Norwich v Leicester
Saturday 3rd October – Kickoff: 1500hrs
Football – England – Premier League
Norwich have had a decent start to the campaign following their promotion last season. It is, of course, Alex Neil first taste of the top flight having taking over at Carrow Road earlier this year. The Scot has handled himself very well and clearly has high standards for his players having criticised the performance away to Southampton at the end of August. Since that 3-0 defeat, Norwich have remained unbeaten in the four games they’ve faced – both in the league and cup. Neil will be slightly disappointed that they never won their last game after taking a 2-1 lead over West Ham only to lose a goal three minutes into injury time. Nevertheless, it was another point towards their current tally of nine, which – in a very densely packed league – see’s them positioned in 12th.
Last weekend’s 5-2 defeat at home to Arsenal was Leicester’s first loss of this season which is an indication of how well Claudio Ranieri’s men have done in the early stages. Up until that point, the Foxes had defeated Sunderland, West Ham and Aston Villa, and shared the points with Tottenham, Bournemouth and Stoke. It’s a fantastic start considering the Italian manager only came in halfway through the summer and whose appointment was greeted with a lot of uncertainty. The test for both he and his players will be how they respond to their first defeat, particularly the heavy one they suffered at the hands of Arsenal, a week ago. They’re also entering a crucial part of the season where they face four teams who are within three or fewer points than them at this stage.
Although Norwich have not struggled for goals as a team, their strikers have not been as prolific as their manager would have liked. Cameron Jerome is the player that Neil has selected more often that not to lead the line but he’s managed only one goal thus far. It’s never a bad sign to spread the goals around but it will be a slight concern if the situation continues and Norwich’s mis-firing forwards do not contribute more goals.
Leicester have had no such problems in terms of strikers struggling for goals, with England striker Jamie Vardy already on six for the season. The Foxes, themselves, are the joint-top scorer’s in the Premier League having scored 15 goals in their first seven games. As refreshing as Ranieri’s approach has been in terms of his attacking philosophy, there will be some thought given to how they shore things up in defence as they have conceded the second highest number of goals, only a couple less than bottom of the table, Sunderland.
Norwich v Leicester Betting Tips
Norwich and Leicester have definitely been two of the most entertaining sides in the early part of the season with both clubs scoring plenty and conceding a few as well. The Canaries average over three goals per game and six of their seven games have seen both teams scoring, whilst five of their seven have contained three or more goals. Their opponents on Saturday lead the league in terms of their goals, averaging over four goals. They have yet to keep a clean sheet this season, with all seven games seeing both teams find the back of the net and five of their seven seeing three or more goals scored.
If those stats are anything to go by, everything looks set for another open and entertaining contest and one that features a lot of goals. I am interested to see how Leicester respond to that loss against Arsenal, and I was tempted to put up a home win, but when you factor in both team’s recent records, over 2.5 goals looks a solid bet.
Over 2.5 goals 4/5 @ Betfair
