Five-star Fulham leave limp Leicester looking down as fightback falls short

Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha must have enjoyed better Bank Holiday Mondays. But the Leicester owner, who saw his side ripped apart by a rampant Fulham side that were unlucky to only find themselves 3-0 up at half-time thanks to goals from Willian, Carlos Vinícius and Tom Cairney, may fear that the worst is yet to come.

While interim manager Dean Smith will point to the way his players briefly fought back after Cairney made it four through consolation goals from Harvey Barnes and a James Maddison penalty, a missed spot kick from Jamie Vardy and another goal for the evergreen Willian only rubbed salt into the Leicester wounds. With a stern-faced Srivaddhanaprabha watching on from the stands as Fulham maintained their quest to reach a record points total in the Premier League under Marco Silva, Leicester’s concerns are mounting at the other end of the table.

With their final three matches against Champions League-chasing Liverpool at home, then Newcastle away before entertaining West Ham on the final day, Smith will know opportunities are quickly running out as his side hover precariously above the relegation zone. His appointment last month to replace Brendan Rodgers was a massive gamble by Srivaddhanaprabha considering his dismal spell in charge of Norwich and the 52-year-old seemed to have galvanised the squad having picked up five points from their previous three games, despite conceding the first goal each time.

But while Daniel Iversen was the hero of the epic 2-2 draw against Everton last week, this time the Leicester goalkeeper gave his side a mountain to climb inside the opening 10 minutes. Willian’s free-kick was designed to force Iversen into a decision about whether to come and gather the ball but his hesitancy