Everton vs Leicester Prediction, Betting Tips & Preview

Preview

Haydn Cunningham Dec 15, 2015 @ 09:56 pm

Everton’s good run of form was pegged back by 18^th placed Norwich City as Romelu Lukaku’s goal was cancelled out by Norwich. It was the Belgian’s 7^th game in a row he has scored in and is in the best form since leaving Belgium as a teenager and coming to England for a substantial fee. Roberto Martinez has guided Everton to 6 unbeaten games in a row but has drawn 3 Premier League games in succession now after draws to Norwich, Crystal Palace and Bournemouth. They sit pretty comfortably in mid-table just 1 point behind their Merseyside rivals Liverpool but if they could’ve turned 2 of them draws into victories they would’ve been sitting in 5^th place. Everton do have a quarter-final tie to look forward to in the Capital One Cup against Manchester City but will be desperate to qualify for Europe this season and the Premier League is their best shot with Chelsea struggling.

Who can deny Leicester any of the success they’ve had so far? You would’ve been branded a fool had you bet on Jamie Vardy to win the golden boot and Leicester City to win the league but at odds of 2,500,000/1 you’d be laughing now. Vardy’s 15^th goal of the season against Chelsea followed up by Riyad Mahrez’s 11^thgoal of the season condemned the reigning champions to another defeat whilst also taking Leicester back to the top of the league. They’ve suffered just 1 defeat all campaign in the league and given their current form who can doubt whether Claudio Ranieri’s men can go all the way? They are an incredible 9 points ahead of Tottenham and can you imagine if the King Power stadium had Champions League football next season. Leicester are top of the form table with 19 points from a possible 21 and have also taken 14 points from a possible 18 from their previous 6 away league matches.

It is very even between these two sides in previous meetings with 10 draws in the past 13 games. 2 of them 3 victories also came by the odd goal which is an evident statistic of how close their games usually are. Both games last season finished 2-2 and the Premier League’s top 3 goal scorers will all be on display at Goodison Park Saturday afternoon. Vardy (15), Mahrez (11) and Lukaku (12) have performed heroics so far and are all largely responsible for their side’s presence going forward. Only Mesut Ozil prevents us from having the league’s top assistors on show too as Gerard Deulofeu and Mahrez have 7 assists each.

Martinez will be hoping he has James McCarthy back from his groin injury and is expected to resume training this week. Leighton Baines has slowly regained full fitness and made his first start of the season against Norwich City. Phil Jagielka is a massive loss for the Toffee’s and won’t feature again this year. One of Leicester’s main factors for their superb start is due to their lack of injury concerns. Ranieri is expected to name an unchanged side once again.

Everton 

Stats: W-5 L-3 D-8

Recent Form – WDWDD

Leicester City 

Stats: W-10 L-1 D-5

Recent Form - WWDWW

Head-to-head record:

Possible Line-ups

Everton (4-2-3-1) – Howard, Coleman, Funes Mori, Stones, Baines, Cleverley, Barry, Deulofeu, Barkley, Kone, Lukaku

Leicester City (4-4-2) – Schmeichel, Fuchs, Morgan, Huth, Simpson, Albrighton, Mahrez, Kante, Drinkwater, Ulloa, Vardy

Injury List/Suspended Players

Everton – Jagielka (inj), Browning (inj), Pienaar (inj), Oviedo (inj), Hibbert (inj)
Leicester City – De Laet (inj), James (inj)

Everton v Leicester Head to Head

League Positions