Leicester City host newly-promoted Bournemouth at the King Power Stadium on the 2nd of January. The Cherries won't expect to take any points from the clash while this becomes a 'must-win' match for Ranieri's men.
On the back of a brilliant point at home to Manchester City, the Foxes will be confident of taking the points against a Bournemouth side who held their own away at Arsenal in a 2-0 defeat.
Both ends of the spectrum
At the halfway point of the 2015/16 season, the two sides find themselves at the opposite ends of the table. Whilst Leicester are miraculously 'riding the wave' at the top end of the table, only goal difference separating them from top spot, the visitors are dangerously looming three points above the drop zone.
Leicester's last six fixtures were deemed 'impossible' by football fans and it was said that they'd crash and burn, possibly dropping out of the top four. The Foxes did what they do best: proved the doubters wrong, by picking up 11 points from a possible 18, only losing one game (to Liverpool). They picked up some good results, beating the Champions, Chelsea, Everton away and Swansea away from home. They also picked up a point apiece against both Manchester clubs at home. These results cemented the fact that they will be hoping to challenge for the title and, as they have done repeatedly so far, shocked people across Europe.
Bournemouth had a decent festive period picking up four points from the nine on offer. A solid draw against Crystal Palace and a brilliant away win at West Brom mixed with a respectable 2-0 loss at the Emirates. These results came after massive wins at home to Manchester United and away at Chelsea, which really showed the Premier League that they're here to last the distance. After Callum Wilson's early season injury, many thought that Eddie Howe's side were destined for the drop but they've managed to find goals in other areas of the pitch, putting up a great fight to stay up. However, with only three points between them and the relegation zone, they'll have to go on quite a run to ensure that they don't take it to the final day.
Giant killers
As mentioned earlier, the Cherries have performed two greatest scalps so far, victories at Stamford Bridge and against United at home. The two so-called 'Giant-killings', over two teams who possibly wouldn't be classed as giants this season, sent shockwaves across the league and the rest of Europe. However, their results against the teams around them have been less than extraordinary, including the only loss inflicted by struggling Aston Villa on the first day of the season. In the games against the other teams around the top, they haven't achieved a similar level of results, on the receiving end of 5-1 defeats against Man City and Tottenham.
Leicester have only been defeated twice this season, however one of those was a crushing home defeat against the team above (Arsenal 5-2), which at this point, has turned out to be quite a significant result. The other came in a very disappointing performance on Boxing Day, where they lost 1-0 to a Christian Benteke-inspired Liverpool. However, the difference between this season and last is the fact that they're managing to get good results against the teams lower in the table, which they really struggled to do last season.
Team news
No new injury news for Leicester ahead of Saturday's clash. Danny Drinkwater was thrown in at the deep end against Man City, completing a very solid 80 minutes, meaning he'll probably start on Saturday. Jamie Vardy seems to have fully shaken off any signs of fever which is good news for Foxes fans. Jeff Schlupp and Matty James are still the only two definite abscenses for Leicester.
Callum Wilson is still out for the Cherries and is joined by skipper, Tommy Elphick and loanee, Christian Atsu. While two of their record signings, ex-Foxes winger, Max Gradel, and Tyrone Mings were injured in the return fixture at the start of the season and won't be featuring in the Bournemouth side for a good while.
Predicted line-ups
Leicester City - Kasper Schmeichel, Danny Simpson, Robert Huth, Wes Morgan, Christian Fuchs; Marc Albrighton, N'Golo Kante, Danny Drinkwatwer, Riyad Mahrez; Jamie Vardy, Leonardo Ulloa
Bournemouth - Artur Boruc, Adam Smith, Simon Francis, Steve Cook, Charlie Daniels; Matt Ritchie, Andrew Surman, Harry Arter, Dan Gosling, Junior Stanislas; Josh King
