Things are looking up for both Leicester City and Arsenal, who prepare for battle in Saturday's early Premier League kickoff at the King Power Stadium.
The Foxes overcame a resilient Brentford 2-1 in their last top-flight encounter, while Mikel Arteta's side brushed aside Aston Villa by three goals to one.
Match preview
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The green ticks are finally arriving for Brendan Rodgers and Leicester after a challenging start to the 2021-22 campaign, although they became the latest side who were forced to do it the hard way at the Brentford Community Stadium last weekend.
Youri Tielemans and James Maddison struck either side of Zanka's leveller to make it back-to-back wins for the Foxes in the Premier League, while a four-goal showing from Patson Daka helped them see off Spartak Moscow in the Europa League earlier this month.
Leicester's fourth win on the bounce in all competitions came in Wednesday's EFL Cup contest with Brighton & Hove Albion - although they had to rely on their penalty prowess to progress after a frustrating 2-2 draw on home soil - but Rodgers's side are finally living up to expectations.
Now unbeaten in four Premier League games - taking eight points from a possible 12 in that hot streak - Leicester find themselves ninth in the table after nine matches, above this weekend's visitors Arsenal albeit only on goal difference.
The Foxes have also scored at least two goals per game during their four-match unbeaten league run, but with Rodgers's side also failing to keep a clean sheet in the league since the opening day of the season, Arsenal's attackers will endeavour to take advantage.
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Producing perhaps the best 45 minutes of football that we have seen from them this term - barring the North London derby flurry - Arsenal found a new cutting edge against Villa to soar into a first-half two-goal lead thanks to Thomas Partey and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's goals.
Emile Smith Rowe's deflected effort would seemingly put the tie to bed before Jacob Ramsey's stunner gave Villa a small sense of hope, but Arsenal held out to respond in the perfect way after only just rescuing a point against Crystal Palace.
The Gunners' route to the EFL Cup quarter-finals was more straightforward than that of Leicester's, with super sub Calum Chambers and former Whites loanee Eddie Nketiah both netting in the second 45 minutes to chalk up Arsenal's sixth win in eight across all tournaments.
Arteta's side navigated the month of September unbeaten in the top flight and will aim to repeat that trick in August, as a tally of 14 points taken from the last 18 on offer has seen them rise to 10th in the rankings, but they can only boast one goal away from home all season.
However, Arsenal have emerged victorious from their last two trips to the King Power - winning 3-1 in this Premier League fixture last term - but Leicester have claimed four top-flight wins of their own against the Gunners since 2018.
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Team News
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Leicester talisman Jamie Vardy - who boasts 11 goals in this fixture - was taken off after just 45 minutes against Brentford with a sore knee, but Rodgers is confident that the striker will be fine to line up from the first whistle here after a midweek rest, although Ayoze Perez and Ricardo Pereira have emerged as doubts.
James Justin, Marc Albrighton and Wesley Fofana all remain sidelined, though, while Wilfred Ndidi is also not expected to return until after the next international break, with Boubakary Soumare continuing in his place.
The likes of Timothy Castagne and Kelechi Iheanacho are set to return to the first XI after being benched in midweek, with Harvey Barnes and Ademola Lookman set to drop out despite their goals in the EFL Cup.
Meanwhile, Arsenal have been struck with a winter bug as Pablo Mari and Martin Odegaard both sat out the win over Leeds, while Ben White had to come off midway through the encounter with the illness.
Arteta is hopeful that the trio's sickness will subside in time for the weekend, but Kieran Tierney is more of a doubt with his ankle problem, with Nuno Tavares hoping for another opportunity after an eye-catching full debut.
Granit Xhaka remains out for the long-term, and it would not be surprising to see Arteta stick with the 4-4-2 system from the win over Villa, with Alexandre Lacazette and Aubameyang starting together up top.
Leicester City possible starting lineup:
Schmeichel; Amartey, Soyuncu, Evans; Pereira, Soumare, Tielemans, Castagne; Maddison; Vardy, Iheanacho
Arsenal possible starting lineup:
Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Tierney; Saka, Partey, Lokonga, Smith Rowe; Aubameyang, Lacazette
We say: Leicester City 2-2 Arsenal
One may side with a Leicester win had Ndidi and Fofana both been available, but the Foxes are gaining momentum nonetheless and have had no problem producing prolific performances in recent weeks.
However, Arteta will hope to see his 4-4-2 work to great effect once again for the in-form Gunners, and we just cannot split the two sides on this occasion and are backing them both to continue their unbeaten runs with an entertaining draw.
Top tip
Ben Knapton
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a Arsenal win with a probability of 38.26%. A win for Leicester City had a probability of 35.53% and a draw had a probability of 26.2%.
The most likely scoreline for an Arsenal win was 0-1 with a probability of 9.7%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 1-2 (8.37%) and 0-2 (6.52%). The likeliest Leicester City win was 1-0 (9.28%), while for a drawn scoreline it was 1-1 (12.46%). The actual scoreline of 0-2 was predicted with a 6.5% likelihood. Our data analysis correctly predicted that Arsenal would win this match.
