OMNISPORT

Leicester City returned to winning ways in the Premier League with a hard-fought 2-1 victory away to Norwich City on Saturday.

Jamie Vardy's penalty opened the scoring at Carrow Road for a Leicester team who made three changes from the loss to Arsenal, with Riyad Mahrez surprisingly left on the bench.

But Claudio Ranieri's side coped well without the Algeria international as Jeffrey Schlupp fired home a second just after the break to put the visitors in control.

Substitute Dieumerci Mbokani halved the deficit when he turned in Jonny Howson's cross before Leonardo Ulloa's header was ruled out for a foul on John Ruddy.

Norwich poured forward in search of an equaliser, but Leicester - marshalled by the excellent Robert Huth - held firm to secure their fourth win of the campaign, while Alex Neil's side remain on nine points.

Cameron Jerome shot just over the crossbar after a clever move involving Wes Hoolahan and Graham Dorrans as Norwich looked to attack the changed visiting backline from the off.

Leicester quickly found their feet, though, and Ruddy came to Norwich's rescue, denying Danny Drinkwater from close range after Vardy had failed to connect with a flick-on across goal.

But Ranieri's men grabbed the lead after 27 minutes, with Vardy finishing confidently from the spot after he was tripped by Sebastien Bassong when played through by N'Golo Kante, though contact appeared to be minimal.

Schlupp was inches from poking in Marc Albrighton's driven cross just two minutes later and Shinji Okazaki dragged an effort just wide at the end of the half, with Norwich struggling to recapture their earlier intensity.

Leicester almost gifted the hosts an equaliser straight from kick-off in the second half as Christian Fuchs headed narrowly over his own crossbar, but they doubled their advantage just a minute later. Kante cut in from the left on a quick break and his precision pass through to Schlupp was hit low past Ruddy and into the bottom corner.

Neil threw on Mbokani and the 29-year-old came within inches of a goal as his powerful header was kept out by the fingertips of Kasper Schmeichel and the crossbar.

But the former Dynamo Kiev striker had better luck in the 68th minute as he cleverly flicked Howson's cross into the bottom corner with the outside of his right boot.

Ulloa thought he had restored Leicester's two-goal advantage just a minute after coming on, but his header was disallowed after Huth was adjudged to have pushed Ruddy following a corner.

Norwich piled on the pressure and Schmeichel saved superbly at the near post from Nathan Redmond's fierce drive, but Leicester held on for maximum points.