Sports Blog 08/02/2017: FA Cup 4th Round Replay – Leicester vs Derby, Wednesday 8th February 2017

Can a lost Leicester salvage something from their season by reaching the FA Cup 5th round with a win over Derby, at 7.45pm on BBC One?

The Foxes have been in a hole for a while now, and without their Champions League heroics as a distraction things are looking pretty bleak. Not only have Leicester failed to win a league game in 2017, they’ve failed to score a single goal in their last 5 matches while conceding 10 in their last 4. That wretched showing leaves them in 16th place and just 1 point above the drop but, crucially, with a far worse run of form than those 4 teams that sit below them.



The FA Cup, meanwhile, has provided Leicester with the smallest sliver of hope, and even the Foxes have fluffed their lines. An away win against Leicester in the 3rd round has perhaps been the club’s sole positive in 2017; a 2-2 4th round draw against Derby thanks to an 85th goal from Wes Morgan, on the other hand, was yet another disappointment for the defending Premier League champions.

If Leicester are to break their current curse then last season’s heroes desperately need to rediscover their magic. With Islam Slimani still injured there is even more pressure on the shoulders of Jamie Vardy, pressure that may not help a player who hasn’t scored in 2 months, and whose most notable contribution recently was a 28th minute red card against Stoke. Nevertheless Vardy goes into Wednesday night at a solid Super Mega PGM spread of 28-33, ahead of the similarly lacklustre Riyad Mahrez at 21-26.

As for Derby, they will be gutted that this game even went to a replay considering they led the original fixture 2-1 for around 45 minutes (a result made all the more frustrating for the fact that Leicester’s opener was a 7th minute own goal from Darren Bent). The Rams have had their own troubles in 2017, if nothing to the level of Leicester, with 3 losses and 2 wins pushing them out of the play-off zone.

Despite their recent woes Claudio Ranieri and co. will head into Wednesday night knowing that a win could give them some season-rescuing (and potentially relegation-avoiding) momentum in the league. With that in mind Spreadex are offering a Leicester/Derby Goal Supremacy spread of 0.5-0.7 alongside a Total Goals spread of 2.35-2.55.