Watford will be looking for their first win in over a month when they host Leicester on Boxing Day.

The Hornets have faded after a positive start to the season and have lost five of their six matches in the Premier League.

Speaking after their 1-0 defeat at Brighton on December 23, manager Marco Silva denied that speculation over his position was linked to the poor run of results.

"It doesn't make sense this comparison. Nothing changed in the club," Silva said. "Today we had one game to prepare with three players banned, with five or six players injured. At this moment we have big problems to find the solutions for our starting XI.

"We need to find these solutions as soon as possible because it's a lot of games in a row and it's not easy to make the rotation, it's not easy to start the game with our best XI."

Leicester have been heading in the other direction to Watford with four wins in their last six league games. They scored a late equaliser in their last game to claim a 2-2 draw against Manchester United.

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Team news

Marvin Zeegelaar and Abdoulaye Doucoure will return from suspension for Watford.

Defender Zeegelaar has completed a three-match ban following his red card at Burnley earlier this month and midfielder Doucoure is available again after serving a one-match suspension for collecting five yellow cards.

Captain Troy Deeney is in the middle of a three-match suspension, while Kiko Femenia, Will Hughes (both hamstring), Younes Kaboul, Craig Cathcart, Nathaniel Chalobah, Isaac Success (all knee) and Miguel Britos (knock) are also unavailable to Hornets manager Marco Silva.

Daniel Amartey is banned for Leicester after his dismissal against United on Saturday. The Ghana international replaced the injured Danny Simpson in the second half, but collected two yellow cards in 16 minutes.

Simpson is a doubt for the trip to Vicarage Road with a hamstring problem, leaving Claude Puel with a headache at right back, while Matty James (Achilles) and Robert Huth (ankle) remain sidelined.

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Opta stats

Including play-off games, Watford haven't kept a clean sheet in any of their last 16 meetings with Leicester, last shutting them out in a 1-0 win at Vicarage Road in February 2008.

The Foxes have won four of their six Premier League games against Watford (D1 L1), but just one of those wins has come away from home (1-0 in March 2016).

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Among current Premier League clubs, Watford have played the most games on Boxing Day without recording a win (W0 D2 L2).

Leicester have only won one of their 11 Premier League games played on Boxing Day (D2 L8), losing each of the last three in a row.

Merson's prediction

I watched Watford on Saturday (losing 1-0 at Brighton) and they were all over the place defensively and Brighton really should have won 3-0 or 4-0. They were the much better team and I just cannot believe what has happened to Watford. And I am going to go for Leicester to win this, Watford are all over the place and have hit a brick wall at the moment, while Riyad Mahrez looks like he has the bit between his teeth, Leicester look pacy, so I am going to go for them to win 2-1.

PAUL PREDICTS: 1-2 (9/1 with Sky Bet)

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