Crystal Palace vs Leicester City Preview: Foxes seek upturn in fortunes against in-form Palace

Leicester City travel down to London to face off against in-form Crystal Palace

Crystal Palace vs Leicester City Preview: Foxes seek upturn in fortunes against in-form Palace
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By Stefan Evans

Leicester City will be hoping for an upturn in fortunes on Saturday when they face off against relegation-threatened Crystal Palace.

The Foxes have only won two of their last ten games, limping into the finish.

It all started well for Claude Puel too, with Leicester harvesting hopes of being in a European competition next season, not too long ago.

However, recent losses to Burnley and Newcastle have put them hopes on hold until next season now, but Puel is sure to want to finish strong.

Battling Eagles

Palace meanwhile have experienced the complete opposite to their opponents this weekend.

The Eagles started the season without a point or a goal after seven games and sacked former Ajax boss Frank De Boer.

However, the appointment of Roy Hodgson has proved to be a revelation at Selhurst Park, which sees them in a position to potentially stay in the Premier League when many had written them off.

Palace have had to look to their midfield for goals, with their strikers struggling to find the net.this season. Luka Milivojevic leads the way for Hodgson's men with 10 goals so far, five of them being penalties.

Christian Benteke has been struggling in front of goal this season, only finding the net twice, averaging a goal every 1092 minutes, the worst for an attacker in the league.photo

Last time out

Despite Leicester's woes of late, they still have a shining light in their main talisman Jamie Vardy.

He has netted in four of the last five league games, only failing to score in the 0-0 draw with Southampton last week. Vardy has netted 19 in all competitions this term and will be looking to add a few more before the season is out.

Despite this, the meeting between the sides earlier in the season finished in a 3-0 win for Palace, with Benteke scoring himself.

Wilfried Zaha and Bakary Sako also found the net for the visitors, with Wilfried Ndidi being sent off for Leicester.

There tends to be goals in this fixture. The last goalless encounter these two sides had was 22 meetings ago.

No side has been able to prove themselves consistently against the other either. Leicester have beaten Crystal Palace 26 times in their history, while Palace have won 24 encounters.

Team News and Predicted line-ups

Leicester will remain without Kasper Schmeichel and Shinji Okazaki. Both missed the clash with Southampton last time out, and will remain out for the trip to Selhurst Park.

Meanwhile, Palace will be bouyed by the availability of Connor Wickham and former Foxes man Jeffrey Schlupp after they returned from injury.

Palace: Hennessey, Ward, Van Aanholt, Tomkins, Sakho, Townsend, Loftus-Cheek, Milivojevic, Cabaye, McArthur, Zaha

Leicester: Hamer, Simpson, Chilwell, Morgan, Maguire, Ndidi, Silva, Mahrez, Gray, Iheanacho, Vardy