Everton vs Leicester City
Date: 01/01/2019
K/O: 12:30
Venue: Goodison Park
Referee: Martin Atkinson
TV: Sky Sports Main Event
The first Premier League game of 2019 sees Leicester City travel to Everton in a 10th vs 8th showdown.
The fixture can also be seen as the ‘battle for 7th place’, with these two clubs highly fancied to finish the ‘best of the rest’ before the season start. Despite showing glimpses of promise this season, both clubs have had their questionable performances and both will be looking to get the New Year off to the best start possible in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
Leicester will be looking for revenge after their 2-1 defeat in the reverse fixture at the King Power earlier this season. After Wes Morgan’s sending off in the second half a sublime strike from Gylfi Sigurdsson was enough for the Toffee’s to take all three points back to Merseyside.
While it is the red half of Merseyside who have been jubilant this season, this fixture presents Everton with the chance to kick-on and solidify their top half status. Despite blitzing Burnley on Boxing Day, the Toffee’s were bought down to earth last time out as they succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the Amex at the hands of Brighton. A similar story can be said for Leicester who after beating Chelsea and Manchester City, fell to a 1-0 defeat at home to Cardiff City; an extremely disappointing way to end the year for both sides.
Head to Head: The two clubs have met on 109 occasions with Everton having the slight edge over their counterparts. Leicester have won on 35 occasions the two sides have met with the Toffee’s being successful 42 times. The two sides have shared 32 draws while Everton have won the last two meetings by the exact same scoreline of 2-1.
Team News
Everton: The Blues have no real injury concerns ahead of the visit of Leicester. Ademola Lookman, who missed out on the defeat to Brighton due to an ankle injury, could return to the side yet a place in the starting XI is unlikely. As for Cenk Tosun and Morgan Schneiderlin, they were both left out in the defeat to the Seagulls and could return to the squad.
Gylfi Sigurdsson was dropped to the bench at the Amex but will likely return in the place of Gueye and James McCarthy is also ready for selection after recovering from his broken leg last season.
Leicester City: Claude Puel had complaints during the week that his side were suffering from fatigue so with this in mind he could mix up his squad ahead of the trip to Merseyside. Both Wes Morgan and Jonny Evans missed Saturday’s defeat to Cardiff due to illness but are both set for returns. Wes Morgan will likely replace Soyuncu and regain the captain’s armband next to Harry Maguire.
Marc Albrighton looked particularly tired on Saturday at the King Power and could be replaced by Rachid Ghezzal. The manager could elect to choose Iborra in the middle of the park to replace Ndidi or Mendy or could go back to the 4-3-3 formation used to great effect against Manchester City and Cardiff and decide to recall youngster Hamza Choudary to the matchday squad.
Predicted Starting XI’s
Everton (3-4-2-1): Pickford; Mina, Keane, Zouma; Coleman, Sigurdsson, Gomes, Digne; Walcott, Bernard; Richarlison
Leicester City (4-2-3-1): Schmeichel; Pereira, Morgan, Maguire, Chilwell; Ndidi, Mendy; Ghezzal, Maddison, Gray; Vardy
Score Prediction: Everton 2 Leicester City 2
The last four games between these sides in the Premier League has produced 14 goals so we are guaranteed goals in this one. Both sides do know how to score yet their defences have shown a lack of concentration many times this season. The Foxes will likely be happy with a draw away from home but this fixture will be a difficult one.
