Newcastle United remain without a win this season, and will be hoping for a result against a newly promoted Leicester City who have so far performed admirably on their return to the Barclays Premier League. Leicester City’s bright start to the season stumbled briefly before the international break with a defeat at Crystal Palace followed by a draw with Burnley. Jeffrey Schlupp and Riyad Mahrez were on target for the Foxes in that game to ease the pressure on top goalscorer Leonardo Ulloa.
Papiss Cisse scored twice for the Magpies to earn the point against Swansea, and was one of only three players to have three shots on target in the last round of games.
Jack Colback has been working hard to win over the Newcastle United fans since his controversial move from Sunderland in the transfer window. Colback is ranked 7th in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index for distance covered this season having covered exactly 50 miles.
Another new signing, Daryl Janmaat, has also impressed in work rate with the fourth highest number of sprints in the league this season with 444.
Daniel Drinkwater also impressed against Burnley, completing 35 passes in the opposition half, the 9th highest in the last round of Premier League games.
Only Diego Costa has scored more Premier League goals than Ulloa’s five this season. Ulloa sits level with Aguero and Berahino in the goal scoring charts but notably the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows he has needed just ten efforts at goal, with six on target, compared to Aguero’s 20 and Berahino’s 16. It is 19/4 for Ulloa to score in a Leicester victory with 888sport.
At the other end of the pitch, Ritchie de Laet is ranked 7th in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index for tackles won with 25, an impressive 75.8% of those attempted. While his defensive colleague Liam Moore has an even more impressive 92.8% tackle success rate, having lost out on just one of his 13 attempted tackles. De Laet is also ranked second for interceptions with 25, and equally dangerous getting forward having hit the fastest top speed of any Leicester player so far this season with 34.4km/h.
If any Newcastle player is likely to break through the Leicester City defence it may just be Moussa Sissoko, who has completed 14 successful dribbles, the 9th highest in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index.
If Newcastle elect to avoid the tackling prowess of de Laet and Moore by putting the ball into the box, they will find another obstacle in Wes Morgan who is currently ranked fourth in the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index for clearances with 69, a huge 15 of which came in the game against Burnley. Morgan is also ranked second for blocks with 12.
And should Newcastle break through this tough defence to goal they will face the final hurdle of goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who has made the fourth highest number of saves in the Barclays Premier League with 22.
