Motivated Southampton look to cause an upset against Leicester City

Second place Leicester City host Southampton at the King Power Stadium with the Saints looking like a completely new team in the last five games.

The host for this game Leicester City have has a very busy schedule to start 2020. The Foxes to pick three good results starting with a 3-0 against Newcastle on New Year’s Day. A 2-0 win in the FA Cup third round against Wigan followed with a 1-1 draw against Aston Villa in the EFL Cup semi-final concluding the busy eight days the Foxes have had.

Southampton were also able to get two impressive results. On New Year’s Day, the Saints played Spurs and beat them 1-0. Danny Ings’ early goal secured the three points for the Saints. In the FA Cup, the Saints progressed to the fourth round after a 2-0 win over Huddersfield.

Team news

Leicester midfielder Wilfred Ndidi faces a month on the sidelines after having surgery on a knee injury he sustained in training.

James Maddison has overcome the slight knock he suffered at the end of Wednesday’s Carabao Cup tie with Villa.

Southampton have no new injury worries, with Danny Ings among those expected to play after being an unused substitute in last weekend’s FA Cup.

Full-back Yann Valery, who has a virus, remains on the sidelines.

Brendan Rodgers says Wilfred Ndidi’s operation on his knee ‘went very well’
The Northern Irishman also provides an update on Daniel Amartey and Matty James.

“It went very well,” Rodgers told the national media on Friday.

“It was a good operation. He’s now back in and straight into his recovery. Something around that (three or four weeks). Sometimes it can be sooner, sometimes it can’t be.”

“Daniel will probably be in for an operation early next week,” Rodgers added. “It’s been unfortunate he hasn’t featured for me after the ankle injury he had.

“He will be in early next week for some more surgery on a bone in his ankle.”

“He came through it very well,” he continued. “He’ll play for them again at the beginning of next week. It’s a gradual process with Matthew.

“We’re just trying to get some minutes in his legs. He felt good, naturally a bit sore, but we’re just trying to build up his fitness.”

Southampton’s boss Ralph Hasenhüttl looked back at the 9-0 loss against Leicester and on how his team has responded to it.

“After the game it was maybe the most difficult moment in our season, but, in the end, two months later it was a moment where we look back and say we took a lot of motivation for the last months,” said Hasenhüttl.

“When you know that this result happened, it’s like a new starting point for us, and from then to now we learned a lot and we made a good progress.

“We took the chance to stand up again and now we are in a much better position.”

Head-to-head

Leicester won 9-0 in the reverse fixture in October – the biggest victory by an away side in English top-flight history. However, the Foxes have failed to win any of the past three league meetings at the King Power Stadium (D2, L1).