The third matchday of the English Premier League sees Leicester City host Southampton at the King Power Stadium. Leicester are still looking for their first win of the new season after a point at home to Brentford followed up by a 4-2 away loss to Arsenal. They come up against a Southampton side also sitting on just a point after they came back from two goals down to earn a point away to Leeds United. It’s been a frustrating transfer window for fans of the Foxes who have yet to spend any money and whose only signing has been a free transfer. Meanwhile, the rumors continue to swirl around their three arguably best players in James Maddison, Youri Tielemans and Wesley Fofana, with the latter’s transfer looking almost inevitable at this point.
Leicester matches last season were excellent to back in the goals markets and the same looks to be true in the early days of the 2022/23 campaign. While never known for having a tight defense under Brendan Rodgers, the Foxes have looked particularly exposed in the first two matches of this season, conceding five clear cut chances to Arsenal and two to Brentford. Leicester finished last season with the highest mark of both teams scoring, with 26 of their 38 league matches ending at least 1-1 and also saw 24 matches finish with over 2.5 goals, the second highest amount in the league. This looks to be a recipe for goals with Southampton coming to town as the Saints were also involved in their share of high-scoring matches last season. Southampton had the third-highest both teams to score mark and the fourth-highest over 2.5 goals mark last season at 23 and 22, respectively.
We’re going to back both teams to score and over 2.5 goals as our bet for this match. This is a good spot for this type of bet given the way these two sides approach matches. Both teams place an added emphasis on the attacking side of the play which can often lead to leaving themselves quite open at the back which was on full display last season. With both teams looking to have carried over the same defensive struggles from the previous season, there is nothing to suggest that we will see anything different in the new campaign.