Leicester City Season Preview: Top four hopes tough but Foxes can do it

Tom Victor
08 August 2021
4 min read

Leicester finished just one point outside the top four last season, can Brendan Rodgers finally land that Champions League berth?

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Ahead of the 2021-22 Premier League season Tom Victor takes a close look at the Foxes, who narrowly missed out on a top four place in both of the last two seasons.

"Daka is a particularly interesting signing, with the Zambian having stepped into Erling Haaland's boots at Red Bull Salzburg with 51 league goals across the last two seasons."

After missing out on Champions League football on the final day of last season, Leicester will want to go one better.

Pre-season results

Leicester drew a blank in their first friendly against Burton Albion, but there were impressive moments from squad players with Luke Thomas a particular stand-out. The game also provided an opportunity to give new recruits some minutes. It took Brendan Rodgers' side three games to even score a goal in pre-season, though a late comeback earned them a 3-3 draw at QPR.

The most worrying moment, however, came in a meeting with Villarreal at the King Power Stadium: while there was a goalscoring return for Harvey Barnes (alongside strikes from Çağlar Söyüncü and Ayoze Pérez), after the wide man's injury damaged the team towards the end of last season, a 3-2 win was overshadowed by a horror tackle on Wesley Fofana which looks set to keep the Frenchman out for much of the season.

With Jonny Evans and James Justin also sidelined for now, defensive preparations will be a real challenge, though none of the team's three August league games will come against a team from last season's top four, potentially helping them ease into things.

Transfer business

The Foxes made moves early, bringing in-demand duo Patson Daka and Boubakary Soumaré to the King Power Stadium ahead of the new season. Ryan Bertrand has also joined on a free from Southampton, and he might not be the last to arrive. Daka is a particularly interesting signing, with the Zambian having stepped into Erling Haaland's boots at Red Bull Salzburg with 51 league goals across the last two seasons, and they'll hope he's able to help them transition to the future after Jamie Vardy's output tailed off towards the end of last season.

Moving in the other direction were three men from their 2015/16 title-winning squad, with Christian Fuchs and Matty James leaving on frees and former club captain Wes Morgan retiring. Vardy's still around, though, as are fellow title-winners Kasper Schmeichel, Marc Albrighton and Daniel Amartey. Last season's top-four chase went right down to the final day, as was the case in 2019/20, and Rodgers may need his new arrivals to hit the ground running if the club are to continue battling it out with clubs who have added a dazzling array of talent to their ranks.

Brendan Rodgers, Leicester.jpg

What the odds tell us

Leicester are a hefty 95.00 for the title on the Betfair Exchange though it's hard to ignore the fact that their last title win in 2016 came when they were much bigger outsiders. A top-four finish is priced at 5.30, while Betfair Sportsbook odds of 1/8 on a top half finish is still impressive work for a team which was playing second-tier football as recently as 2014.

While rivals have strengthened and made a top-four breakthrough that bit tougher, this is a side which has caused surprises before - not least with an FA Cup triumph just last season - and they've still got the bulk of the same squad which came as close to a top four place as possible for two years on the spin. If you think the Foxes will suffer an unlikely downturn in fortunes, though, you can get 66/1 on them getting relegated.

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