Friday night’s trip to Leicester City under the lights and live on television is the kind of fixture Blues are relishing.
Although the Foxes have well documented financial issues and uncertainty remains about the future of more of their star players, it’s a clash to savour.
With this new look version of Blues back at Championship level, Chris Davies is intrigued to see how they fare.
“This game is as big as they come,” he says.
“When I arrived at this club 14 months ago, the teams were as far apart as you could possibly be in some senses. One had just sort of comfortably gone up as Champions out of the Championship and one had been relegated to League one.
“So fast forward, obviously we’ve been promoted and they’ve been relegated, but Leicester away for any team this season will be as hard as it gets, no doubt.
“But it is a game that we’re looking forward to. It was an unknown coming back to the Championship. How would we do in these different games? And this is another real test away from home against a top side, who have been really strong at this level previously.”
Davies, who enjoyed success at Leicester as assistant manager to Brendan Rodgers, winning the 2021 FA Cup, says defending their wide threats will be key to earning a positive result.
Stephy Mavididi was not risked last weekend at Charlton Athletic as Leicester wanted to make sure he would be fully fit for Friday. And Abdul Fatawu scored a sensational goal at the Valley to snare Leicester’s second league win.
Davies notes: “They’ll have their two wingers, key players probably this season again, as they were when they went up last time. They’re really dangerous, very direct, quick, skilful.
“So in order to be effective against Leicester, you have to defend their wide players well. There’s no doubt about that. I think it’s pretty obvious when you watch them play. It’s going to be an important part for us defensively.”
Mavididi scored three times against Blues in the Championship two seasons ago. And he left Blues fans fuming after clambering over and then sitting on the advertising hoardings in front of the Tilton Road End in celebration of one of his two goals in a 3-2 victory against Wayne Rooney’s outfit.
The decision to be careful over Mavididi can be seen as a show of respect for Blues, in that manager Marti Cifuentes wants him in the best shape possible for the King Power visit.
“Definitely, I think that is a sign,” says Davies. “Someone mentioned that to me, which did surprise me, actually. But, yes, as I say, we are respected I think and we’ve earned that, with a decent start.
“But I also could keep saying we are a promoted team. We’ve just come out of League One and we’re coming up against a team that’s just come down from the Premier League.
“We have nothing to lose in some ways. We have to go for this because we’re coming to the end of the first block of games.
“A lot of the players can have a rest and a reset after this game as it’s the international break. A few will play (for their countries), but for us, we’ve got to be in a position to kind of throw everything at it and clearly Leicester will be feeling the same.”
Blues have a big doubt over Jay Stansfield (ankle) who got injured right at the end of Blues shock Carabao Cup defeat by Port Vale on Tuesday in a full-bloodied challenge.
Alex Cochrane made his comeback, as a substitute, after injury.
Demarai Gray, Bright Osayi-Samuel and Willum Willumsson were given the night off completely and are expected to return.
Davies took the opportunity to give debut minutes to Lewis Koumas, Kanya Fujimoto and Marvin Ducksch in midweek. Of the trio, Koumas shined, as the others continue to get up to speed after injury.
“I really liked his performance. I like players who play with intensity, energy and quality, and he’s got all three of those things. He was equally as effective over on the left or the right. He looked strong physically in the game.
“One moment, he fell down on the floor, got knocked down but was straight back up again, went after the ball and won it back. I think he’s going to fit in well to how we want to play. And that’s why we brought him in.”
Leicester have banked around £50 million in sales this summer after Kasey McAteer (Ipswich Town, £12 million) and James Justin (Leeds United, £10 million) became the latest departures.
Bilal El Khannouss remains a £32 million target for Crystal Palace and there is also doubt surrounding the futures of Harry Winks and Wout Faes.
