Leicester City vs Southampton - Ranieri wants Leicester to keep enjoying home comforts

Posted Saturday, October 01, 2016 by PA

Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri has called on the champions to maintain their home dominance.

The Foxes have not lost at the King Power Stadium in the Premier League since September 2015, a club-record 18-match unbeaten stand.

Their last defeat came in a 5-2 defeat to Arsenal, 371 days ago, and they host Southampton on Sunday aiming for a third straight home league win.

While Leicester have been beaten by Tottenham and Chelsea in cup competitions in 2016, Ranieri has lost just 14 of 96 Premier League home matches with former club Chelsea and the Foxes combined, and he is eager to stretch the latter's record.

He said: "I hope to continue not making mistakes at home. This match is very important though, we have to be careful.

"We have make sure we continue to be solid at home, now we need to improve away. Maybe we've made some little mistakes away but I spoke with the players and I believe they understood my ideas and why we made the mistakes.

"I'm happy because when our fans come to King Power Stadium it's good, they say: 'at home we're very strong' and that's good."

Southampton drew 0-0 at Hapoel Be'er Sheeva in the Europa League on Thursday and lost 1-0 at the King Power during Leicester's title-winning run-in.

The Foxes beat Porto 1-0 in the Champions League on Tuesday and Ranieri wants them to bring their European form into the league after suffering three defeats already this season.

"I watched them on Thursday and they played very well, very solid, good positioning and are very dangerous," he said.

"It'll be a very tough match but it's good. We are up and down, in the Premier League we are so-so but in the Champions League we are good.

"You know I want the consistency, that was one of the keys of last season so I want to see the same spirit of the last match.

"There's no magic formula but we showed good concentration against Porto. Is it the music? Don't they like the Premier League music?

"I hope we can we can get a few matches in a row with a clean sheet."

Nampalys Mendy could return for the Foxes after overcoming an ankle injury.

The midfielder, who joined from Nice in the summer, has been out for over a month but has returned to training and could replace Daniel Amartey.

Matty James is the Foxes' only absentee as he battles his own ankle injury while Danny Simpson could return after being dropped for the win over Porto.

Meanwhile, midfielder James Ward-Prowse believes Southampton can head to the Premier League champions full of confidence.

Saints extended their unbeaten run to five matches in all competitions following the goalless draw in their Group K tie.

There will be little downtime for the squad ahead of Sunday's trip, when Southampton will aim to record a third straight Premier League win following victories over Swansea and West Ham.

"We have to keep building, but I think we are looking solid and confident at the moment. We have proven we were solid defensively," Ward-Prowse said on the club's official website, www.southamptonfc.com

"It would be great to get a win before the international break."

Claude Puel gambled by resting captain Jose Fonte, top scorer Charlie Austin, Ryan Bertrand and Steven Davis for the trip to Israel, while the Saints boss then went on to substitute youngster Jake Hesketh in the 35th minute - over concerns about the game's physicality rather than the 20-year-old's performance.

Nevertheless, the draw at a venue where the Israeli side are yet to lose since the stadium opened in September 2015, leaves Southampton in a solid position ahead of their glamour trip to Inter Milan at the end of October.

Ward-Prowse added: "We have given ourselves a really good chance to progress to the next stage.

"We have to continue and build on this. It's another game unbeaten and we have to take that into the rest of the games in this group."

Puel believes his squad can only grow from their experiences in Europe, adding: "It is important to keep a good calm and analysis, to build (towards) our qualification.

"It is not possible to win all the games and it is not possible to always to dominate and have many chances, so we did not concede a goal and will keep this point."