Leicester City defeated Everton 2-0 yesterday to give new boss Claude Puel victory in his first match in charge.
Jamie Vardy finished a sweeping counter-attack and Demarai Gray benefited from a Jonjoe Kenny slice to put the Foxes 11th in the Premier League.
Everton, under caretaker David Unsworth after Ronald Koeman’s sack last Monday, remains in the bottom three.
The Toffees were largely restricted to long-range efforts, but probably should have had a penalty when Christian Fuchs brought down Aaron Lennon soon after Leicester’s second goal.
Though Everton dominated the second half, a lack of incision was indicative of a team that has scored only seven league goals this season and is winless in seven games in all competitions.
Leicester, meanwhile, has staged a turnaround since a run of six league games without a win cost former manager Craig Shakespeare his job.
The 2015-16 Premier League champions have now won three in a row in the top flight and EFL Cup – two under caretaker boss Michael Appleton and this maiden success for Puel.
Though Puel guided Southampton to the EFL Cup final last season, his appointment was greeted by derision in some quarters, especially after the Saints managed just 41 league goals last season.
In claiming victory on his bow at the King Power Stadium, Puel saw his Leicester side employ the method that brought them a shock title success little more than a year ago.
Everton had more of the ball, spent more time in the Leicester half and had more players in advanced positions – and yet the home side had the greater threat going forward, especially through their trademark counter-attacks.
Gray, in his first league start for a month, was excellent, and it was his electrifying pace that created Leicester’s first goal.
An Everton free-kick was headed clear, with Gray collecting the ball deep in his own half. He evaded three challenges and fed Riyad Mahrez, whose cross was finished at the back post by Vardy.
The second goal was tinged with fortune as Gray’s cross-come-shot from the left was sliced past Everton keeper Jordan Pickford by the unlucky Kenny.
The home side were under pressure for most of the rest of the contest, but a back four led by Wes Morgan rarely looked like being breached.
Unsworth has stated his desire to be given the reins at Goodison Park full-time and he stamped his mark on the Toffees by relegating £45m summer signing Gylfi Sigurdsson to the bench and giving first league starts of the season to wingers Lennon and Kevin Mirallas.
The early problems, though, were at the back, as the central defensive partnership of Phil Jagielka and Ashley Williams, with a combined age of 68, were exposed by Leicester’s pace.
By the time they showed anything positive, Everton were two down.
Whoever is given the Everton manager’s job will inherit a side that has only scored more goals than Bournemouth and Crystal Palace, conceded more than all but Palace and not won any of their past 13 away league games.
