Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
Jamie Vardy will be having an extended Christmas party but in fairness I doubt he planned it to be as long as this. That’s because he now has to serve a three match ban after after his tackle on Mame Biram Diouf earned him a Red Card away at Stoke last Saturday. A Red Card which has been mired in controversy due to many feeling that it wasn’t worthy of that punishment.
But the Red Card stands and today Claudio Ranieri will have to make do without Vardy as his Leicester side play host to Everton at The King Power. They come into this game off the back of earning a spirited a point against Stoke when it looked like another away defeat was on the cards.
That was because they were not only a man light but also 2-0 down to Mark Hughes’ side going into the interval. Stoke looked to have the game wrapped up but late goals from Leonardo Ulloa and Daniel Amartey gave last season’s Champions an unlikely share of the points.
That draw sees them 15th in the table and they will look to take the momentum from that hard earned result into today’s game against Everton as Ronald Koeman’s players will look to get over the misery of that late late Merseyside Derby defeat on Monday night.
It was a heartbreaking defeat for Everton at Goodison Park at the start of the week. In what was a derby that was played at 100 mph an hour the home side looked like they had done enough to earn a point but in a game that had eight minutes of injury time it was going to have to be a job done right until the end.
Unfortunately though Daniel Sturridge was hand to slot home in the 94th minute to give Liverpool all three points and break Everton hearts. The reason there was so much injury time was due to the fact that Maarten Stekelenburg suffered a dead leg and as a consequence he will miss today’s trip to Leicester.
Everton currently find themselves 9th in the table although had they managed to see the game out on Monday they would have been in 7th going into these Boxing Day fixtures. Ronald Koeman will no doubt be concerned that his side have only won 2 from their last 10 matches and if they are going to have any hope of getting into the European places that is a run of form that has to improve.
Going to Leicester won’t be an easy task even without the suspended Jamie Vardy. For all their faults on the road Leicester are still making The King Power a tough place to get a result and Everton will have their work cut out if they are to do so Today.
A key issue for Everton will be the lack of service that Romelu Lukau seems to be getting as of late. With all the talk of him signing a new contract this week it would also be beneficial if the club signed a new winger or two so that he can get the service he so greatly needs.
That new contract and a new winger are still somewhere in the near distance and that is not going to help Everton this afternoon. I think they may well be able to bounce back from that gut wrenching defeat to Liverpool but I think they will have to make do with a draw on their travels. I reckon this one will be a share of the points.
