Leicester chase one more win to avoid drop
LEICESTER: The renewed feel-good factor at Leicester City is seeping away and the Premier League champions still have work to do ahead of Saturday’s trip to West Bromwich Albion.
Craig Shakespeare, who took over as manager following titlewinning boss Claudio Ranieri’s sacking in February, has lost just three of his 11 games in charge.
Yet the third of those defeats, at Arsenal on Wednesday, left the Foxes still with just 37 points and glancing over their shoulders at potential relegation problems with five games remaining.
One more victory should allay any lingering fears, but until the 40-point barrier is passed, Shakespeare knows his own long-term future is unlikely to be resolved by Leicester’s Thai owners.
“When they first appointed me
I said if they want to (talk) that is fine,” he said. “I am quite comfortable, but my remit was to the end of the season.
“I said before we need some more points on the board and we are disappointed not to get them, but we move on now to Saturday.”
Shakespeare will be keen to restore Wes Morgan to the heart of his defence for the trip to Albion, where the Leicester manager played as a midfielder and cut his teeth in coaching.
Morgan returned from a back injury for the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final defeat to Atletico Madrid, but the centre-back then suffered a hamstring problem that forced him to miss the 1-0 midweek loss at the Emirates Stadium.
coach Luis Enrique said he trusted Neymar to resist being provoked by any aggressive treatment meted out by Espanyol in Saturday’s derby, as the Brazilian forward returns to action after a threegame ban.
Neymar was suspended for applauding an assistant referee after being sent off in the 2-0 defeat to Malaga on April 9.
Recent Barcelona derbies have been characterised by meaty challenges from Espanyol on their rivals, with Neymar being their main target.
Espanyol will be keen to derail Barca’s title bid on Saturday, but the coach believes the Brazilian will cope with the attention.
“He is a specialist in dealing with these situations, if there is any player who knows how to accept being fouled, it is Neymar,” Luis Enrique told a news conference on Friday.
“Despite everything, he has been sent off very few times. He is ready to play and he will be vital for us.”
The champions have coped well without the Brazilian, scoring 13 goals in the three games while he was suspended, although his strike partner Luis Suarez has come in for criticism for failing to find the net in his
last five games.
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