Leicester City went outright top of the Premier League table with a strong 3-0 win over Stoke City at King Power Stadium on Saturday.
Danny Drinkwater opened the scoring with a well-struck effort from outside the box in the 42nd minute to open his league scoring account for the season.
The Foxes went two goals ahead on 66 minutes when Jamie Vardy netted his first goal in seven outings, taking his season tally to 16, when he raced onto a beautifully chipped ball from Drinkwater, rounded Jack Butland, and slotted home into an empty net.
The contest was wrapped up three minutes from regular time when Riyad Mahrez danced his way deep into the area before cutting back for Leonardo Ulloa to slide it home.
The win has Claudio Ranieri's side sitting pretty on top of the standings with 47 points while Mark Hughes' Potters dropped to ninth with their eighth defeat of the campaign.
MATCH OVERVIEW
Leicester City: 3 (Danny Drinkwater 42', Jamie Vardy 66', Leonardo Ulloa 87')
Stoke City: 0
King Power Stadium, Leicester - 32,018
TALKING POINTS
- Leicester still daring to dream? Can they pull off the impossible?
- Stoke seemingly brushed aside by a rampant Leicester. Is this merely a blip? Are they good enough to safely finish in the top half?
WHAT'S NEXT?
Leicester next host Liverpool on February 2 whereas Stoke have a busy schedule with Tuesday night's Capital One Cup semi-final second leg against Liverpool at Anfield, Saturday's FA Cup fourth round at Crystal Palace and the league trip to Manchester United next week.
TWITTER INSIGHT
Great performance by the boys. Atmosphere was amazing as always. And a special mention to @robert_huth what a free kick #trainingroutine
— Jamie Vardy (@vardy7) January 23, 2016Nice goal and assist from the English Pirlo . #fearless@LCFCpic.twitter.com/4pe5aBbPQ3
— Christian Fuchs (@FuchsOfficial) January 23, 2016it's an important week, 2 big cup games, starting at Anfield tomorrow!! got to bounce back from the poor result Saturday! #SCFC
— Jack Butland (@JackButland_One) January 25, 2016
QUOTES CORNER
Leicester boss Ranieri on his side's current position:
"It was very important to be top of the league at the end of January because now February is a month that is very, very tough. Liverpool, Arsenal, City - it is unbelievable. But we are ready to fight.
"Now the players will have three days off, to clear the minds. And when they come back we restart to work hard because the league for us is very exciting."
Stoke's Hughes on the performance of his sides:
"You can't win Premier League games if you don't have a good number of players playing really well, which we didn't have.
"We needed to be better but we'll be looking to bounce back quickly - we have managed to do that more often than not. We have a huge game on Tuesday and I expect my team to respond very quickly."
STATS SPECIALS
*Thanks to Opta
10:17 - Jamie Vardy has ended his personal goal drought of 10 hours & 17 minutes without a goal in the Premier League. Bang.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 23, 20161 - Leicester City have become the final team to score a goal from outside the box this season in the Premier League. Range.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) January 23, 2016