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Football London
Football London
Sport
Luke Weir

Merson and Sutton disagree on Leicester vs Chelsea prediction amid Potter selection dilemma

Chelsea will be on the hunt to make it three wins in succession in all competitions when they visit Leicester City on Saturday afternoon. The Blues' fortunes have picked up over the last week, as their 1-0 Premier League win against Leeds United was followed up by a huge 2-0 victory over Borussia Dortmund to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals.

Pundits Paul Merson and Chris Sutton disagree over how they see the result at the King Power Stadium panning out, however. While Sutton has more confidence in Graham Potter’s side, Merson didn’t believe the Blues will return to west London with all three points.

With Potter having an expensively-assembled deep squad to choose from, he has the opportunity to significantly rotate, and may have to do so if he wishes to keep everyone happy. However, Merson believes this would be to the team's detriment, and that he would be better off sticking with a winning side.

READ MORE: Graham Potter explains how he coped with Chelsea's poor run and 'difficult' criticism

That being said, the Chelsea manager will have to make some alterations after being dealt with some fresh injury blows following the Dortmund triumph. Both Reece James and Raheem Sterling look set to make way - with an illness and tight hamstring respectively - while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Mason Mount and N'Golo Kante join the list of absentees.

"Chelsea are starting to look like an interesting unit now," the former Arsenal player wrote in his SportsKeeda column. "Two back-to-back wins and two clean sheets and all of a sudden, you start to see their potential.

"I would want Graham Potter to stay with the same team that beat Borussia Dortmund comfortably on Tuesday night. I hope he doesn't go and alter the team and make a number of changes.

"For me, Potter has to pick his strongest team and get a roll going. You need stability and you need continuity and Chelsea have suffered from making too many changes in recent times. His team selection was spot on against Dortmund and they reaped the rewards for it.

"I think Leicester are a different team with James Maddison in the playing XI. He's got the guile to work Chelsea and I've got the feeling that the Blues are going to make five or six changes for this one. If they do that, I don't see how they're going to win it."

Paul Merson’s prediction: 1-1

Speaking to the BBC, Chris Sutton said: "Leicester have lost their past three league games and also went out of the FA Cup. They are struggling, and their manager Brendan Rodgers is coming under a bit of pressure.

"The Foxes actually performed pretty well in their defeat against Southampton last time out but they need a positive result here otherwise the atmosphere at King Power Stadium might start to turn ugly.

"I don't see them getting one, though. Chelsea's Champions League win over Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday was huge for their season and I am expecting Graham Potter's side to build on that here.

"The Blues don't score many, but I worry about Leicester defensively and I think they can get picked apart. So, I'm going for Chelsea to sneak it, but only just."

Chris Sutton’s prediction: 0-1

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