Nuno Espirito Santo’s side face a Boxing Day clash with the side at the bottom of the Premier League table, but the head coach believes Fulham will prove a tough test, despite their league position.
On preparations for Fulham
“From our point of view it will be the same, the approach will be exactly the same, so the game will tell us whether it will be harder or not.
“For sure, it’s going to be tough, because Fulham, we played them last season, they are the situations that they have, as the season goes by all the teams start fighting for their lives, so that changes the reality of the games. But it’s going to be tough, very tough.”
On Fulham’s evolution
“It’s different realities. In those moments both teams were fighting for different objectives that would get them promoted. Now the squads are totally different.
“I think we’ve stayed more with the core of our squad, maintained our main places. I don’t know if Fulham, the decisions that they made, but it’s not the same team that we found last season, so it will be totally different.
“What I see is that it will be difficult, they have a very good manager and they’ve tried to get back on their ideas and I see a better team.”
On Claudio Ranieri’s tactics
“What I expect is a very well organised team, a very well-balanced team, a team that is managed by a manager who is champion of the Premier League, so it’s going to be very difficult.
“Claudio is fantastic. I think we’ve played two times, that was the season after Leicester became Premier League champions. We lost and then we won.”
On threat of Aleksandar Mitrović
“When he came in he was a player who clearly helped them to get promoted, their performances were fantastic, a very good player.
“He’s one of the strikers who plays better when he has his back against the goal, so we will have to work on that, because he creates teams a lot of problems.”
On Diogo Jota availability
“We have to make a new diagnosis and hope to get him back as soon as possible, because all the options are very good to us.”
