Paul Merson disagrees with fellow pundit’s Leicester City v Leeds United prediction

Former Premier League stars Chris Sutton and Paul Merson have expressing contrasting opinions on Leeds United’s visit to Leicester City on Thursday night.

Both sides head into the game sat in the bottom six of the Premier League table after underwhelming starts to the Premier League season.  The Foxes have won just one of their opening 10 games and there has been speculation over the future of manager Brendan Rodgers as his side fail to live up to the standards they have set in previous seasons.

Memories of a promising start to the season for Leeds are quickly fading away, with their August wins over Wolverhampton Wanderers and Chelsea remaining their only maximums of the campaign.  Jesse Marsch’s men head to the King Power Stadium looking to avoid a fourth consecutive away defeat and former Blackburn Rovers striker Sutton believes the absence of one opposition player to help them secure a 4-1 win.

He wrote in his BBC Sport predictions feature: “Leicester are without the hugely influential James Maddison, who is suspended after he was booked for his late dive against Crystal Palace.  He will rue that dive, because it could cost his team here.

“Leeds have not got the results their play has deserved on a few occasions this season, including their defeat to Arsenal at the weekend when they played with great intensity. This is where all of that changes, because I am backing them to get a break or two at King Power Stadium.

“Leeds boss Jesse Marsch talks his team up in defeat like no other manager - if you listened to him, you would think they had won every game - but I like their playing style and it deserves greater rewards.”

However, former Arsenal and England forward Merson was not as positive about Leeds’ hopes of claiming the three points and further extend Leicester’s dismal start to the campaign.  He admitted Marsch’s men were unfortunate to fall to a defeat against Arsenal on Sunday and revealed his concern for the Premier League status.

Merson told SportKeeda: “I thought Leeds were unlucky against Arsenal, but they’re now dropping down in the Premier League table.

“I’m worried for them at the moment – when you’re near the bottom of the league, you cannot afford to miss penalties.  Leeds did well at Palace for 45 minutes, and they need to put 90 minutes together. They play at a hundred miles an hour, and I don’t know how they’re going to do that for a full game.

“You’d expect Leicester to score goals at the very least but all of a sudden, they’ve been beaten by Bournemouth and have had a goalless draw at Palace. They’ve only scored one goal in their last two games and I expect to bounce back this week.”