Jamie Vardy is taking all the headlines at the minute and his Leicester team take on a West Brom side hoping to put a stop to his goalscoring form.
After an electric first ten games, Leicester still find themselves holding a European spot, sitting pretty in fifth, whilst a mixed start for West Brom finds them in a very respectable tenth. Both sides will be hoping to come away from The Hawthorns on Saturday afternoon with all three points. West Brom will be seeking vengeance after last season's fixture where Leicester came from behind twice to snatch a very late 3-2 victory.
Leicester go into the game hoping to follow on from last week's narrow win at home to Crystal Palace whilst their opponents will also be looking to build on a 1-0 victory after edging out Norwich away last week.
England's number nine
At this point in time, there would be nowhere else that we could start other than with the Premier League's on-form striker. The ex-non-league striker, Jamie Vardy, is in the form of his life and will certainly be confident of finding his name on the scoresheet once again. If the England international finds the net on Saturday it will be for the eighth consecutive league game, which will see him join only two other players to ever achieve that feat, Ruud Van Nistelrooy and Daniel Sturridge.
With the form that he's been in, you certainly wouldn't put it past him after he extended his scoring streak to seven games last week where he deftly dinked the ball over Crystal Palace 'keeper, Wayne Hennessey, before firing in from point-blank range. Roy Hodgson has noticed Vardy's form and the 28-year-old has earned four England caps as a result, his recent form definitely warrants a seat on the plane to the European Championships next year. The England boss has come under a lot of pressure for playing Vardy out wide for the Three Lions as his blistering performances for The Foxes have come as the main striker and many people have criticised Hodgson for playing the former Fleetwood hotshot out of position.
West Brom have a talented English striker of their own in Saido Berahino who has played for his national side at every level from under-16 to under-21. However, Berahino didn't do himself any favours over the season after his ongoing transfer saga with Tottenham, which ended up with the striker tweeting that he would never play under the West Brom chairman, Jeremy Peace, ever again. This was clearly a heat-of-the-moment act as Berahino has represented the Birmingham-based club on eight occasions so far this season, scoring three times. Roy Hodgson called up the Burundi-born hitman last November, but he didn't make an appearance due to injury. If Berahino wants to be in the England squad next summer, he'll have to show the form he showed last season which prompted that £25-million bid from Spurs.
Last season
Both sides finished last season in the other half of the table in which they find themselves now, which for Leicester was a massive achievement, but for West Brom, an underachievement.
When the sides met at The Hawthorns last term there were only eight games left of the season. Leicester were rock bottom four points adrift and six away from safety whilst West Brom were also vaguely involved with the relegation battle. Leicester had achieved only 22 points, putting that into context, they've already collected 19 this campaign, in a third of the matches.
West Brom took an early lead through Darren Fletcher, which left Leicester fans thinking they would see another loss, which would've almost condemned them to relegation but David Nugent equalised twelve minutes later. West Brom responded within six minutes and were once again in the lead until the 80th minute when Robert Huth scored his first Leicester City goal. Then in the dying minutes of the game, Jamie Vardy robbed the ball from the feet of former Fox, Gareth McAuley, on the halfway line, weaved away from Joleon Lescott before firing a ferocious left-footed strike past a helpless Boaz Myhill. This sent the travelling Foxes fans into pandemonium and properly kickstarted one of the greatest survivals the Premier League has ever witnessed.
The match
West Brom's quality defensive record since the appointment of Tony Pulis brings confidence to their fans but an abysmal record in front of goal brings worry. Leicester have been the exact opposite to that this season, scoring goals at will whilst leaking goals for the fun of it. The hosts will struggle to keep the threat of Vardy and Mahrez quiet whilst the visitors will look for their second clean sheet of the season. In their last seven games, West Brom have managed five shutouts but have only scored eight goals so far, the league's lowest total.
With a resolute defence, West Brom will be hoping to keep Leicester at bay but against an attack who are firing on all cylinders, they'll struggle. The Foxes have struggled to keep the ball out of their net and I can see another goal going in this weekend but they should have a strong enough strikeforce to see off West Brom.
I'm going for 2-1 Leicester win with Vardy extending his record-breaking goalscoring form.
