Leicester made a big call in changing their manager early in the season, but it already looks to be paying off.
There was some bafflement from the general public when Leicester City chose to sack manager Craig Shakespeare earlier this season.
Shakespeare, previously Claudio Ranieri’s assistant, had inspired a fine run last term and the fixture list was perhaps unkind at the start of this campaign as the Foxes struggled.
And further bemusement followed when Claude Puel – with a reputation damaged by a middling spell at Southampton – was appointed as the new Leicester manager.
Puel has worked hard to answer his critics in the opening weeks of his tenure, though, and finally, on Tuesday night, he landed a result which he could reasonably claim justifies his hiring.
Shakespeare lost Premier League games to Arsenal, Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool before that trend continued under Puel with defeat against Manchester City.
But Leicester finally showed their class against a top-six side when Tottenham Hotspur were sent packing this week, with Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez hitting form.
This win and this performance showed that Puel would not follow Shakespeare in pointing to the fixture list as a defence of Leicester’s form.
Given that the Foxes won the Premier League title just two years ago and invested heavily in the last few transfer windows, there should be no excuses for repeated failures – Puel’s big victory has ensured that remains the case.
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