Burnley get their 2020-21 Premier League campaign off to a belated start when they face Leicester City at the King Power Stadium on Sunday.
The Foxes opened their season up with a comfortable victory at West Bromwich Albion, whereas Burnley have been forced to wait to get underway after their opening-day showdown with Manchester United was postponed.
Match preview
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Leicester fans would have had reason to be cautious heading into their opening-day clash at West Brom following such a poor end to the 2019-20 season, which ultimately cost them a Champions League spot.
However, the Foxes got straight back to winning ways and, while they were forced to wait for the breakthrough, they eventually ran out comfortable winners courtesy of a header from debutant Timothy Castagne and two penalties from Jamie Vardy.
Leicester have not won back-to-back Premier League games since New Year's Day and will see this first home match of the campaign as a good chance to do that and take a big step towards proving that the second half of last season is now behind them.
History appears to be in their favour; they have only lost their opening home outing of a top-flight campaign once in the last 13 seasons, and that came 19 years ago.
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However, they have also only won their opening two games of a Premier League season twice before - most recently in their title-winning campaign - so Brendan Rodgers will know the significance of doing so this time around.
Victory would set them up nicely for a difficult week ahead which sees them face Arsenal in the EFL Cup and then Manchester City away in the Premier League, the first major test of whether they can threaten the Champions League places again this season.
Burnley will also be hopeful of a repeat of last term as they prepare to get their campaign underway, although the relationship between manager Sean Dyche and chairman Mike Garlick is unlikely to have improved over another quiet summer which has seen the already-small squad further depleted.
Dyche appears capable of getting results from this set of players regardless, though; amid uncertainty over his future, Burnley lost just two of their last 16 games in 2019-20 to secure a top-half finish.
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Indeed, Manchester City are the only home team to beat a visiting Burnley in the league since Chelsea did so on January 11.
The Clarets finished the season with 15 league wins - their best tally in the top flight for 45 years - and 15 clean sheets - their best total in 66 years - so they will represent a stiff challenge for Leicester even if they are marginally behind them in terms of match fitness.
Dyche's side have developed a welcome habit of starting well too, winning two and losing none of their last three opening fixtures, and if they can continue that run at the King Power then it would be an early indication that perhaps they are capable of another top-half finish.
Burnley were in EFL Cup action on Thursday night as they progressed past Sheffield United via a penalty shootout, but their only outing other than that since the final day of last season was a goalless friendly draw with Preston North End at the beginning of the month.
Incidentally, a home victory would give Brendan Rodgers his 100th Premier League win in his 210th game as a manager - Sir Alex Ferguson, Sir Kenny Dalglish and Kevin Keegan are the only British managers to have reached the milestone quicker.
Leicester City Premier League form: W
Burnley form (all competitions): W
Team News
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Leicester's defensive concerns have eased somewhat with Wes Morgan returning to fitness, and Rodgers could favour his physicality at the back against Burnley's strikers rather than sticking with makeshift centre-back Wilfred Ndidi.
James Maddison is also back available after returning from injury as a sub last weekend, and he could be set for his first start of the season.
Jonny Evans remains sidelined as he serves the second of a two-game ban, though, while Ricardo Pereira and Filip Benkovic are still injured.
Last season's Golden Boot winner Jamie Vardy will lead the line after his brace against the Baggies; he boasts the best conversion rate of any player with at least 10 goals since the start of last season.
Burnley also have injury concerns, including James Tarkowski, who has been linked with a move away from the club, with Leicester one of the teams interested.
The defender is expected to overcome a minor toe injury to feature, but other first-team regulars such as Ben Mee, Jack Cork, Ashley Barnes and Johann Berg Gudmundsson are sidelined.
It could be a milestone day for a couple of Burnley players, with Chris Wood needing a goal to equal the club record of scoring in four successive Premier League games and Phil Bardsley in line for his 300th top-flight appearance.
Leicester City possible starting lineup:
Schmeichel; Castagne, Morgan, Soyuncu, Justin; Ayoze, Tielemans, Ndidi, Maddison, Barnes; Vardy
Burnley possible starting lineup:
Pope; Bardsley, Tarkowski, Long, Taylor; Brady, Brownhill, Westwood, McNeil; Wood, Rodriguez
We say: Leicester City 2-1 Burnley
You have to go back to 1968 for Burnley's last top-flight away win over Leicester, and we do not see that run ending this weekend.
The Clarets will put up a good fight, as they always do, but Leicester should have too much for a side who are missing some key players. Four of the past five meetings between these two sides have ended 2-1, including each of the last three, and we can see the same happening again on Sunday.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting under 3.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Under 3.5:dataVideo prediction
Watch the Sports Mole Football Shorts prediction for this game below:
Barney Corkhill
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Leicester City win with a probability of 55.13%. A draw had a probability of 24.3% and a win for Burnley had a probability of 20.54%.
The most likely scoreline for a Leicester City win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.65%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.53%) and 2-1 (9.61%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.53%), while for a Burnley win it was 0-1 (6.93%). The actual scoreline of 4-2 was predicted with a 1% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Leicester City would win this match.
