What will happen when Leicester City play Arsenal?
Let’s be honest, this is one is going to be a nightmare to predict. Leicester’s record against Arsenal in recent years is very much getting into “bogey team” territory. The Gunners always seem to save their best performances for us. They were excellent for 30 minutes against Palace too, Jesus in particular looked a serious threat (good luck Big Dan!).
Having said that, Palace in the second half showed they are still vulnerable, and if we play like we did in the first 45 against Brentford, then we stand a chance. The atmosphere was good, Tielemans was imperious and KDH was in the mood, if we can recreate this then you never know. Let’s be wildly optimistic and say 2-2.
Jamie Thorpe
Arsenal scare me. Their pre-season performances scared me. And that first half performance at Crystal Palace last Friday night definitely scared me.
I’d go 3-1 Arsenal. We’ve got the ability to cause them problems, but the thought of our defence trying to deal with those lightening quick flicks along with the movement and rotations in our final third (you guessed it) scares me.
Charlie Carmichael
It feels like a fair number of my formative Leicester City memories were losing heavily to Arsenal. That was the good Arsenal, but even in their less impressive years, it still felt like a place we rarely went and won. It says it all that one of the only away wins in the league at Arsenal occurred during the lockdown period meaning none of us got to enjoy it. And that the three following meetings were fairly easy wins for Arsenal.
Given the rather stupid manner in which we threw away a comfortable 2-0 lead, and this being the best Arsenal team on paper in a few years, it's hard to feel confident heading to the Emirates. Given Rodgers' talk of fatigue, I'm intrigued to see if he shuffles the starting eleven at all. Personally, Arsenal's width and pace down the wings feels like it'll hurt us and anything better than a 2-0 loss sounds appealing at present.
All that said, wouldn't it be so very Leicester to go there and win, upsetting the early buzz around Mikael Arteta's men. I'll keep holding onto that spark of optimism.
Helen Nutter
At the risk of getting a reputation as the opposite of Mark Lawrenson predicting Liverpool games, this is a defeat all day long. There will be a lot of pressure to withstand and we just don't look up to that challenge at the moment.
I'm sure we'll have one or two decent spells in the game but I can't see us doing enough in those periods to get anything overall. I think it'll be similar to the defeat at the Emirates in March - an Arsenal goal in each half, including one from a set piece.
This wouldn't be a disastrous result in itself, but one point from two games would make the Southampton game huge with a trip to Stamford Bridge on the horizon.
David Bevan
Here’s an interesting thought experiment: how much of a head start would we need before you were confident we’d win the game?
Arsenal aren’t invincible but they have a bit of momentum and it’s their first home game. I’m sure there’ll be a mildly interested hum around the Emirates all game. Even if we went ahead, I find it hard to believe we’d survive any sort of sustained pressure in such a pressure-cooker of an atmosphere.
I will go 3-2 Arsenal and another blown lead. Jamie Vardy will obviously score and, as a dedicated follower of the cult of the #narrative, I am convinced Tielemans will as well.
James Knight
