Approach Man City Test With Confidence, Says Puel

- Leicester City manager Claude Puel previews Boxing Day's visit of Manchester City
- The Foxes approach the fixture buoyed by Saturday's win at Chelsea
- Puel says both of City's last two performances have been incredibly encouraging
- However, the Frenchman knows the clash is going to be difficult for the hosts

The Foxes followed an unfortunate penalty shootout defeat by Manchester City in the Carabao Cup with a fantastic 1-0 success at Chelsea in the Premier League on Saturday.

With Pep Guardiola’s champions now set to return to Filbert Way for the second time in eight days, Puel says his squad should approach the fixture with excitement and confidence.

“We will play Manchester City after a loss [Saturday’s 3-2 defeat by Crystal Palace at Etihad Stadium] so it will be tough,” he said.

“But all the time, they can have two players for any position in the team, they have fantastic players who show the same play, the same ability, whoever plays.

“We will see who the starting players are for us because we worked a lot over this busy period. We need to have all the good performance to give, but also there's a lot of work to do.

“I hope it will be a similar game to the League Cup game because we played well with a very good second half, we showed character and quality in that game.

“I want us to compete against them with the same values and the same mentality. Now it’s important to recover from Chelsea but with a win, it will be easier to find a good recovery.”

Puel also described the Boxing Day encounter with Guardiola’s men, who are four points adrift of Christmas leaders Liverpool, as a ‘fantastic challenge’.

“Our last game against Man City was encouraging,” he added. “We lost with the lottery of the penalties. We didn’t manage the penalties, I realise, but on the pitch it was very interesting.

“Three days after another game against a tough team, we will see, but it will be another fantastic challenge and we need to create another upset.”