Leicester City 3-1 Crystal Palace: Champions get back on track

Leicester City regained their domestic swagger and made it 20 Premier League games unbeaten at the King Power Stadium with a 3-1 victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday.

Jamie Vardy was dropped to the bench and his replacement Ahmed Musa opened the scoring.

Shinji Okazaki doubled the advantage for City, who had won more points in the Champions League than the Premier League before this game.

Christian Fuchs celebrated signing a new three-year deal with the club by netting his first goal from the club with a fabulous 25-yard strike.

Yohan Cabaye notched a late consolation for Palace, who have now lost back-to-back games and have failed to keep a clean sheet in the last 14 Premier League outings.

The Premier League champions left out Vardy, who was without a goal in nine games with Musa slotting in on the left wing and Islam Slimani through the middle.

Scott Dann was only fit enough for the bench for Palace as they made one change to the 1-0 defeat against West Ham with Cabaye replacing the injured Jason Puncheon.

The Foxes were quickly into their stride. Okazaki really should have done better on two minutes after Palace goalkeeper Steve Mandanda misplaced a pass to him but he chipped over from 25 yards.

That was as good as it got for the hosts in an opening 25 minutes dominated by Alan Pardew's men.

The best chance fell to Christian Benteke who crashed a header against the crossbar on 13 minutes from Martin Kelly's cross.

Last season's PFA Player of the Year, Riyad Mahrez, influence on the game started to grow as the half wore on and Leicester began to threaten.

The winger cross-come-shot from the right flank was headed over by Okazaki on 34 minutes but the net did bulge eight minutes later.

Musa found space on the edge of the area and despite having Mahrez on the overlap, he decided to go for goal and found the top corner with a crisp strike.

That goal set the platform for Leicester to push after the break and they made it 2-0 on 62 minutes. 

An attack down the left dropped at the feet of Okazaki, who smashed a low effort into the bottom corner from 15 yards.

Two became three on 79 minutes when Fuchs pinged an effort with his left-foot from 25 yards straight into the net. 

Cabaye went close for Palace minutes later but Kasper Schmeichel made a smart save at his near post.

He was picking the ball out of the net six minutes later though when Cabaye, from a similar position as his earlier chance, flicked the ball through Robert Huth's legs and into the corner of the net. 

It was nothing more than a consolation as Leicester sent on Vardy with 15 minutes to go and they came close to extending their lead in injury time through Mahrez.

Player Ratings

Leicester: Schmeichel (7), Simpson (7), Morgan (6), Huth (7), Fuchs (8), Mahrez (7), Drinkwater (7), King (7), Musa (8), Okazaki (7), Slimani (7)

Subs: Vardy (7), Amartey (6)

Crystal Palace: Mandanda (5), Ward (6), Tomkins (6), Delaney (6), Kelly (6), McArthur (6), Ledley (6), Cabaye (7), Townsend (5), Zaha (8), Benteke (6)

Subs: Fryers (6), Lee (6), Campbell (6)

Man of the match: Ahmed Musa