Michael Duff makes Burnley claim on Leicester City | OneFootball

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Swansea City boss Michael Duff believes Leicester City are better than Burnley were during their Championship title-winning season last term, making this claim to the BBC.

Leicester have made an excellent start to the campaign, sitting at the top of the table on 30 points after winning 10 of their opening 11 league games of the 2023/24 campaign.

Their only loss in the Championship so far this season came at home against Hull City - and even though the Tigers had opportunities to score more than one - the Foxes were arguably unlucky not to come away with a point or three.

They had chances to get themselves back in the game, but Liam Rosenior's side defended brilliantly.

That defeat came just before the first international break of the season - and they have managed to put that setback behind them - with Enzo Maresca's men now in an excellent position to guide themselves back to the Premier League at the first time of asking.

Ipswich Town could overtake them in the table tonight with the Tractor Boys facing Rotherham United, but the Foxes couldn't have done much better and will be satisfied with their start.

They may have an excellent squad at their disposal - but plenty of changes were in the summer with the team still adapting to a new style of play - and the likes of James Maddison and Harvey Barnes were sold.

How good were Burnley during the 2022/23 season?

Vincent Kompany's side had a fairly mixed start to last season - but they were extremely consistent for much of the campaign.

Cashing in on the likes of Nick Pope, Nathan Collins, Dwight McNeil and Max Cornet last year, the Clarets needed to bring enough quality in to give themselves a chance of sealing a quick top-flight return.

And owner Alan Pace sanctioned some excellent signings, which gave Kompany a great chance to add a promotion to his CV.

This is what he was able to do, with the Clarets playing an attractive brand of football and getting up to a total of 101 points, just five points shy of Reading's 106-point record.

The Foxes are currently on course to smash the Royals' 2005/06 total.

What did Michael Duff say about Leicester City and Burnley?

Although the Clarets were excellent last term, Duff believes Leicester are even better than Kompany's side were.

He told the BBC: "I think they [Leicester] will win the league. I think they are better than Burnley last year, which probably tells you everything.

"We will have to suffer without the ball at times because they are a very good team, but what we don't want to do is just sit in a block of 10 men behind the ball and hope to survive for 95 minutes.

"I think we have proved in the last few weeks that we can play and that we can defend. We will have to be at our best, no doubt about it, but there's no apprehension. We will go out intent on trying to win the game."

Are Leicester City better than Burnley were?

It would be a difficult task for Leicester to be better than the Clarets, but you can't dispute much of what Duff said.

Managing to make a better start to the season than the Lancashire side did, the Foxes have the players at their disposal to be even better than last season's title-winners.

How many points they manage to get on the board will probably determine who is seen as the better team - but during the early stages of this season - Leicester are proving to be the superior outfit at this point.

That isn't an insult to Burnley because they were superb.

But Leicester have made an excellent start to 2023/24 and are only likely to improve in the coming months as they continue to adapt to Maresca's style.