How Leicester City line up at St Andrew’s with Jamaal Lascelles and Joe Aribo thrown straight into the side
13:46, 07 Feb 2026Updated 13:52, 07 Feb 2026
Joe Aribo is Leicester City’s first signing of the winter transfer window(Image: Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
Jamaal Lascelles and Joe Aribo have been handed their Leicester City debuts and number one Jakub Stolarczyk has been dropped as Andy King makes five changes to face Birmingham.
Deadline-day recruits Lascelles and Aribo come straight into the side, not only make their first City starts, but their first starts all season, with both players out of favour at Newcastle and Southampton respectively.
But there are further changes to the team, most notably in goal, where Stolarczyk has been dropped to the bench, with Asmir Begovic coming back in.
Begovic did play a handful of games when Stolarczyk was injured in November, but this is the first time he’s been preferred to the Pole.
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Elsewhere, it’s the fit-again Oliver Skipp, and not Harry Winks, who replaces the injured Hamza Choudhury at the base of the midfield. There’s a further change up front, with Patson Daka coming in for Jordan Ayew.
Lascelles, whose last appearance came in September, is needed at centre-back with no other central defenders available. Caleb Okoli is suspended and Jannik Vestergaard remains injured.
Ben Nelson will play alongside the new signing, with Ricardo Pereira and Luke Thomas at full-back.
In midfield, Aribo replaces Louis Page and will play the box-to-box role, with Skipp behind him and Bobby De Cordova-Reid ahead of him.
In attack, Abdul Fatawu and Stephy Mavididi flank Daka, who is seeking his second league goal of the season.
Among the substitutes are fellow new signings Divine Mukasa and Dujuan Richards, while Victor Kristiansen also returns from a knee injury. There’s no place for Silko Thomas, Wanya Marcal nor Kevon Gray.
City: (4-3-3): Begovic; Ricardo, Nelson, Lascelles, Thomas; Skipp, Aribo, De Cordova-Reid; Fatawu, Daka, Mavididi.
Subs: Stolarczyk, Aluko, Kristiansen, Winks, Page, Mukasa, Richards, Monga, Ayew.