Everton Women's manger, Brian Sørensen has claimed Sunday's clash against bottom of the league Leicester City will see his side come toe-to-toe with a "tougher opponent than playing against Aston Villa".

The Blues fell to a 2-0 defeat at Walton Hall Park on Sunday as Kenza Dali's early goal and Megan Finnigan's own goal meant Villa returned to Birmingham with all three points.

However, the Everton manager believes playing against an "unorthodox" and "hard to play against" Leicester side will prove to be more of a test for his players.

Sørensen reinforced how difficult the Foxes can make the ninety minutes when saying: "they are more unorthodox in the way that they do things, they are very compact centrally and they are super aggressive; that is not always the most fun thing to play against".

The 42-year-old recognised his side were "not good enough" last time out in the Women's Super League and cited poor finishing and pass accuracy as the main reasons for falling to defeat.

Sunday's loss made it three consecutive games without a goal for the Blues, but the Danish national reassured fans and reminded them of their goal-scoring exploits this campaign: "We scored three against Tottenham, Reading and West Ham.

"We played (Manchester) United in one of those three games and then we had the FA Cup game where we saved a lot of players so I do not think it will effect our goal-scoring."

The tie will be held at the King Power Stadium, which can hold a capacity of up to 32,000 spectators.

Sørensen acknowledged the importance of playing in such a big stadium, but also said: "I think you saw that at the Anfield game, we do not get rattled by it or the allocation is too big for us.

Even though it is a young team, they have a fair amount of games played in big stadiums. We are happy being there, we love it."

  • The league

The Toffees go into the fixture as obvious favourites with a win taking them to within a point of fifth-placed Aston Villa, with a game in hand.

Their opponents are rock bottom of the first division, and have recorded only six points all season, losing 11 of their 13 games played.

They have seen an up-turn in form recently though, after the arrival of former-Everton manager, Willie Kirk. The Scot has overseen two victories in his first four games in charge, with his side hopeful of remaining in the division come the end of the season.

The Everton manager said: "I do not see why they cannot (stay up). There are not that many points in it and there are still a lot of points to play for. I think they look more aggressive and together."

When asked about his own teams' league position, Sørensen stated: "We do not think about being 'best of the rest', we just focus on our performances and then try to do as well as possible in each game. We look at the table when we play the last game against (Manchester) City.

"We want to get back to winning for sure and it is a great opportunity".

Everton vs Leicester City at Walton Hall Park (Photo by Naomi Baker via Getty Images)
Everton vs Leicester City at Walton Hall Park (Photo by Naomi Baker via Getty Images)
  • Injuries

Due to Emily Ramsey sustaining an injury away on international duty, the Blues signed goalkeeper, Eartha Cumings on an emergency loan from Merseyside rivals, Liverpool.

Ramsey is recovering up to schedule it was confirmed, with her condition described by the 42-year-old saying: "her treatment is going well. She is off the boot and is doing rehab exercises for the ankle. It is hard to say, is it three or four more weeks? Is it five or six? It depends on how the rehab is going, we are not putting a timescale on it and are assessing it week by week.

"She is improving and well and I am happy that we could get Eartha in because we were a bit short in the 'keeper situation when Emily went out."

Sørensen confirmed there are no new injuries to be reported, with the squad only getting stronger after it was revealed that Hanna Bennison has recovered from sickness and will be in the squad for the Leicester game.

The manager said: "Benni was not available this weekend because she was sick but she is in, and is ready again."