Everton 0-1 Leicester

Jamie Vardy scored in the second-half as Everton slumped to a fourth loss in five league games as they lost 1-0 to Leicester City at Goodison Park.

Vardy was the only man on the scoresheet on New Year's Day, as Everton's poor league form continued.

A 5-1 win at Burnley has been Everton's only highlight of a somewhat rotten festive period; conceding 12 in five games and failing to score in their previous two now.

Leicester have now beaten Manchester City, Chelsea and Everton in the space of a month as they continue their climb up the Premier League table.

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How it Happened

The game, beforehand, looked a very good one on paper. With two teams who love to attack, at speed, with extreme talent.

However, the first 20 minutes of the match was a terrible advert for the Premier League, with both teams struggling to hold onto the ball for long at all.

Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel had a much more relaxing afternoon than he'd have expected.

Schmeichel was only tested on two occasions; both by substitute Cenk Tosun, with the first one being with relative ease and the second one, more of a test of the Dane's reactions.

Everton defender Michael Keane was the man at fault, after he tried controlling a long ball by Leicester, which was pounced upon by Ricardo Pereira and he played it to Vardy who made no mistake

Vardy had scored the first Premier League goal of 2019, and celebrated in extravagant style with a backflip.

As before mentioned, the Toffees were poor and struggled to break the Leicester defensive line down, and Claude Puel's men marched on for a huge three points on Tuesday.

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The Managers

Everton boss Marco Silva: "It was a disappointing result and a poor performance, to be honest. We always have to be honest and we have to look clearly at the game and analyse the match calmly and to pass the feedback back to our boys.

"If you look at our last few results, they haven't been consistent but there is no reason to be so anxious and so nervous. Even at the start of the match and in many moments, the fans were behind us and there is no reason for the nerves."

Leicester City manager Claude Puel: "I think we can have better situations in the first-half with the ball recovery but it was perfect with good timing and a good moment to score this goal. We've had some difficult balls to play in the second-half but the togetherness and organisation from the team was perfect.

"It was a difficult challenge, of course. Everton are a team with a lot of ambition, character and strengths. This moment is a busy period, all the players are tired and they have had to play like us. But the most important thing is to show our strength in this moment and to handle the situation in the right way."