Exeter Chiefs head coach Rob Baxter is looking forward to embarking on a “huge month” for the club, starting with Saturday’s mouth-watering Aviva Premiership visit of Leicester Tigers to Sandy Park (6pm).

It is more than four weeks since the Chiefs were last in league action, during which time they have secured themselves an Amlin Cup quarter-final trip to Stade Francais in April, but seen their participation in the LV= Cup end.

However, it is the bread and butter of the league that the Chiefs are most interested in, as they seek to improve on their current sixth place in the Premiership table.

Three of their next four games are at home, giving them an excellent chance to pile up plenty more points, with a top-six finish getting them into the Heineken Cup next season, and a top-four place securing a Premiership play-off semi-final spot.

Matches do not come much bigger for Exeter than a home game against last season’s beaten Premiership finalists, Leicester.

“It is a huge month for the club and our aspirations,” said Baxter. “We are 19 points from the bottom of the table, only 16 points from the top, and sat in a big group of teams in that middle section.

“Teams that get some positive results over these next four weeks will climb the table, and others will settle into the half of the table they don’t want to be in.

“It is a great opportunity for us, we will be fresh and raring to go, we will have good training sessions this week and we will have a bumper crowd at Sandy Park for the game.”

Exeter will be aiming to complete a famous double over the Tigers, having triumphed 30-28 at Welford Road on the opening day of the season – a result that should give them a lot of confidence going into Saturday’s game.

“We played well up there, and we actually do normally play well against Leicester, which is a nice thing,” Baxter added.

“You have to make sure you don’t take that for granted, but we will just look to attack the game and enjoy getting stuck into what will be a tough match, but that is what we are good at, and performing well and seeing what we can get out of things.”

Leicester are set to have Ben Youngs, Toby Flood, Dan Cole, Martin Castrogiovanni, Tom Croft and Geoff Parling all on Six Nations Championship duty, and Louis Deacon is injured. Talented England centre Manu Tuilagi might return from a calf injury, but the Tigers will still pose a huge threat to Exeter.

“They may be missing a few more than normal, but they will be strong, they always are,” said Baxter.

“They are always good games against Leicester. I don’t think we have ever had a poor game against them, and I know myself and the players are looking forward to it.

“I think we can pretty much guarantee a sell-out crowd, so there is going to be a tremendous atmosphere on Saturday.”

Fly-half Flood has been on the sidelines with an injury for several weeks, and missed England’s Six Nations trip to Scotland, but he made his comeback in Leicester’s LV= Cup match against Newcastle Falcons the same day and is back training with the England squad this week.

After Exeter’s next four Premiership games, they will have a two-week break – on March 10 and 17 – while the LV Cup semi-finals and final take place.