Everton v Leicester City: Ndidi addition a big boost for flailing champions
After Nigerian midfieder, Wilfred Ndidi finally completed his £15m from Genk move to Leicester earlier this week, he is available to make his debut for Leicester at Everton as Leicester visits Goodison park for FA Cup third round.
Man City and West ham kick started the round three fixtures on Friday night as Pep’s Men spanked Bilic’s west ham 5 nil at the London stadium.
Ahead of today’s game against the Tofees, Coach Ranieri said:”Wilfried is available for Saturday and all is fine. I don’t know (if he will play). Let me see him in training,” said Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri.
“He is a very impressive player with a great future. He is tall and jumps very well for the headers, moves the ball quickly and recovers the ball very well. We have followed him a lot and we hope he will very quickly impress the fans.”
Everton, meanwhile, were knocked out at the semi-final stage by Manchester United last season and the FA Cup again represents their best chance of winning a first trophy since 1995.
Everton will be without Idrissa Gueye after the Senegal international headed off on African Nations Cup duty. Gueye has been influential for Koeman’s men this season and surely going to be missed but has to be replaced though.
Fellow Toffees midfielder James McCarthy and goalkeeper Maarten
Stekelenburg are not yet ready to make their returns to action, and forward Dominic Calvert-Lewin has been ruled out for up to eight weeks with an ankle injury.
Aaron Lennon is a doubt but Bryan Oviedo is fit again, while new signing Ademola Lookman is unable to make his debut in
this game as he is cup-tied.
Jamie Vardy could return for Leicester after serving his three-match ban for a red card in the Foxes’ 2-2 draw at Stoke last month.
Danny Drinkwater may also make his comeback after sitting out Monday’s 0-0 draw at Middlesbrough, as boss Claudio
Ranieri did not want to risk him after a knee injury.
Islam Slimani and Riyad Mahrez have joined up with Algeria for the African Nations Cup and Daniel Amartey has headed to Gabon with Ghana.
Key Stats via Opta:
Everton have lost just one of their last 11 FA Cup games at Goodison Park (W8 D2 L1), with six of those coming against top-flight opposition.
Leicester have suffered defeat in each of their previous two FA Cup meetings with Everton (2-3 in 1933 and 1-3 in 1968). Leicester have been eliminated in round 3 of this competition in two of the last three seasons, with both eliminations coming at the hands of Premier League teams (Stoke in 2013/14 and Tottenham in 2015/16).
Romelu Lukaku has scored six goals in his last six FA Cup appearances, though Everton have won on just two of those occasions. (D2 L2).
The Foxes have kept just one clean sheet in their last 16 away games in this competition.
A very tricky tie here at Goodison tonight, with both goals from both teams.
PREDICTION: EVERTON 2-2 LEICESTER CITY
