Vintage Leicester destroy Liverpool, minus Raneiri

It was a classic Leicester City display as the relegation-threatened champions destroyed Liverpool 3-1 at the King Power Stadium in their Premier League tie.

The performance came after a hectic and shaky weekend where Leicester sacked their Premier League winning manager Claudio Raneiri and media reports blamed the players for it. As Jamie Vardy even admitted post the match, the players responded to all that bashing and criticism in style by showing that they aren't off the hook yet.

Just like the Leicester of 2015-16 season, they didn't have much possession, Liverpool had much more complete passes and passing accuracy, yet it were Leicester who walked away with the important three points.

Right from the start, Leicester showed the flair, intent and passion that made them the champions and ran over the Liverpool midfield. Midfield tackles, important interceptions, constant break of flow and explosive pace upfront — they were the Leicester who won the Premier League 2015-16 with a 10-point difference.

Vardy was at his best as he made himself big upfront, looked to attack on the break constantly and guided his teammates to perform to the best of their abilities.

Leicester's constant threat upfront proved too much for Liverpool's shoddy defence. Though Liverpool was playing with the ball more than the Foxes, it was the Foxes' timing and precision that earned them the advantage. In the 7th minute, Vardy assisted Shinji Okazaki into the centre of the box who headed the ball in the bottom right corner only for Mignolet to make a comfortable save and that heralded Leicester's launch of attacks on the night.

Liverpool's Philipe Coutinho was the only consistent attacking force in an otherwise lacklustre squad of Jurgen Klopp. Sadio Mane, who generally dazzles in the forward line, kept going down way to easily and failed in attempts at fooling the referee. The first goal of the match in the 28th minute was taken right from the Leicester playbook of 2015-16 as Vardy got to the end of a wonderful through ball by Marc Albrighton and shook off the split-open Liverpool defence to shoot into the bottom right corner past Mignolet.

Despite going a goal down, Liverpool's midfield didn't display any fight-back and proved to be the Reds' downfall. Applying relentless pressure, Leicester got another goal on the scoreboard in the 39th minute by the sheer magnificence of Danny Drinkwater. After a half-baked clearance by Liverpool, Drinkwater showed superb technique to lash home a cracker into the bottom right corner with his first touch.

After attempts from Coutinho, Mane and Emre Can, which were all saved by Kasper Schmeichel, Liverpool defence was yet again guilty of not keeping hold on Vardy and he punished them as the clock struck an hour when he headed home a cross from Christian Fuchs into the bottom right corner.

3-0 down, Liverpool attempted to respond with might but the now-comfortable-with-the-scoreline Leicester defence put up a compact opposition for the Reds. The brightest Red of the Anfield, Coutinho finally got to the end of a pass from Can in the 68th minute and struck the ball into the bottom right corner to get a goal back.

But it was a little too late as the Foxes strategised and re-grouped thwart everything that Liverpool threw at them.