Leicester will look to continue their remarkable form this season when they travel to take on Liverpool at Anfield on Boxing Day.
The Foxes will enjoy Christmas Day at the top of the Premier League tree, while Liverpool sit 14 points further back in ninth place.
Liverpool
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Things have not exactly gone to plan for Liverpool since the appointment of Jurgen Klopp in October.
The Reds have been victims of the unpredictable nature of this season, but while there have been substantial high points - such as comfortable away victories over the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Southampton - the stats do not make for great reading.
Klopp has only amassed 12 points from his nine Premier League games in charge of the club - the same tally as Brendan Rodgers managed in the first eight games of the season.
Defeats have been relatively rare - just three in his 15 games - but those losses have been damaging. A home reverse at the hands of Crystal Palace halted Klopp's first winning streak in charge of the club, while Newcastle United upset the odds with a 2-0 win at St James' Park.
Perhaps the worst result yet under Klopp came last Sunday, however, as Watford swept Liverpool aside at Vicarage Road, running out deserved 3-0 winners to pick up their first home victory over the Reds since 1986.
It means that Liverpool are now four games without a win in all competitions and have picked up just one point from matches against Newcastle, West Bromwich Albion and Watford in what is turning out to be a damaging December.
Fortunately for the Merseysiders, the other expected challengers for a top-four berth are also dropping points regularly this season, so Liverpool remain only five adrift of the Champions League places.
The title talk which arose following the team's dismantling of former favourites Man City has now evaporated, though, and defeat on Boxing Day would see them fall 17 points off the pace set by Saturday's opponents.
It is not a good time to be facing the Foxes either. Even ignoring Leicester's form, Liverpool have been unconvincing at home all season, winning just one of their last four league games at Anfield and not managing a victory by more than one goal in front of their own fans since April.
Klopp ended the last home game with a celebration in front of the Kop despite only nicking a draw with West Brom via a 96th-minute deflected equaliser, but his complaints from that match are unlikely to be repeated this weekend against an attack-minded Leicester side.
Even so, finding the back of the net has been a problem for Liverpool this season. They have scored in just one game of their ongoing four-match winless streak and are the lowest scorers in the top half of the table.
However, the Reds have never lost a home Premier League game on Boxing Day, winning five of their eight outings.
Recent form: LWWLDL
Recent form (all competitions): WWLDDL
Leicester
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Throughout Leicester's incredible campaign so far, one of the constants has been Claudio Ranieri's insistence that his side's main focus is still avoiding relegation.
The fabled 40-point barrier is now within touching distance, and victory on Boxing Day would prompt the meeting in which the Foxes reassess their goals for the campaign.
Talk of a genuine title challenge has grown more and more serious by the week, and a place in the top four at least is certainly attainable for a team who this time last year were sat bottom of the pile, staring down the barrel of relegation.
It is perhaps that situation 12 months ago that is the reason behind the lingering scepticism surrounding Leicester's title challenge as, looking solely at the current campaign, they are comfortably the most credible candidates.
A 3-2 victory over Everton last weekend clinched Christmas number one and, while Arsenal's win against Manchester City on Monday night cut their lead to just two points, history is behind Leicester - five of the last six teams to have been top at Christmas have gone on to win the league.
It would surely go down as the greatest shock and perhaps the greatest achievement in Premier League history should Leicester pull that off, but there is no doubting that they currently occupy top spot on merit.
They have only been beaten once in all competitions this season, excluding penalty shootouts, and while no team has conceded more goals outside the bottom seven, Leicester's attacking record is the best in the division.
The two main reasons for that have been Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez, the latter of whom netted a brace at Goodison Park to make it 20 goals that he has directly contributed to this season - only two players in Europe's top five leagues have managed more, and neither are named Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.
The team's good form stretches back to last season's great escape, of course, with Leicester having now lost just twice in their last 26 Premier League games, winning 18 of those. Liverpool have picked up just eight wins in the same time.
The Foxes are now a club-record 12 Premier League games without defeat away from home, last losing on their travels at White Hart Lane in March. That makes them the only unbeaten away team in the league this season, and it is no surprise that they boast the best record on the road, picking up more points than they have in front of their own fans.
It is four away wins on the bounce ahead of their trip to Anfield, and they have scored three times in each of those victories to take their goalscoring tally to 21 in just nine matches on the road.
Recent form: WWDWWW
Team News
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Klopp faced a potential defensive shortage ahead of this match following the news that Martin Skrtel will miss the next six weeks, but Dejan Lovren is fit to return and should play alongside Mamadou Sakho at the back.
Simon Mignolet is also expected to be put straight back into the starting lineup after missing the Watford defeat with a hamstring strain, watching on as Adam Bogdan's howler set the Hornets on their way.
There is worse news on the fitness of others, however, with James Milner, Daniel Sturridge, Jon Flanagan and Jordan Rossiter all sidelined, while Danny Ings and Joe Gomez remain long-term absentees.
For Leicester, Vardy is expected to start having overcome a hamstring strain, but the match may come too early for Danny Drinkwater. Matty James and Jeffery Schlupp, meanwhile, are sidelined until mid-January.
Ranieri will be able to welcome Robert Huth back from suspension, though, and Shinji Okazaki will be hopeful of retaining his place having scored against Everton.
Liverpool possible starting lineup:
Mignolet; Clyne, Lovren, Sakho, Moreno; Henderson, Lucas, Can; Lallana, Coutinho, Benteke
Leicester possible starting lineup:
Schmeichel; Simpson, Huth, Morgan, Fuchs; Mahrez, King, Kante, Albrighton; Vardy, Okazaki
Head To Head
Liverpool have dominated the recent meetings between the two sides, winning four and losing none of their last six clashes in the Premier League.
Leicester's most recent victory came back in 2001, while they have not won at Anfield since a year before that, although they would have rarely entered a match with Liverpool as the favourites.
Last season the Foxes managed a point in a New Year's Day meeting on Merseyside, with goals from David Nugent and Schlupp cancelling out two first-half penalties from Steven Gerrard. At the King Power Stadium in December, Wes Morgan was shown a red card as Liverpool came from behind to win 3-1 after a Mignolet own goal.
We say: Liverpool 1-3 Leicester
There seems to be no stopping Leicester at the moment, particularly away from home, and with Liverpool unconvincing at Anfield this season, they will not be looking forward to the visit of the flying Foxes. Home fans will be squirming at the thought of Vardy and Mahrez closing down Sakho and Lovren, and most signs point to yet another Leicester victory here.
Barney Corkhill
