Puel: A Fantastic Opportunity To Impress

- Claude Puel has provided his pre-match preview of Saturday's clash at Manchester City
- The Frenchman is wary that Pep Guardiola's men are 'favourites' for the encounter
- Puel's men have already faced Man City on two occasions this season
- Any fixture against the leaders represents a 'fantastic' challenge, Puel said

The Foxes have steadily climbed the Premier League table under the Frenchman’s guidance and, after forcing Pep Guardiola’s men to penalties in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals in December, he is looking forward to the prospect of facing the leaders once more.

While Puel concedes that Manchester City are ‘favourites’ ahead of the 5:30pm GMT kick-off, the former Monaco, Lyon and Southampton boss says that simply lessens the pressure on his side.

“It’s a good challenge… a fantastic and exciting challenge,” he told the national media on Thursday. “We don’t have pressure against this team as they are the favourites.

“It’s a good challenge to try something, to try to play our football. Of course, it’s difficult against this team but it’s a good challenge to show if we have improved from our last game against this team.

“I think the Premier League game against them [a 2-0 defeat in November] was difficult but, perhaps with a sending off [for Vincent Kompany] after three minutes, it would change the game.

“The second game in the [Carabao Cup] was a good game until the lottery of penalties. It was a good response and I hope away we can show our progress against this team. I think it’s a fantastic challenge.”

Guardiola’s title hopefuls are an astronomical 13 points clear at the Premier League summit, a deserved reward for an enterprising style of play harnessed by the Spaniard during previous spells at Barcelona and Bayern Munich. 

“I think normally it would be difficult for other teams to come back because they dominate their play, they dominate any team,” Puel added, speaking in King Power Stadium’s media suite.

“They have a good balance in their defensive work and attacking work, so it’s difficult. After we will see if they can manage also the next games in all the competitions, playing every three days… it is difficult of course.

“They have the team, the squad with a lot of players of quality. It’s the start of a crucial period, and, if they can have no injuries, no problems in the squad, of course they have all the abilities and attributes in the team to continue this work.

“They may just perhaps have a problem against us.”