Leicester City vs Tottenham Hotspur is the curtain raiser for the rest of the 2024/25 English Premier League season. This will see King Power host a Premier League game after one full year following the Foxes’ relegation to the EFL Championship at the end of the 2022/23 season.
They let go of some of their key players including James Madison and Harvey Barnes but kept their core to challenge for the EFL Championship title. That they did successfully with rookie manager Enzo Maresca as they clinched the second division title and returned to English football’s top flight on their first time asking.
Maresca could not pass up the opportunity to coach a team like Chelsea and now, the Foxes are under the tutelage of former Nottingham Forest manager Steve Cooper after the fans flirted with the idea of Graham Potter coaching them in the return to the Premier League.
Their first opponents will be Tottenham Hotspur, who are managed by the league’s first-ever Australian manager, Ange Postecoglou. The former Socceroos manager showed that he could be as good as other PL managers in his first season. Now, he will be focused on consolidating all that he built.
It is Champion vs Eternal Challenger for the last match of the 2024/25 Premier League matchday 1. Keep reading for the match ticket information, preview, team news and score prediction.
Ticket information
Leicester City vs Tottenham Hotspur match tickets are already on sale on the websites of both clubs. Priority access to them will be given to registered fans of both clubs, which leaves visiting fans and football tourists who want to witness an exciting match with only one option that will not cost them time: purchasing their tickets from a trusted ticket reselling platform.
The tickets are available on seatsnet.com where fans go to auction off their tickets for fair prices and organisations go to sell excess tickets to cut their losses. A search for Leicester City vs Tottenham Hotspur tickets should turn up multiple options for fans who need them.
It is important to note that Premier League tickets also sell fast on these platforms.
The game will be played on Monday 19 August 2024 at 8 PM UK time. It will be broadcast live for fans at home.
Team news
Leicester City let a few of their title-winning side go following their promotion to the Premier League for the 2024/25 season. Long-term servant Marc Albrighton has left the club alongside striker Kelechi Iheanacho and midfielder Dennis Praet. Maresca then took Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall with him to Chelsea, leaving them a little short in the middle of the park.
The club moved to secure the services of Ghanaian forward Abdul Fatawu Issahaku from Sporting Lisbon after the 20-year-old’s impressive loan spell in their run to the second-division league title. They have also welcomed back Danish left-back Victor Kristiansen who was a stalwart for Bologna as they finished in fifth place in the Serie A to earn a UEFA Champions League slot in the new format of the continent’s top club competition.
They have also strengthened their defence with the addition of Caleb Okoli from Atalanta BC and the versatile Bobby De Cordova-Reid, who can play anywhere down the right. Steve Cooper will have to work out his favoured starting XI but one thing that the fans will surely see is Jamie Vardy leading the line.
Spurs, on the other hand, have let a lot of their deadweight go in the summer transfer window. Most of them returned from loan spells and were shipped off immediately, with only young striker Alejo Veliz yet to know his fate. The young Argentinian will battle for places with Timo Werner – whose loan was extended – and Richarlison, who has a lot to prove.
By way of additions, only youngsters Archie Gray and Lucas Bergvall have come into the team, alongside Hotspur academy player Alfie Devine. Heung-Min Son will continue to lead the line as captain and will have his main support in Maddison and Dejan Kulusevski as they hope to start the season strong away from home.
This is what we expect both teams starting XIs to look like at King Power:
Leicester City: Hermansen; Justin, Faes, Coady, Pereira; Choudhury Winks; Mavididi, Ndidi, Fatawu; Vardy.
Tottenham Hotspur: Vicario; Udogie, Van de Ven, Romero, Porro; Matar Sarr, Bentancur; Son, Maddison, Kulusevski; Richarlison.
Match preview
From the lineups above, we believe Steve Cooper will have to adapt. Maresca played with a 4-3-3 for most of his time at King Power and they got continuity in Cooper. However, the current crop of Leicester players may force him to adapt into a 4-3-2-1 (as we predicted) or a 4-4-2 (Zambian striker Patson Daka is on the bench for the Foxes). All of these can change if the club’s transfer window goes well because they need midfield reinforcements.
Spurs play 4-2-3-1. This means Cooper can cancel Postecoglou. This will force the game to be physical and fast-paced, which means that the wingers of both teams will see much of the ball in the game. This is something that will favour the visitors, who have much better players on the ball in the wide areas than Leicester City, at least on paper.
Cooper at Leicester will be something to watch but Postecoglou already has an idea of how to deal with the man having faced his Nottingham Forest side.
Prediction
Tickets for the Leicester City vs Tottenham Hotspur game are selling fast on the websites of both clubs. The Foxes have more tickets allocated to them as the home team, so fans who need those tickets best hurry up to get theirs. Again, seatsnet.com has tickets with different seating options for fans who want to watch what Cooper can do with the EFL Champions in their return to the Premier League.
Leicester City with veteran striker Jamie Vardy will be the main threat. This could be the single turning point for the Foxes.
Leicester City 2-1 Tottenham Hotspur
