Everton win was our toughest away match, says Mahrez

Today (Saturday) was a difficult, difficult, difficult match.

Torrential Tyneside rain made life hard for both teams with standing water causing the ball to hold up, and De Jong missed a golden opportunity to make it 2-0 shortly before Ayew’s effort.

“We were very concentrated to not allow them much space”.

The Foxes were forced to do some chasing in the opening stages of the first half with Everton grabbing a toehold on the game.

A second-half Jordan Ayew stunner helped rock-bottom Aston Villa earn a much-needed 1-1 draw against Newcastle United at a sodden St James’ Park.

“That is football. Football is insane”.

In-form Mahrez tucked home from 12 yards after Ramiro Funes Mori had brought down Shinji Okazaki in the box.

Crystal Palace continued their fine form on the road this season, as they recorded a 2-1 win over Stoke City at the Brittania Stadium.

The Everton substitute Kevin Mirallas gave the home crowd hope with a clinical finish in the 89th minute but Leicester fought for everything and Leonardo Ulloa should have made the game safe before the finale.

His voice breaks as he says: “This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like what I’ve seen this season”. “To be fast, but calm. After that I would like to speak to my players because it is important what they believe and what they think they can achieve and also what I think about them”.

It can not have been lost on the Everton players as they trudged off the pitch, on the fans as they despondently filed out of the ground or on the manager as he headed down the tunnel.

Manager Roberto Martinez was in no mood to hide his feelings afterwards.

The Blues, as they so often do, rallied thereafter but there was no glorious comeback, just anger, frustration, disappointment – and confusion. “We have to win against Norwich and we know that”. They have the best goalscoring threat in the league and they are the best team on the counter-attack.

Five of the last six Christmas Day leaders have won the Premier League and this was the kind of result that Mourinho craved in his title-winning pomp at Chelsea, a hard-fought away win on a cold, wet day in the north-west that will reverberate throughout England.

Everton were the dominant side and looking the more likely but Ross Barkley spurned a great chance to open the scoring in the 25th minute when he snatched at a left-foot volley in front of goal, a miss he would come to rue less than two minutes later.

Referee Jonathan Moss had little option but to award the penalty and Mahrez was again successful from the spot.