Palace boss Hodgson, who became the oldest person to take charge of a team in a Premier League fixture, watched on as his side clinically defeated its host to increase the pressure on opposite number Claude Puel.

Michy Batshuayi reacted swiftly to divert a wayward long-range drive from James McArthur beyond goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel for the only goal of the first half at King Power Stadium.

Leicester equalised through Jonny Evans, the centre-back marking a notable milestone of his own by scoring on his 250th appearance in the competition, but Wilfried Zaha struck twice to sandwich a Luka Milivojevic penalty as Palace ran out a comfortable winner.

Jamie Vardy, recalled to the starting XI after scoring and missing a penalty in a cameo appearance off the bench in the 3-1 defeat away at Tottenham Hotspur last time out, glanced an early header narrowly over in a first half devoid of opportunities at both ends.

However, Palace claimed the lead five minutes before the interval, Batshuayi's quick reactions to stick out a right leg seeing him score in the Premier League for the first time since October 2017.

Having struggled to create much, Leicester copied its opponent's example to grab an equaliser 19 minutes into the second half.

After Palace failed to clear a long throw into their penalty area, Harvey Barnes snatched at a shot to inadvertently set up Evans, who had gone up for the set-piece opportunity, for a first-time finish.

Yet the optimism at the equaliser soon dissipated when Palace snatched the lead back, McArthur's clever clipped cross picking out the unmarked Zaha to side-foot in.

Evans's clumsy trip on Jeffrey Schlupp set up penalty expert Milivojevic and Zaha rubbed salt into the Leicester wounds with a fourth in added time, although by then plenty of the home crowd had already headed for the exits.