'City Must Stop Jorginho At Stamford Bridge'
- Leicester City travel to Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday (3pm GMT kick-off)
- This week's Opposition View comes from Oliver Harbord at Football.London
- Harbord says beating Maurizio Sarri's men relies on stopping midfielder Jorginho
- LCFC Radio goes live two hours ahead of kick-off from 1pm GMT on Saturday afternoon
The Foxes head to the capital in their final fixture before Christmas needing a win to regain their place in the Premier League’s top half following defeat by Crystal Palace last weekend.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have become a more resolute opposition this season under Maurizio Sarri’s management and currently occupy fourth place in the top flight standings.
“It’s been a decent start to the season,” Harbord told LCFC Radio’s Matchday Live programme, which follows Pre-Match Pint on Saturday afternoon.
Puel Calls For Collective Response At Chelsea
Leicester City manager Claude Puel wants to see his team operate as a collective at Chelsea on Saturday.
“Obviously there’s been a lot of change and there’s a very different approach to the mentality in which Chelsea play football.
“Sarri has brought a possession-based brand of football and he wants to play fast football and they’ve come through a difficult time with defeats against Spurs and Wolves.
“It was an awful second half against Wolves and they thoroughly deserved to lose that game, but the win over Manchester City was exceptional.
“They’re in the semi-finals of the Carabao Cup and into the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League as well so everything is looking pretty positive.
“They’ve got a run of games over the Christmas period where they will expect to get maximum points from a lot of them including, you would have say, the Leicester game.”
However, Harbord does believe that there are weaknesses in Chelsea’s regular line-up which the Foxes could expose at Stamford Bridge this weekend.
He continued: “Defensively at times, there has been some weaknesses on show, but they’re starting to get their act together.
“In the Wolves game, there were a few changes. Andreas Christensen, for example, was in the team and he hasn’t been starting many games this year.
“Cesc Fàbregas played as well, instead of Jorginho, so there were a few changes in that game, but against Spurs, they were really shown up by the pace they had going forward.
“There’s definitely some weaknesses there and some clubs have really started to target Jorginho to try and cut that out because it’s a very important role he plays.
Vardy: We Need To Knuckle Down
Jamie Vardy speaks to LCFC TV ahead of the Foxes' visit to Stamford Bridge on Saturday.
“Everton did that very well the other week and so did Spurs. It’s about trying to stop him from being able to dictate play.
“If they can’t go through Jorginho then they do tend to encounter problems going forward.”
The threat of Eden Hazard, though, means City are likely to face a daunting challenge on Saturday, even if they nullify Jorginho’s talents in the middle of midfield.
“Hazard has always been a crucial man for Chelsea and he’s starting to get that scoring touch back once again,” Harbord concluded.
“He went on quite a long run without a goal but he scored against Brighton and he scored in midweek against Bournemouth and we expect him to play in a false nine position again.
“That means it’ll be a front-three of Pedro, Willian and Hazard and they can cause a lot of damage to a lot of defences so a lot of defenders in the Premier League don’t like to see him lining up.”
LCFC Radio's coverage starts at 1pm GMT with Pre-Match Pint, before Matchday Live provides live discussion, commentary and post-match reaction from 2pm GMT.