Ruud van Nistelrooy enjoyed a dream start to his reign as Leicester manager after a 3-1 win over West Ham, whose boss Julen Lopetugui is under increasing pressure.
Van Nistelrooy has replaced Steve Cooper at the King Power Stadium and saw Jamie Vardy open the scoring after just 98 seconds.
Bilal El Khannouss and Patson Daka added goals after the break to ensure the Dutchman started with three points in style.
His task is to keep the Foxes in the Premier League this season and after ending a five-game winless run they moved up to 15th, four points clear of the relegation zone.
West Ham’s hierarchy will have seen what impact a managerial change can have as the jury remains out on Lopetegui, with away fans making their feelings clear by chanting “You’re getting sacked in the morning”.
Niclas Fullkrug scored a consolation goal at the death but it counted for nothing and forthcoming games against Wolves, Bournemouth, Brighton and Southampton could determine the Spaniard’s future.
When Van Nistelrooy went to bed last night, even he would not have dreamt of his side starting as well as they did as they went ahead with less than two minutes on the clock.
One of the Dutchman’s first conversations following his appointment was to take Vardy to task for breaking his record for scoring in the most consecutive Premier League games nine years ago.
And the veteran striker rolled back to the years as, living on the shoulder of the West Ham defence, he raced clear from El Khannouss’ through-ball and slotted into the corner.
The linesman’s flag immediately went up but a lengthy VAR review ruled Vardy had timed his run perfectly and the goal stood.
Vardy could have added a second from a similar move but this time Lukasz Fabianski denied
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