Wolves vs Leicester preview, team news, stats, kick-off time, live on Sky Sports
Wolves have several “problems” ahead of Leicester’s visit; Jamie Vardy is available for Leicester; Follow Wolves vs Leicester on Sky Sports Premier League from 1pm on Sunday; kick-off 2pm
Friday 5 February 2021 16:17, UK
Team news and stats ahead of Wolves vs Leicester in the Premier League on Sunday; kick-off 2pm.
Team news
Wolves head coach Nuno Espirito Santo revealed he has several “problems” in terms of team selection for Sunday’s Premier League visit of Leicester.
Nuno would not be drawn into naming any new absentees but his injury list is already fairly lengthy.
Rayan Ait-Nouri (abductor), Marcal (groin), Jonny (knee) and Romain Saiss (knock) all missed the 2-1 win over Arsenal and are unlikely to be back in time to face the Foxes, while Raul Jimenez (fractured skull) is a long-term absentee.
Jamie Vardy is available for Leicester after recovering from a groin operation.
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Boss Brendan Rodgers insists he will not rush the striker back into action but he will be in the squad at Molineux while Wilfred Ndidi (thigh) is a doubt.
Wes Morgan (back), Timothy Castagne (hamstring), Dennis Praet (thigh) and Wesley Fofana (thigh) are out.
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How to follow
Wolverhampton Wanderers
Leicester City
Wolves vs Leicester will be broadcast live on Sky Sports Premier League from 1pm on Sunday; kick-off at 2pm. Sky Sports customers can watch in-game clips in the live match blog on the Sky Sports website and app. Free highlights will also be published on the Sky Sports digital platforms and the Sky Sports Football YouTube channel shortly after the final whistle.
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Jones Knows’ prediction
This has low-scoring written all over it. But the markets are in agreement with the under 2.5 goals price much shorter than for your average Premier League encounter at 8/13.
Despite being able to call back upon Jamie Vardy and potentially Wilfred Ndidi for this one, I’m still not quite able to trust Leicester in a game where they’ll be allowed to have the ball and space in behind will be at a premium.
Since thrashing Manchester City 5-2, in games where they’ve had more possession than their opponents, they’ve taken just 12 points from a possible 33 available with an average expected goals figure of just 1.15 per fixture. That isn’t anywhere near top-four standard and just might be the reason why the Foxes will fall short of consistently competing with the elite again this campaign.
Both fixtures last season between these two finished goalless and another 0-0 makes sense at 8/1.
A betting angle to consider is Youri Tielemans to pick up a booking.
No team has attempted more dribbles than Wolves this season with Pedro Neto and Adama Traore happy to cut in and draw fouls from opponents. No Leicester player has been dribbled past more than Tielemans (39) this season and he ranks third in the overall ranking of all players in the Premier League – only Conor Gallagher and Bruno Fernandes have been skipped past more often. The offering of 4/1 certainly underestimates the chances of him picking up his fifth booking of the season.
JONES KNOWS PREDICTS: 0-0
BETTING ANGLE: Youri Tielemans to be carded (4/1 with Sky Bet)
Opta stats
- Wolves have failed to score in five of their seven Premier League matches against Leicester but have won the two they have scored in by a 4-3 scoreline in both 2003/04 and 2018/19, coming from three goals down to win in October 2003.
- Leicester have won just two of their last 19 away matches against Wolves in all competitions (D7 L10), with their last win at Molineux coming in December 2006 in a Championship meeting.
- Wolves are looking to record consecutive Premier League victories for only the second time this season, winning against Fulham and Leeds in October.
- Leicester have won eight of their 11 Premier League away games so far this season (D2 L1), with the Foxes only winning more on the road in a season in the competition in their title campaign of 2015-16 (11).
- Since the start of the 2018/19 season, only Manchester United (47) and Liverpool (45) have won more points from losing positions in the Premier League than Wolves (44), who came from 1-0 down to win 2-1 against Arsenal last time out.
- Leicester have scored with 14.6% of their shots in the Premier League this season, their highest conversion rate on record in a single campaign in the competition (since 1997-98).
- Excluding own goals, Wolves have seen 45 goals scored by Portuguese players in the Premier League – only one fewer than has been scored by Englishmen for the club (46). The only team to have seen more goals scored by a particular non-English nation than English players in Premier League history is Arsenal (540 French, 385 English).
- 20-year-old Pedro Neto has been involved in more Premier League goals than any other Wolves player this season (4 goals, 4 assists), though he’s failed to score in any of his last nine appearances in the competition.
- After failing to score with any of his 54 shots in the Premier League in 2020, Wolves midfielder Rúben Neves has scored with three of his 13 attempts in 2021 (23%).
- Leicester’s James Maddison has been directly involved in 12 goals in his last 12 games in all competitions, scoring six and assisting six. He assisted both of the Foxes’ goals against Fulham last time out, the first time he’s registered multiple assists in a Premier League game.
Pitch to Post Preview – Liverpool v Man City special: Jamie Carragher’s verdict, team news & line-ups, and the standout stats
In this week’s Pitch to Post Preview Podcast Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher joins Peter Smith for an in-depth look at Sunday’s big clash between Liverpool and Man City.
Carragher gives his verdict on whether Liverpool can recover in the title race after their defeat to Brighton – and what they will have to do to beat Man City in their must-win match at Anfield.
We also hear the latest from both clubs, with Sky Sports News reporters Vinny O’Connor and Ben Ransom sharing the team news and discussing the selection issues ahead of the game.
And Sky Sports stats star Matt Cheetham has the numbers behind the five key areas of the game, so listen in and impress your mates with his stats and facts! He also makes his Pitch for what will happen in the match – and reveals whether the data backs up the predictions made by some of Sky Sports’ Twitter followers!
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