Championship leaders Leicester City will be looking to preserve their 100% start to the new season when they welcome Hull City to the King Power Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The visitors, meanwhile, are hoping to extend their unbeaten league run to four matches and climb into the playoff positions.

Match preview

Leicester head into Saturday's contest looking to become just the third club since the turn of the millennium to win each of their opening five matches in the second tier after kick-starting the new campaign with victories over Coventry City, Huddersfield Town, Cardiff City and Rotherham United.

A week on from beating Cardiff 2-1 on home soil, the Foxes edged past Rotherham by the same scoreline at the New York Stadium last weekend, courtesy of two goals from academy graduate Kasey McAteer on just his third senior start for the club.

Enzo Maresca's side have since extended their winning streak in all competitions to six matches after securing a 2-0 success away against League Two outfit Tranmere Rovers in the EFL Cup second round.

After a goalless first half, Wilfred Ndidi and Jamie Vardy made the net ripple within the space of four second-half minutes to help the Foxes take control of the contest and set up a challenging third-round clash with Liverpool at Anfield next month.

Marasca is now hoping that his Leicester side can enter the international break on a high, and they will fancy their chances of claiming a positive result on Saturday as the Foxes have not lost any of their previous five home meetings with Hull.

After losing their opening two games of the new season, suffering a 2-1 defeat away against Norwich City before losing by the same scoreline at home to Doncaster Rovers in the EFL Cup first round, Hull City have since responded well by putting together a three-game unbeaten run.

Back-to-back victories over Sheffield Wednesday and Blackburn Rovers were followed by a 1-1 draw at home against Bristol City last weekend, with Ozan Tufan's first-half opener cancelled out midway through the second half by Nakhi Wells.

With seven points from four games on the board – six of which have been gained from losing positions – head coach Liam Rosenior believes that his Hull side have a "good platform" to build on moving forward.

Rosenior will be keen to see improvements made on the road this term, though, as their success over Blackburn a few weeks ago is one of only two away wins in 13 league matches since the turn of the year.

Hull have also won only one of their last seven encounters with Leicester – a 2-1 home victory in the 2016-17 Premier League campaign, a year on from the Foxes' historic top-fight title triumph.

Team News

Leicester trio Dennis Praet (muscle), Conor Coady (broken foot) and Alex Smithies (unspecified) all remain sidelined with injuries, while it remains to be seen whether Wilfred Ndidi will stay at the club amid reported interest from Nottingham Forest; Timothy Castagne, meanwhile, joined Fulham on Tuesday.

Ricardo Pereira and James Justin will battle for the right-back spot, while Jannik Vestergaard could be recalled at centre-back to start alongside Wout Faes, with Callum Doyle set to continue on the left side of a back four.

Mads Hermansen, Kelechi Iheanacho and McAteer could also return to the first XI, which would likely see Jakub Stolarczyk, Jamie Vardy and Marc Albrighton all drop to the substitutes' bench.

As for Hull, Greg Docherty (knee) and Dogukan Sinik (fitness) are not expected to return this weekend, but the Tigers were boosted by the return of both Ruben Vinagre and Allahyar Sayyadmanesh last time out, and the duo are in contention to feature against Leicester.

Ozan Tufan has made an impressive start to the new campaign by scoring four goals in as many Championship appearances – all four on home soil – and the Turkish playmaker is expected to continue in the number 10 role behind striker Liam Delap.

Rosenior is likely to stick with the same back four and centre-midfield paring that started against Bristol City, but there could be one or two changes in attack with Aaron Connolly pushing for a recall.

Leicester City possible starting lineup:
Hermansen; Pereira, Faes, Vestergaard, Doyle; Winks, Choudhury, Dewsbury-Hall; McAteer, Iheanacho, Mavididi

Hull City possible starting lineup:
Ingram; Coyle, Jones, McLoughlin, Greaves; Slater, Seri; Connolly, Tufan, Twine; Delap

We say: Leicester City 3-1 Hull City

Leicester cannot take Hull lightly on Saturday as the visitors have the attacking players at their disposal to cause problems in the final third. However, the Foxes should have enough quality of their own to outscore their opponents and maintain their perfect start to the new season.

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