Leicester City face their first Premier League away test of the season as they travel down to the capital on Monday night to face West Ham United at the London Stadium.
The Foxes opened their League campaign last weekend with a 1-0 home win over Wolverhampton Wanderers thanks to a clever finish by Jamie Vardy.
The Hammers also got off to a winning start as they came from behind to beat Newcastle United 4-2 at St James Park.
Here is how we expect both sides to line up on Monday evening:
Leicester City
Brendan Rodgers has confirmed that Belgian International Timothy Castagne is fit and available to start after suffering a fractured eye socket in Belgium’s opening group stage fixture at EURO 2020 against Russia meaning the Belgian has missed the whole of Leicester’s pre-season.
Ryan Bertrand is still unavailable as the former Southampton full back signed from the Saints on a free transfer in the summer recovers from Covid-19. The defender missed the league opener against Wolves meaning he will still have to wait for his Premier League debut with the Foxes.
Jonny Evans is still unavailable as he recovers from a hip injury that he suffered at the back end of last season.
Wesley Fofana and James Justin are the only other omissions as they both recover from long term injuries.
Summer signing Patson Daka could make his Premier League debut on Monday night after the Zambian International was an unused substitute against Wolves.
Having had a whole week to prepare for this fixture, don’t expect too many changes. You could however make the case that new signing Jannik Vestergaard could replace Daniel Amartey at CB to partner Caglar Soyuncu.
The Danish International was brought in from Southampton in a £15 million deal, as an emergency replacement following Fofana’s injury he suffered during pre-season.
Leicester City XI: Schmeichel; Pereira, Vestergaard, Soyuncu, Thomas; Ndidi, Tielemans; Perez, Maddison, Barnes; Vardy.
West Ham United
The Hammers have a fully fit squad at the disposal of manager David Moyes except for full back Arthur Masuaku.
The DR Congo full back missed four months of last season with a long-standing knee injury so underwent surgery. He did however play 90 minutes for the Hammers U23’s side against Arsenal U23’s last Monday.
Michail Antonio fired in West Hams fourth at the weekend which took his Premier League goal tally to 47, meaning he is now level with Paolo di Canio as the Hammers all time Premier League top goal scorer.
Following their comeback against Newcastle, the Hammers are expected to play the same side they did last weekend.
West Ham United XI: Fabianski; Coufal, Dawson, Ogbonna, Cresswell; Rice, Soucek; Bowen, Benrahma, Fornals; Antonio.
Prediction
This will be a tough test between two sides who qualified for the UEFA Europa League last season. Both sides will want to finish the season in European places again and will be desperate to pick up as many points as possible, whilst also getting them as early as they can.
This fixture is the perfect opportunity for both sides to really lay down their intentions for the season.
However, both sides have very similar strengths and wouldn’t be too surprised to see the points shared.
West Ham United 2-2 Leicester City.