Jamie Vardy’s rise from the wilderness of non-League football to playing for England, scoring in 10 consecutive Premier League matches and leading Leicester City to the top of the table reads like a story from an outdated comic book.
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Should Vardy miss today’s game but score in his next appearance, the Premier League has confirmed that his record will still count.
That said, Leicester sit one point back from league leaders Arsenal and Manchester City for a reason.
The 28-year-old Leicester City frontman notched on the stroke of half-time during his side’s away meeting with Newcastle United.
Vardy grabbed the opener with a crisp finish as Leicester cruised to a 3-0 win at Newcastle United – a result which took Claudio Ranieri’s men to the top of the table, although they can be overtaken by Manchester City if they beat Liverpool in the late kick-off.
Leonardo Ulloa scored his first goal of the season to make it 2-0 before substitute Shinji Okazaki rounded off the victory with a scrappy tap-in. “Tottenham are a name at home and in Europe and now we need to be clever to improve”, he said ahead of Sunday’s game with West Ham United.
“I have matched Ruud van Nistelrooy’s record and we have got the three points and clean sheet”, he said.
The Foxes forward shook off pre-match concern over a hip injury and blasted home in first-half stoppage time to move level with ex-Manchester United striker Van Nistelrooy’s streak of scoring in consecutive fixtures.
Having passed a late fitness test prior to kickoff, Vardy was presented with an early chance to equal Van Nistelrooy’s record after six minutes.
For the second weekend running Leicester found themselves two goals behind but they got back into the game and Vardy earned his team a draw midway through the second half, holding off Erik Pieters and scuffing a shot beyond Jack Butland.
With the January transfer window approaching, speculation is mounting about which Newcastle players could be targeted by other clubs at the turn of the year.
SPANISH LEAGUE: Luis Suarez scored twice and Neymar added a goal and an assist to lead Barcelona to an emphatic 4-0 win over Real Madrid.
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Newcastle – unchanged from its 1-0 win over Bournemouth – failed to deal with an Albrighton corner and the loose ball dropped to the England global, but his effort was well blocked.
