Leicester City take on Norwich City at Carrow Road this weekend, in a game that would've been dubbed a 'relegation battle' at the start of the season.
Based on where both teams lie in the table, this is certainly not a relegation battle, Leicester in 8th and Norwich in 12th. With both teams opting for a free-flowing style of attacking football so far this season, there's no doubt that this one should be quite an open encounter. Both teams have caught the eye of pundits with their attacking based game-play but have been slightly leaky in defence, shipping the two highest goal tallies in the top 13 table positions, Leicester conceding 14, Norwich conceding 12.
International break
The two main call-ups between the two teams are Jamie Vardy for England and Wes Hoolahan for the Republic of Ireland. Both players have had brilliant starts to the season for their respective teams and have completely deserved the international call-ups they've received. With England definitely through to the European Championship, Roy Hodgson is once again experimenting with lesser players. Whereas the Republic of Ireland have it all to play for, only two points behind Georgia in the group's second qualifying spot.
Jamie Vardy has now received his three consecutive National call-up after never even having a sniff of international action. Although he's yet to make an impact on the international scene, he's made more than just an impact so far this season, topping the Premier League goalscoring charts with six goals, one goal ahead of his team-mate Riyad Mahrez. He showed that he's capable of performing on a bigger stage, netting both of Leicester's goals in their 5-2 loss against Arsenal last weekend.
Wes Hoolahan has also made an impact in the Premier League this season, topping the table for the most assists. He's already assisted nearly half of all of Norwich's goals this season, getting five assists. His second Premier League stint with Norwich has started electrically and shows no signs of slowing down. He even managed to get one assist holding his left boot in his hand!
The skippers
Both of the captains have had very different starts to the season. Russell Martin of Norwich has already scored three goals, whilst Wes Morgan has looked shakey in the heart of the Leicester defence. Both teams are in the bottom four for goals against this season, which shows that they've played open, attacking football.
Wes Morgan didn't have the best of seasons last season until the introduction of Robert Huth mid-season, which seemed to rejuvinate the form of the Jamaican international. Most of his best performances last season came when he was part of a five-at-the-back system, which, some would argue, is a much easier defensive sysytem to play in. He struggled when Nigel Pearson decided to go four-at-the-back and he seems to be having that problem again. His lack of pace is a major factor as to why he sometimes gets so easily beaten.
Russell Martin hasn't just had a good season in front of goal, he's also been fairly solid at the back. Although Norwich have conceded a fair amount of goals so far, Martin's defensive performances have been massively encouraging for the Norwich fans. After a solid season last year, Alex Neil decided to keep his faith in the Brighton-born Scottish international as the team's captain. Neil's faith has definitely been repaid and he will, hopefully for Norwich fans, continue to be repaid.