Leicester City vs Brighton Preview: Classic Encounter, Key Battle, Team News & More

Leicester City play their first home game of the new season on Saturday afternoon as they welcome newly promoted Brighton. 

Both sides lost their opening game of the season, Leicester going down 4-3 in a thriller at Arsenal while Brighton lost at home to Manchester City. 

Here is everything you need to know about this fixture

Classic Encounter

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Leicester and Brighton have only been in the top flight together for one season - in 1980/81 season, when the Seagulls won both fixtures.

A memorable fixture for Leicester supporters came in April 2003, as a 2-0 win over Brighton ensured the Foxes' promotion back to the Premier League. Goals from Muzzy Izzet and Jordan Stewart sealed the deal as the Foxes completed a great first season at what was then called the Walkers Stadium.

The last meeting between the teams was in April 2014. Brighton came to Leicester and won 4-1, halting the Foxes' charge towards the Championship title. Two of Brighton's goals came from Leonardo Ulloa, who is now at Leicester while the others came from Stephen Ward and Jesse Lingard, who was on loan from Manchester United. 

Key Battle

Jamie Vardy v Lewis Dunk

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Despite putting the ball through his own net against Manchester City last week, Dunk enjoyed a good start to his first ever season in the Premier League but will come up against Jamie Vardy who looked in tremendous form against Arsenal.

Vardy's two goals were reminiscent of many of the 24 he scored in Leicester's title-winning season of 2015/16 and Dunk will have his work cut out this weekend. 

Team News

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Leicester are likely to name a very similar team to the one that started at Arsenal. Matty James was preferred to Daniel Amartey but that could change this week, while Danny Drinkwater and Vicente Iborra remain sidelined.

Brighton lost Izzy Brown to injury last week with Jamie Murphy expected to start ahead of him. Glenn Murray could be preferred to Tomer Hemed up front while Steve Sidwell could start in midfield.

Potential Leicester Line-Up: Schmeichel, Simpson, Morgan, Maguire, Fuchs, Mahrez, Amartey, Ndidi, Albrighton, Okazaki, Vardy

Potential Brighton Line-Up: Ryan, Bruno, Duffy, Dunk, Suttner, Stephens, Sidwell, March, Gross, Murphy, Murray

Prediction

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Despite looking fairly solid at the back last week, Brighton lacked a huge amount going forward. Even though Leicester's defence shipped four at the Emirates, they should find it easier against the Seagulls.

As always with Leicester their wide players could be key - Marc Albrighton was excellent at Arsenal and could provide his strikers with assists. 

Prediction: Leicester 2-0 Brighton