Vardy goal fires Leicester
Jamie Vardy rescued a dire match with an eye-catching celebration as his goal secured Leicester City a 1-0 win away at Everton in their New Year's day Premier League fixture on Tuesday.
The 31-year-old showed remarkable agility after scoring in the 58th minute for a result that sees The Foxes move into seventh, seven points adrift of Arsenal who occupy the Europa League fifth-placed spot.
Leicester boss Claude Puel made four changes from the team that lost to Cardiff City on Saturday, including leaving midfielder James Maddison on the bench, while Marco Silva recalled Brazilian Richarlison to his starting line-up.
After a poor first half, the decisive goal came when Everton defender Michael Keane mis-controlled the ball to Ricardo Pereira, who sent Vardy through. The striker made no mistake with a low drive past Jordan Pickford before celebrating with a cartwheel in front of the travelling Foxes fans.
Gylfi Sigurdsson blasted over from a promising position for Everton but Leicester should have doubled their lead when Harry Maguire somehow missed the target from point-blank range.
Everton, with just one win from their last eight games have now failed to win in their last four home matches while the win moves Leicester up into seventh place, on 31 points, four behind Manchester United.
Everton boss Silva was frank in his assessment of his team's performance.
"A disappointing result, poor performance to be honest. In this moment we have to be honest and look clear at the game.
"Poor performance since the first minute, we knew what they came here to do, playing a 4-5-1 and waiting for our mistake," said the Portuguese who accepted his players looked nervous.
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