Leicester City Previews: ‘Nothing but the Huth’ – East Midlands Blues vs Merseyside Blues
Leicester City vs Everton
29/10/2017
Kick off 3pm
Preview:
East Midlands Blues vs Merseyside Blues.
If you’re a fan of Pro Evolution football games, you’ll know all about the names of the teams, it was very funny.
The second part of Sky Sports’ Super Sunday this week comes from the King Power, where it’s the tale of two new managers. One of them being Claude Puel of course, the new Leicester boss, facing up against former Everton defender David Unsworth, who’s taken temporary charge following Ronald Koeman’s departure last week.
This game will be interesting for a lot of reasons, and it seems as if both sides are desperate for the win.
The advantage Leicester have was through their mid-week cup victory against Leeds United, whereas Everton lost 2-1 away to Chelsea. As a result Leicester reached the Quarter Finals, and will face Manchester City.
Leicester and Everton always seems to have goals, and you will see from the stats below, as well as my score prediction later on, that I’ll be anticipating a goal fest come Sunday afternoon.
Stats:
Since 2000, the most re-occurring score seems to be the draw.
Six of the last 13 games between the sides have finished as a draw; 2-2 being the main scoreline three times.
Only twice since 2000 have neither team scored at least one goal in games between these two sides.
The last time this happened was last season where Everton beat Leicester at the King Power 2-0.
The first game between the sides was all the way back in December 1908, where Everton beat Leicester Fosse 2-0, back in the old Division One.
Since then, there seems to have been a real swing in results, with games between these teams varying from scoreline to scoreline.
What I mean by this is overall, Leicester have won 34 games against Everton, with the visitors winning 40 times, ending with 32 draws.
So my point is, it would be hard to predict what two teams will turn up on Sunday and where the points will go.
Leicester’s biggest win against Everton was 6-2 in the 1926/1927 season, 90 years ago.
Everton’s biggest win however was remarkable 9-2 victory four years later in the 1931/1932 season.
Imagine being a neutral at those games, incredible!
On the road, the Toffees have been poor to say the least. No wins in four, and they’ve conceded at least one goal in those games.
They also have a poor goal scoring record away from home, with only 29% of their goals coming away from Goodison Park.
Furthermore, they’ve conceded on average around two goals per game, including home and away form in all competitions, which doesn’t bode well against a Leicester side full of attacking options.
Prediction:
It seems as if my reverse psychology has been working this season; picking Leicester to lose and they go and win…
(see my Swansea piece to clarify my point).
Yet, this is a game in which the pressure is firmly on the visitors.
Let’s be honest, Everton shouldn’t be anywhere near where they are. They need a win to kick start their own season, to give their players confidence for the Christmas run-in.
Leicester, on the other hand, want to get off to a flyer under the new manager.
Speculation surrounding Puel and whether he is or isn’t the right man for the job hasn’t helped, but let’s give him a shot.
Leicester winning would be perfect, especially in front of the home faithful.
Following on from that, I do actually have confidence and belief that we will win this game, so fingers crossed I’m able to pick out a Foxes victory, and watch them actually produce the goods.