Leicester City v Aston Villa: Key players, head-to-head record and predictions

Both Leicester City and Aston Villa will be looking to bounce back from defeats last weekend when they meet at the King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Despite a positive performance against Arsenal last weekend, Villa were on the wrong end of a 2-0 score line and will be looking to repeat their fortunes from the win away at West Ham United on the opening day of the season.

Head-to-Head record

Since the two clubs met for the first time in 1905, over a century ago, they have met 108 times in all competitions. Of those matches, Aston Villa have won 37, Leicester have won 45 and there has been 26 draws.

In more recent times, the results have varied and neither team have consistently dominated. Since December 2019 the teams have met ten times across all competitions with Villa holding a record of four wins, four losses and two draws.

The last meeting between the two sides was a memorable one as for as Villa are concerned. Villa beat Leicester 2-1 at the King Power Stadium in April 2023 thanks to a late winner from Bertrand Traore. The win was the sixth in a ten-game unbeaten run for Villa who were hunting a European place, which was successfully achieved with qualification for the UEFA Conference League.

Villa haven't lost at the King Power in their last three visits and their last defeat away to Leicester was the heavy 4-0 loss in March 2020 which proved to be the last game before the break from football enforced by the COVID pandemic.

Who will be the key players for the two sides?

Leicester City

For Leicester, as it has been for a number of years, the key man is likely to be talisman Jamie Vardy. With 137 goals and a Premier League title to his name, Vardy is considered one of the best strikers the Premier League has seen since its rebrand in 1992. Five of those goals, from 11 appearances, have come against Aston Villa so he possesses a decent scoring record against the Villans.

Despite being 37 years of age now, Vardy still causes teams a lot of problems in the final third with his pace and sharp movement up top. If he gets himself up against Pau Torres, who is excellent on the ball but lacks pace, then he could have a lot of joy.

Centre-half Wout Faes is likely to have a busy afternoon up against Ollie Watkins and should he play well then Leicester will have a good chance of producing a positive result. The Belgian international, capped 19 times by his country, has started the season well after preventing Dominic Solanke getting his first Spurs goal in match week one and then scoring in Leicester's defeat at Fulham. Faes is a phyiscal centre-half and can pose a threat from corners too.

Aston Villa

Following his incredible performance in last week's defeat to Arsenal that had fans of all clubs on the edge of their seats watching, Morgan Rogers will be looking to continue his positive start to the season. Rogers scored three goals in his first eleven appearances for Villa last season playing from the left-hand side. This season, however, Rogers' position has shifted from a wide attacker to playing in the support striker/No.10 role. This means he is playing more centrally and so far the two games against West Ham and Arsenal have seen him driving Villa up the pitch with his powerful ball carrying through the middle of the pitch. Rogers, should he have the space to work with in midfield, will be a key man once more for Villa.

Ollie Watkins has had a slow start to the season having failed to score in either of Villa's first two fixtures. Against Arsenal, Watkins missed two crucial chances that last season would have been a guarantee to end up in the back of the net. The England striker scored 19 goals in Villa's historic 2023/24 campaign and once he gets his name on the scoresheet, history has often proved that a flurry of goals tend to follow. Watkins has two goals from six appearances against the Foxes and he will hope that this weekend will be the start of a goalscoring spree.

Score prediction

Aston Villa should be favourites to win this match as a Champions League team facing a newly-promoted team. Villa have performed excellently so far this season and should they repeat the controlled away performance at West Ham a couple of weeks ago then they should have enough to clinch a win. Villa will have to be far more clinical in front of goal than they were against Arsenal however as they should really have been two or three goals ahead before Arsenal scored their opening goal.

Leicester City 0-2 Aston Villa (Rogers, Watkins)

UTV