Leicester City-Everton Preview
Leicester City are at risk of being stranded at the foot of the Premier League.
Five points from safety and without a point in their last four league games, Nigel Pearson's Leicester (4-5-16) are feeling the pressure - and that's just on the pitch. Couple the team's recent form with Pearson's controversial touchline antics and you have a club very much in crisis.
Defeats to Manchester United and Arsenal in recent weeks are excusable, but Pearson will be hugely worried about his team's lack of cutting edge in losses to Crystal Palace and Stoke City, and even more concerned about conceding twice to the top-flight's worst goalscorers Aston Villa in last weekend's FA Cup defeat.
Only Burnley and Queens Park Rangers have worse defensive records than the Foxes this season, while only the record-breakingly goal-shy Villa have scored fewer than Leicester's 22 in 25 games.
Summer signing and former England centre-back Matthew Upson has finally overcome a foot injury to take his place in the heart of the Leicester defence in the last two games, and the veteran defender insists that there is still hope of Premier League survival amongst the players, despite their perilous position.
"The commitment of the club and the manager, given the position we are in, is unquestionable. That is important," Upson said. "I think we have a very good group. We are high-energy and the attitude is first-class.
"We have to keep encouraging each other to have the ball and to try things, do things right and give everything because when you do that you have a chance of winning a game. If you tighten up and clamp up, you go on to the back foot and then at that point we are in trouble. We have to be absolutely relentless with it. If we keep doing that then things can start to fall for you. That is what we have to hang on to."
Sunday's trip to Goodison Park to face Everton (6-9-10) will be seen by Leicester as a great chance to get back to winning ways. Roberto Martinez's Toffees have won just one of their last nine league games and are firmly stuck in the bottom half of the table after a hugely disappointing season to-date.
The Merseyside club will also be faced with the challenge of a tough game just four days after a trip to Switzerland to play Young Boys of Bern in the Europa League on Thursday evening. However, at least confidence will be high in the Everton camp following a rampant 4-1 win in Bern, thanks in no small part to a Romelu Lukaku hat-trick.
"I've always said Rom is quite unique because you don't get many players with that pace and power," Martinez said of his big-money striker. "He is a great target in our build-up play, but then in the same manner when the game was stretched tonight, his penetration, his desire to get on the end of things and then three clinical finishes was huge for us. He deserved his hat-trick and he also had two or three more good opportunities to perhaps get more."
Everton played a strong side on Thursday evening and will be unable to heavily rotate for Sunday's game due to the absence of the injured Tony Hibbert, Aiden McGeady, Steven Pienaar and Leon Osman.
Leicester City will be hoping to have Chris Wood and Kasper Schmeichel back after injury, and Pearson will be tempted to start January signing Andrej Kramaric after his goal against Villa last weekend.
It was a 2-2 draw when these teams met on the opening day of the season. There were just six shots on target in the match (three apiece). That result was the twelfth draw between Everton and Leicester in 17 all-time Premier League meetings.