Leicestershire

Leicester City visit Preston North End on Saturday (15:00 BST) as they aim to recover from their Carabao Cup loss to Huddersfield Town on penalties in midweek.

The Foxes did manage to scrape a win over struggling Sheffield Wednesday in the their opening Championship match though, while Preston earned a point at QPR before squeezing past League Two side Barrow via an own goal in the cup.

• Preston North End have failed to win any of their last five league games against Leicester City (D1 L4), since a 2-1 win in September 2009 courtesy of goals from Richard Chaplow and Neil Mellor.

• Leicester City are unbeaten across their last seven away league games against Preston North End (W3 D4), winning 3-0 on their last visit to Deepdale in April 2024.

• Preston have won their opening home game in just one of the last five league campaigns (D1 L3), with that win coming against Sunderland in 2023-24 (2-1).

• Leicester have won four of their last five league games at this level (L1), netting 2+ goals in each victory including a 3-0 success at Deepdale in April 2024.

• On MD1 of the 2025-26 Championship season, Leicester City's Bilal El Khannouss provided more assists than any other player (2), both of which came from dead balls, while no player created more chances than his four.

Image source, Getty Images

Jeremy Monga became Leicester City's youngest ever starter in Wednesday's Carabao Cup penalty shootout defeat by Huddersfield at the age of 16 years and 34 days old.

He beat a record which had been held for 59 years by legendary former Foxes and England goalkeeper Peter Shilton, who made his debut in a 3-0 victory against Everton in May 1966 at Filbert Street at the age of 16 years and 228 days.

Monga was a second-half substitute for Leicester in their opening day Championship win against Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday and made seven substitute appearances in the Premier League last season.

However, the EFL Cup tie signalled his first start for the club.

The winger was booked in the 14th minute and played an hour for the Foxes before being withdrawn for Stephy Mavididi.

And, after the match, boss Marti Cifuentes spoke glowingly of Monga and 16-year-old team-mate Louis Page, who also made his first-team debut as a half-time substitute.

"'I'm a big believer in Jez, I'm a big believer in Louis, they are here because they are showing their quality," Cifuentes told BBC Radio Leicester.

"Now, my job is to make sure they are not just here to make their debut but to make sure they succeed in the long term.

"[Wednesday] was a scenario that was not easy because there was a little bit of pressure around him [Monga] around the yellow card and I think that he coped really well with that with his personality.

"We tried to protect him a little bit, that's why we subbed him. In my eyes, he was doing a good job but we want him ready for this Saturday."

Image source, Rex Features

Leicester boss Marti Cifuentes believes his side "should have done better" after they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup on penalties by Huddersfield at the first round stage.

The Foxes led twice at the Accu Stadium, only to be pulled back by their League One opponents, and the 43-year-old spoke of his frustration after the game.

"Disappointed in the performance, disappointed obviously in the final score and I think we should have done better, Cifuentes told BBC Radio Leicester.

"Unfortunately, I think the first half was poor and we should never have conceded the two goals like we did.

"My feeling in the first half was we were very slow - we spoke about it at half-time that against oppositions that perhaps are not that aggressive on the press we need to make sure that we move the ball quicker.

"Unfortunately, we couldn't move the ball quick and then we went too long.

"Every time we lost the ball we couldn't react quickly enough to regain the ball immediately and that created an up and down game."

Wrexham have registered interest in Manchester City defender Callum Doyle but face competition from Coventry City, Leicester City and Norwich City for the 21-year-old Englishman. (Football League World), external

Want more transfer news from the EFL? Take a look at Wednesday's gossip column here.

"He always had that sense of humour about him, he will be sorely missed, you can't think of a stadium announcer at Leicester without thinking of him."

Former Leicester winger Matt Piper joins Owynn Palmer-Atkin and Kate Wattam to pay tribute to Bradley Varnam, who has died aged 56.

Foxes defender Luke Thomas also shared his thoughts after the 2-1 win over Sheffield Wednesday on Sunday.

Listen to the full episode of When You're Smiling and more on BBC Sounds.