Monday sees the first game of the post-Ranieri era for Leicester and it’s a toughie, with Liverpool visiting the King Power Stadium at 8pm on Sky Sports 1.

Less than a year after taking the Foxes to their momentous Premier League title, and a day after providing the team with a respectable 2-1 away loss to Sevilla in the Champions League, Ranieri was given the boot, leaving the side rudderless and in the relegation zone (admittedly with a game in hand) following the weekend’s results. It’s a sad chapter in one of the greatest stories in footballing history, and representative of just how much Leicester have unravelled this season.



Nevertheless caretaker manager Craig Shakespeare now faces an up-mountain battle, not only in trying to get Leicester’s first league win (and goal) of 2017 but in attempting to tease out good performances from the likes of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez. The former has scored just 6 times in all competitions, and is looking closer to his non-league roots than last season’s heroics; the latter, meanwhile, has a similarly meagre tally and is far from the form that made him PFA Player of the year. Yet they remain the Foxes best hopes up front, and go into Monday night at Super Mega PGM spreads of 16-20 and 15-19 respectively.

Not that a result against Liverpool is out of the question. The Reds have only 1 win in 2017, lost to Leicester’s relegation rivals Hull and Swansea in the league, and were knocked out of the FA Cup by Wolves and the EFL Cup by Southampton. There was something of a course-correction with Liverpool’s confident 2-0 win over Tottenham a fortnight ago, though that doesn’t change the fact that the club is facing yet another season without any silverware.

At least Sadio Mane has proved his worth after his £30 million summer move from the Saints. The Senegalese forward is the Reds top scorer with 11 goals (all in the Premier League), and has a Super Mega PGM of 26-31, the same spread as Roberto Firmino who has 9 goals in all competitions.

Though it will likely be for naught in terms of their season-long prospects, beating the defending champions may at least put a smile on Jurgen Klopp’s face, with Spreadex offering a Liverpool/Leicester (h) Goal Supremacy spread of 0.75-0.95 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.7-2.9.