Leicester’s victory took them back to the top of the Premier League after Manchester City had lost 2-0 to Stoke earlier in the day.
Advertisement
Leicester, who spent a total of 140 days propping up the Premier League last season, the most by any club to avoid relegation, were too good for free-falling Swansea.
Despite receiving the ball inside the box and within striking range, Vardy didn’t hesitate, passing straight to Mahrez without a second thought.
The Algerian winger took his tally for the campaign to 10 goals, putting him joint-second behind 14-goal Vardy in the scoring charts and lifting Claudio Ranieri’s men two points clear at the top of the standings.
Stoke tore the visitors apart in the first 15 minutes, Swiss Shaqiri, known as “The Alpine Messi”, twice setting up Marko Arnautovic to score from close range.
“It was so pleasing to see that when Jamie had a chance to score, he passed to Mahrez so he could have his hat-trick”.
Manchester United drew nil-all with West Ham and now sit fourth, level on points with third placed City.
At the start of the season they had come off a tumultuous summer of hirings and firings, made a managerial appointment that many groaned at, and were predicted to occupy the depths of the Premiership ladder.
The Gunners though have now gone four top-flight games without keeping a clean sheet, their longest run since December 2014-January 2015 (six games in total).
Lifting the title at Stamford Bridge would be a fairytale for the Italian manager, but Ferguson believes the Leicester boss must convince his board to add to their small squad in January.
He said: “I was listening to Peter Schmeichel last week and what he was saying was fantastic talking about how people are under-estimating Leicester City and how people are under-estimating them”.
Just five teams have ever won the Premier League title; Manchester Utd have dominated the modern era of English football whilst Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester City and Blackburn’s names are also engraved on the trophy.
City now drops down to 3rd after Arsenal jumped into 2nd with a 3-1 win over Sunderland.
Arsenal were missing injured Alexis Sanchez and Santi Cazorla and looked a little ropey at times, but it was a comfortable win for the Gunners nonetheless, with a further two goals from Joel Campbell and Aaron Ramsey.
Aston Villa’s under-pressure manager Remi Garde is still awaiting his first win with the bottom club, who at least earned some comfort in a 1-1 draw at Southampton.
Tottenham Hotspur extended its unbeaten league run to 14 games, but was held 1-1 at West Bromwich Albion after Dele Alli had put them ahead at the Hawthorns with a fine volleyed goal.
Advertisement
“The club deserve better than what we are giving them”, Monk said.
