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concern.” Everton boss Marco Silva admits his players are worried by their slump.
The Toffees have taken just five points from their last eight games and their four-match winless home run is their worst since Roberto Martinez was sacked in April 2016.
“I felt we were too nervous and anxious, and there is no reason,” said Silva after his side were booed off at the end.
“When you play in this way with easy mistakes, the bad things come to you and that’s what happened with the goal we conceded.
“We gave them the chance to do what they came to do. After that, if you were anxious or nervous, you will be more so.
“We didn’t play with enough quality to change the score.”
It may have been a new year, new start for Vardy in 2019, but it was the same old Everton.
They have 27 points after 21 games – the same tally they had at this stage last season with Sam Allardyce in charge.
Under Silva they have played some exciting football at times, which is an improvement on last term, but this wasn’t one of those times. Jonjoe Kenny, a surprise starter ahead of Seamus Coleman, came close to a spectacular opener when he fired against the woodwork.
Leicester were the better team but they were hardly at their best with passes constantly going astray.
But a mistake from Everton defender Michael Keane in the
58th minute allowed Ricardo Pereira to slip Vardy in. Vardy beat his former international team-mate Jordan Pickford with a clinical low strike with his left foot for his seventh goal of the campaign. Silva turned to Bernard and then the ineffective Cenk Tosun but there was no hint of an equaliser for the Toffees. They didn’t deserve one, either. Now the Everton boss must turn their form around or 2019 will be another year to forget for the blue half of Merseyside.
Pickford; Kenny, Keane, Zouma, Digne; Gueye, Gomes (Bernard 62); Walcott (Tosun 70), Sigurdsson, Richarlison; Calvert-Lewin. Subs: Stekelenburg, Baines, Mina, Coleman, Davies. Schmeichel; Simpson, Maguire, Evans, Chilwell; Ndidi; Ghezzal (Albrighton
46), Mendy, Choudhury, Pereira; Vardy (Gray 90). Subs: Ward, Soyuncu, Maddison, Okazaki, Fuchs. Martin Atkinson. BERNARDO SILVA admits the pressure is on Manchester City in their title crunch against Liverpool. City host Jurgen Klopp’s table-toppers tomorrow. Having allowed Liverpool to open up a seven-point lead, Pep Guardiola has warned his players that dropping any more points will be fatal for their hopes of retaining their crown. Playmaker Silva (left) said: “Is it must win? A little bit, yes. We know the pressure is a bit more on us because if we don’t win it will be difficult to go after them.
“We have to think we have to win every game possible to try to reach them, to close the gap. “We know we are seven points behind and if we win it will be only four. Seven or four is very different but we’ll put some pressure into them. “They’re unbeaten until now and we’ll try to end that.” City know exactly how Liverpool feel having been in the same position last season, when Guardiola’s side went into the New Year having made an unbeaten start to their league campaign.
That ended at Anfield in mid-January when Liverpool became the first side to beat them.
Silva said: “They’ve had a lot of clean sheets, an impressive defence. The front three, everyone knows how good they are.
“They work a lot. The midfielders work a lot, they press a lot. We know them and they know us.”
City will be pleased to see the back of 2018 after losing three of their final five games in December.
Striker Sergio Aguero added: “December didn’t pan out the way we wanted and we’ve got more ground to make up, so, yes, that makes the game more important.
“But we’re only in January and there are still plenty of games ahead of us. From the looks of it, there are three or four teams angling to win the title.”