Most people expected these two sides to be challenging for the European spots at the start of the season, however, they are both struggling to make their mark after poor results.
It is remarkable to think that last season’s champions are currently finding themselves in a relegation battle. Apart from an astonishing win against early season title favourites Manchester City a couple of weeks ago, The Foxes have been in terrible form with just that one victory in their last eight matches. However, there were signs of improvement last weekend as Claudio Ranieri’s side, with a man less, came from 2-0 down to snatch a 2-2 draw away at Stoke City.
Leicester’s title win last season was built on a strong defence, something that has taken a hit following the loss of N’Golo Kante to Chelsea over the summer. The Foxes have only kept three clean sheets so far this campaign which is costing them dear given they rely heavily on counter-attacking football.
Fortunately, despite their poor results, the champions do still look threatening going forward with 23 goals in 17 matches, scoring in all but one of their last nine games.
Luckily they still have their excellent home record intact with just one Premier League defeat at the King Power Stadium since September 2015. Claudio Ranieri’s men seem to play with extra bite on their own patch which will give them confidence going into this match against Everton.
Despite a run that has seen them win just two league matches since 17th September, Everton still somehow find themselves in the top half of the table. They have picked up points here and there and will feel they should have taken a draw from the Merseyside derby on Monday – which they lost – however, unfortunately Ronald Koeman’s side have found themselves on the end of a number of disappointing defeats.
Although on paper The Toffees defence is one of the strongest in the league, they have been under-performing and have not kept a clean sheet in any of their seven matches since 30th October. They do look a bit better going forward but are still too heavily reliant on Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku who has scored almost half of Everton’s 21 goals this campaign. They need midfielders to start chipping in with some goals if they want to win matches and move up the table.
Everton made an impressive start away from home with two wins out of two away from home, however, since then it has been all downhill with just one point from a possible 18 on their travels. Additionally, they are currently on a four match losing streak and so a trip to a side as good at home as Leicester is hardly what is needed to improve that statistic.
For some odd reason, the away side have been made the favourites by several bookmakers here and I cannot for the life of me understand why. Leicester are much better on their own patch than on the road, while Everton haven’t been far short of awful away, surely only one result here? At the prices, ‘Leicester City Draw No Bet’ is too good to pass up.
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