Everton vs Leicester: Match preview, line-ups, quotes, form, injuries and how to watch

When and where to watch Everton vs Leicester

Everton vs Leicester kicks off at 5.30pm on Saturday 5 November.

You can catch all the action from  Goodison Park on NOW via BT TV.

Everton vs Leicester match preview 

Two teams in good form face each other in Saturday's late kick-off at Goodison Park.

Everton will be hoping to put in a similar performance to the one they displayed against Crystal Palace in their last home fixture. 

That 3-0 win saw Alex Iwobi controlling the midfield, with a forward threat from Anthony Gordon, Dwight McNeil and Dominc Calvert-Lewin, while defensively the Toffees remained solid with Conor Coady and James Tarkowski at the heart of their defence. 

With that strong defence and an attacking threat that has often been missing because of injuries, Everton now have a real reason to feel confident going into games.

Leicester look to have turned a corner, despite losing to the champions 1-0 at the weekend. 

Danny Ward is looking more comfirtable in goal and the Foxes' leaky defence has become more diciplined. James Maddison is dictating play in the midfield and Youri Tielemans is in fine form. 

It will be intriguing to see two of the league's star midfield men face off against each other on Saturday evening as Maddison looks to force his way into England contention and Alex Iwobi tries to continue his great form for the Blues. 

Everton vs Leicester predicted lineups

Everton: (4-3-3) Pickford; Coleman, Coady, Tarkowski, Mykolenko, Gueye, Onana, Gordon, Iwobi, Gray, Calvert-Lewin.

Leicester: (4-1-4-1) Ward; Castagne, Amartey, Faes, Justin, Soumare, Maddison, Tielemans, Dewsbury-Hall, Barnes, Vardy.

Everton vs Leicester: Injuries and suspensions

Frank Lampard will be happy that he has no new injury worries ahead of the visit of Leicester. 

Defender Nathan Patterson, who had been out injured for five weeks, made a substitute appearance at the weekend against Fulham. 

Ben Godfrey and Andros Townsend remain out until after the World Cup. 

Brendan Rodgers will make a decision soon on whether defender Jonny Evans will play. The Northern Irishman has been suffering from a calf issue that's kept him out of Leicester's last four matches. 

Rodgers said: "We’ll decide on that tomorrow (Friday). If it’s Saturday or Tuesday (against Newport County in the League Cup). It's been slower than we would have hoped.” 

Everton vs Leicester: Form guide

Both sides come into this fixture following an improvement in form. 

Despite a poor start to the season and a recent run of defeats against Man United, Spurs and Newcastle, Everton have secured four points from their last two matches. 

Their win at home to Crystal Palace was one of the Toffees' best performances of the season and was followed by an away draw against a Fulham side that has impressed this season under former Blues' boss Marco Silva. 

Defensively, Everton have been tough to break down, with four clean sheets in their last eight matches, including their last two fixtures. 

With Dominic Calvert-Lewin back and firing up front and Alexi Iwobi providing more assists (5) than any other player in the league besides Kevin De Bruyne (9), Everton are now looking good at both ends of the pitch. 

Despite losing their last match against Manchester City, Leicester's recent form has been on the up too. 

The Foxes defended resolutely against City and it took a wonderstrike from Kevin De Bruyne to break the deadlock. 

Prior to defeat at the weeked, Lecicester had taken seven points from nine. 

However, their latest loss has put them back in the relegation zone - a position no club wants to be in heading into the World Cup. The Foxes have two matches to move up the table. Rodgers commented on the matter: 

“If you have to look at the table for six weeks, it can play on your mind, but our plan is not to be in there."

Everton vs Leicester: Last time they met

The last game at Goodison between Everton and Leicester eneded 1-1.

Harvey Barnes opened the scoring after just five minutes to pile more pressure on the Toffees and manager Frank Lampard who were battling hard against the threat of relegation. 

However, in injury time, Richarlison popped up to salvage a point for Lampard's side - a valuable point that kept them four points clear of Burnley in the final relegation spot. 

He said what?!

Brendan Rodgers on Leicester's style of play moving forward:

“Manchester City is a unique challenge. Their the best possession team in world football. We limited them and felt we could have got something.

"Our next three games, we will go back to our normal ways, be on the ball, attack the game, be bold, and then look to defend well.

"Everton made a number of signings, freshened up the team, with some experience signings. They look a good team. We will have to be at our best.”

Everton vs Leicester: Players to watch

With Harry Kane's position for England secured and other England strikers such as Callum Wilson in such great form at the moment, it's likely that this World Cup has come just a bit too soon for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who has been out for most of the season through injury.  

However, with two matches left before the plane jets off to Qatar you just don't know. Anything is possible in football, and an injury to a striker could just leave the door ajar for Calvert-Lewin. 

Can he do enough to sneak into Southgate's squad? Everton fans won't mind too much as long as he's scoring for his club - with such a strong defence, his goals could prove the difference and propel Everton up the league. 

The absence of Leicester's legendary goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel has been blamed in part for the poor start to Leicester's season. 

In his four previous seasons at the club, Ward only made one Premier League appearance - though the Welsh stopper was oftern selected for cup matches. 

This season he's had some pretty big shoes to fill behind a leaky defence missing Wesley Fofana, who moved to Chelsea in the summer. 

But he's grown into the position and in resent matches has shown some great form - keeping clean sheets against Crystal Palace and Wolves and only being beaten by a worldie De Bruyne freekick against Manchester City. 

Brendan Rodgers said of his keeper: “It was always going to take time as Kasper had a legendary status here. Danny is starting to relax more. He's only going to get better.”

Everton vs Leicester: Key stats

• Leicester have only failed to score in one of their 16 Premier League away games against Everton, finding the net in each of their last 12 visits since a goalless draw in January 1999.

• Only Nottingham Forest and Bournemouth (28 each) have conceded more Premier League goals than Leicester this season (25), with the Foxes losing eight of the nine games in which they've conceded so far this term (D1).

• Everton have the fourth highest expected goals against total in the Premier League this season (21.2), but the fourth lowest overall goals conceded (12). Their record of conceding around nine goals fewer than expected is at least six more than any other side.

• Leicester have scored 21 Premier League goals this season, with an xG of just 13.7. Their overperformance by more than seven goals is bettered only by Manchester City so far this term (37 goals, 24.4 xG).

• Only Kevin De Bruyne (9) has provided more assists in the Premier League this season than Everton's Alex Iwobi (5). His average of 1.7 chances created per 90 minutes so far this term is his highest in a single season for the Toffees.

• Having been involved in eight goals (6 goals, 2 assists) in his first nine Premier League appearances against Everton, Leicester striker Jamie Vardy hasn't scored or assisted in any of his last three against the Toffees, with the Foxes losing all three of those games.