With Brendan Rodgers set to rest key players, can his tricky Foxes brush aside Stoke City in this FA Cup clash?

In-form Leicester City will certainly have their eyes set on victory as they begin their FA Cup campaign against Stoke City away at the Bet365 Stadium.

The Foxes make the trip up to Staffordshire sitting third in the Premier League, whilst the Potters are sitting just outside the play-offs in eighth place in the Championship.

Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester are unbeaten in four league games and come into this off the back of a hard-fought win against Newcastle United last weekend where James Maddison and Youri Tielemans both got on the score sheet. However, the pair may well be rested for this fixture.

Michael O’Neill’s side come into this fixture having lost their previous game against Bournemouth late on last weekend, and only scoring six goals out of nine games in the whole of December, it will take a lot to brush aside this Leicester team.

If the East Midlands side can pick up a win on the road, this will leave them still playing for three pieces of silverware going into the second half of the season. They still have the Europa League knockouts to come with Slavia Prague to visit the King Power Stadium in February.

Also, they have the Premier League to fight for, Leicester often seen as the dark horses in recent times are only one point off the top of the table after results went their way yet again this last matchday.

The FA Cup is always a competition that the Foxes as a club always take seriously, having reached the quarter-finals multiple times in recent years. They have never won the competition but have reached the final four times without lifting the famous trophy.

As for Stoke, they have also never won the FA Cup reaching the final once in 2011 and losing to Manchester City. Having unfortunately losing to Tottenham Hotspur last month in the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup, they’ll be hoping they can get off to a good start in their FA Cup campaign. Nevertheless, they have lost each of their last four ties at the third round of the competition. A record that will be hard to turn around this year.

Both sets of fans can expect to see changes ahead of this fixture. Leicester will be sure to rest players such as Wilfred Ndidi, Maddison and Tielemans, who are all so crucial to the foundations of the City midfield. However, players they can bring in such as Dennis Praet, Nampyls Mendy and Hamza Choudhury are certainly a solid middle of the park exchange, if this was the route Rodgers will go down.

The Foxes will likely lead the line with Kelechi Iheanacho, with Jamie Vardy set to watch from home with the Nigerian set to start his yearly FA Cup goalscoring record. The 24-year-old has scored six goals in the competition in eight appearances.

Stoke on the other hand don’t have too much to work with in terms of making changes to the team with their lengthily injury list including star striker Tyrece Cambell. There could be space for some youngsters on the bench for both teams. After all, what is the FA Cup without young debutants?

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt