially, it's the same squad which finished eighth last season, and with others strengthening that doesn't generally point to an improved finish.

There have been positives in the form of their homegrown players, at least, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall kicking on after a breakout season and Harvey Barnes growing into a very important player. Barnes, who netted at Chelsea last time out, has been involved in an impressive eight goals across his last six Premier League starts.

Leicester City v Manchester United prediction

Leicester's underlying numbers have been better than their league position suggests, but still not as good as they'd hope for. Only five teams were posting a worse xGA after four games (per Infogol), with Bournemouth the only team with a lower xGF.

Rodgers may decide now is the time to give Jamie Vardy a rest, with last season's top scorer yet to find the net this term.

However, the Englishman has a decent record against Utd, scoring in his record breaking 11th game in a row against the Red Devils a few years ago.

If you fancy him to get his season up and running tonight, back him to score first on the Betfair Exchange, your best odds for singles.

Patson Daka opened his Foxes account in this fixture last term, scoring four in Europe just days later, so now could be the time to unleash the Zambian.

Marcus Rashford was also on target at the King Power last term, netting on his comeback from the operation which kept him out of the first few games of the season. The England international has shown a return to form this term, and has scored more goals against Leicester than any other Premier League side, so he may fancy his own chances.

United can expect to get better under Ten Hag, once his new signings all bed in and the bad habits from last season are ironed out. Against this Leicester side, though, the level they are currently at may well be enough.