Leicester City v Watford

Riyad Mahrez’s agent has rubbished reports the Leicester City midfielder has been in contact with Manchester United about a transfer. The 24-year-old has been on top of his game, alongside Jamie Vardy, and the pair have made Leicester a formidable side.

It meant Mourinho was left surveying the wreckage of his worst-ever season in management, an unprecedented seventh league defeat in 12 matches being sealed by Arnautovic’s acrobatic close-range effort.

Although Foxes’ fans are desperate to keep Vardy at the club, here are five reasons why we think that Vardy would be better off leaving for either Liverpool or Spurs.

England coach Roy Hodgson insists Wayne Rooney, Daniel Sturridge and Harry Kane are all ahead of Vardy in the England pecking order, but if the former Fleetwood forward, who was playing non-league football three years ago, maintains his purple patch it will be foolish not to start him at Euro 2016.

Manager Claudio Ranieri has said he’s in charge of a squad of friends with an absolutely fantastic attitude to their work.

Leicester City became unlikely bedfellows with Premier League giants Manchester City and Arsenal at the top of the table on Saturday as striker Jamie Vardy maintained his extraordinary scoring sequence. Watford will have been encouraged by the way they started, with Odion Ighalo looking unsafe.

Rooney has scored just two Premier League goals this season and has looked toothless. “Riyad is our penalty taker and it just shows what kind of team we are”, Danny Drinkwater said.

“You know it’s hard sometimes in pre-season because a lot of new players come in and it’s hard to speak with each other”, he said.

He then compounded matters by bringing down Vardy in the box, with the striker dusting himself down to crisply fire home the resultant penalty on 65 minutes, thus extending the record run of consecutive games in which he has found the net to nine. His goal scoring tally is remarkable, with a goal in each of his last 9 matches. “For us it’s important he scores goals and the transfer window is far”.

Kante put a blot on his copybook as he gave away a spot-kick at the opposite end, allowing Troy Deeney to roll the ball in with Kasper Schmeichel diving the wrong way, but Claudio Ranieri’s men held out for the win.

After a Watford-dominated first half, Leicester upped their tempo in the second period, the introduction of Shinji Okazaki providing a better link between Vardy and the midfield.