Why Liverpool vs Leicester is kicking off at unique time on Boxing Day plus talkSPORT commentary for Premier League clash

Liverpool will be looking to extend their lead at the top of the Premier League table against Leicester in Boxing Day’s late kick-off. 

The Reds came out on top of a nine-goal thriller at the weekend, putting in one of their best performances of the season to beat Tottenham 6-3. 

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Arne Slot’s side were relentless and moved clear of Chelsea in top spot with their latest win, continuing their form heading into this game at Anfield. 

They welcome Leicester who have lost their last two matches, conceding seven goals in total against Newcastle and Wolves without scoring one. 

Ruud van Nistelrooy started his tenure with the Foxes well, but now his men are only sitting above the relegation zone by two points. 

Liverpool vs Leicester: Kick-off time

This Premier League clash will take place on Thursday, December 26. 

Kick-off at Anfield is scheduled for 8pm. 

This is the latest kick-off on Boxing Day and the game was moved to the unique time simply due to the TV scheduling this week. 

All of the games after Christmas will be broadcast live on Amazon Prime.

Amazon have split the fixtures throughout the day, with one starting at 12:30pm, five at 3pm, one at 5:30pm and this game at 8pm. 

This means there will be fewer clashes and allows Amazon to reach the biggest audiences for their festive fixtures. 

Liverpool vs Leicester has been handed the later slot, just as Manchester United vs Aston Villa was last season as they kicked off at 8pm too. 

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• Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 12 Premier League home games against Leicester (W10 D2), since losing three in a row between 1997 and 2000.
• Leicester have won just two of their last 12 Premier League games against Liverpool (D1 L9). They’ve had three runs of three consecutive defeats in this run (including a current one), but they’ve not lost four straight league games against the Reds since between 1987 and 1996.
• Liverpool have won their last seven league games played on Boxing Day, the longest current run among any side in England’s top four tiers, and the Reds’ longest ever such run.

Liverpool vs Leicester: talkSPORT coverage 

talkSPORT will have EXCLUSIVE live coverage of the game. 

Adrian Durham will be your host while commentary comes from Mark Wilson and former Watford striker Troy Deeney. 

To tune in to talkSPORT or talkSPORT 2 through the website, click HERE for the live stream. 

You can also listen via the talkSPORT app, on DAB digital radio, through your smart speaker and on 1089 or 1053 AM.

talkSPORT.com will also keep you up to date on the action in our dedicated live blog here. 

And as well as this, all of the other Boxing Day fixtures will be live across our network this week. 

• Leicester have won just one of their last 10 Boxing Day league games (D2 L7), with that coming in 2018-19 against eventual champions Manchester City.
• Liverpool are unbeaten in their last 21 matches in all competitions (W18 D3). It’s their longest run without defeat since a streak of 25 between April and November 2021, and their longest within a single season since a run of 24 between January and May 1989.
• Liverpool have conceded eight goals in their last three Premier League games, as many as they had in their first 13 under Arne Slot. However, the Reds have scored at least twice in each of their last nine league games, their longest such run since September-December 2021 (11).

Liverpool vs Leicester: Team news 

The busy festive schedule usually leads to plenty of rotation, but Liverpool may not want to change their team after beating Spurs. 

Luis Diaz and Cody Gakpo were preferred to Diogo Jota and Darwin Nunez in that game while Dominik Szoboszlai starred in midfield. 

Ryan Gravenberch is available after avoiding a suspension for five yellow cards for now, but Ibrahima Konate is still out injured. 

If Slot does rotate, Curtis Jones, Harvey Elliott and Konstantinos Tsimikas could get some minutes along with Wataru Endo. 

As for Leicester, Harry Winks has only just returned to fitness and may not be able to start, meaning Oliver Skipp and Boubakary Soumare will be in midfield. 

Wilfred Ndidi is still out injured while Abdul Fatawu and Ricardo Pereira are going to be out of action until deep into the new year. 

In goal, former Liverpool shot-stopper Danny Ward is likely to keep his place as No.1 Mads Hermansen has been sidelined for a couple of weeks. 

Jamie Vardy looked to have potentially picked up a knock at the end of their last game, but he’s not expected to miss out at Anfield. 

• No current Premier League player has been involved in more goals (6) or provided more assists (4) on Boxing Day than Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah.
• Mohamed Salah has scored 99 goals in 141 home games in the Premier League (2 for Chelsea, 97 for Liverpool). If he scores, he will become the eighth player to score 100+ on home soil in the competition, and fourth-fastest, after Alan Shearer (91 apps), Thierry Henry (113), and Sergio Agüero (125).
• Leicester striker Jamie Vardy has scored eight Premier League goals against Liverpool, with only Andrew Cole (11) and Harry Kane (9) netting more against the Reds in the competition. At the age of 37 years and 350 days, Vardy would also be the oldest player to score a Premier League goal against Liverpool with a goal in this game.