At half-time of their Boxing Day encounter with Manchester City, Hull City were holding their own against a team tipped to win the Premier League title. Things were looking good for Mike Phelan’s men as they restricted the visitors free-flowing style of football in the first half and played well in patches, including a header cleared off the line in the second half.
However, for all their hard work and endeavour it was a clumsy challenge in the penalty area, which led to Manchester City taking the lead. Once behind in the match, there was no way Hull were going to force their way back and it ended 3-0, condemning Hull to their third straight defeat and fourth in five Premier League games.
Everton travelled to Leicester on Boxing Day without an away win since September and Ronald Koeman would have been pleased to go in at the interval all level at 0-0. Just 6 minutes into the second half and things got even better for the Toffees, as Kevin Mirallas pounced on some poor concentration at the back from Leicester, to open the scoring direct from a long ball by his goalkeeper, Joel Robles. Leicester created chances to score an equaliser but Robles was equal to them and Romelu Lukaku sealed the points by firing home their second goal in stoppage time. The result breathed some much-needed life into Everton’s season, which was in danger of drifting away to nothing.
Although Koeman has been under pressure this season, the spotlight will be firmly on Hull manager, Mike Phelan ahead of this match. If it wasn’t for Bob Bradley at Swansea, Phelan would be the favourite to be the next manager to go in the Premier League. Trends show Hull have failed to win any of their previous seven Premier League games and have picked up only 2 points from a possible 21 available. It’s now just one win from their last sixteen league games and Hull are rooted to the bottom of the table because of their very poor form. At home, they conceded at least one goal in their last eight Premier League games and having found the back of the net twice at Leicester, Everton will fancy their chances of scoring in this game. In fact, there has been an average of 3 goals scored per game in Hull’s last nine home matches, so an away win with over 2.5 goals scored is a distinct possibility.
Everton have been far from spectacular away from home in the Premier League this season in terms of results but they have been involved in some highly entertaining matches. In their previous six games in the road, they have been involved in games averaging 3 goals scored, which falls nicely in line with the prediction of over 2.5 goals for this match.
Everton must come into this match as favourites and Phelan needs something special from his players, if he is to stay in charge of the club into the New Year. One interesting element to look out for in this match is the possibility of a penalty. Hull have conceded nine penalties this season, four more than any other team and will need to keep their discipline at the back, to avoid giving Everton a late Christmas gift, as they did against Manchester City on Boxing Day.