Evans’ New Year Newcastle Confidence
- Jonny Evans speaks to LCFC TV ahead of Sunday’s Premier League trip to Newcastle United
- The Northern Ireland defender says Leicester City can point to their 3-0 success at St. James’ Park last season as a source of encouragement
- Evans believes the Magpies with prove difficult to break down on Sunday
City surged to a 3-0 Premier League victory over the Magpies at the start of the year, and their first fixture of 2021 also sees them face Steve Bruce’s side in the north east.
Former Newcastle man Ayoze Pérez opened the scoring before two excellent goals from James Maddison and Hamza Choudhury sealed the points for the Foxes.
“It’s a game we’re looking forward to,” Evans told LCFC TV ahead of Sunday’s match. “We played them actually on New Year’s Day last year.
“It’s a similar time of the year to be playing them, and hopefully, we can put in a performance like we did last season. It was a very good victory for us.
Goals: Newcastle 0 Leicester City 3
Watch all the goals from the from the Foxes' 3-0 win at St. James' Park.
“I think you can always look back to the season before and remember how you performed. That can definitely give us confidence.
“We scored some great goals that day, and some of our play, I think we played with three at the back that day and we changed the formation for that game.
“Some of the football we played was really, really good, and there were some great finishes. I think [James] Maddison was on the scoresheet and Hamza [Choudhury] nicked one.”
This term, under the management of Steve Bruce, Newcastle currently sit 14th in the Premier League with 19 points from 15 outings, and on Wednesday held leaders Liverpool to a goalless draw at St. James’ Park.
Evans said of this weekend’s opponents: “They’re a team that like to sit back and try and make it difficult for teams, and try to hit teams on the break.
“There’s one of the home games, when Brendan first came in, they managed to get a result against us at King Power Stadium and we were able to rectify that the next season.
“We know that they’re going to be tough to break down. Steve Bruce will have them really well organised, and that will be the challenge for us – to try and break them down and get a goal early on in the game.”