Leicester beat Sunderland 4-2 in Premier League

Italian Ranieri, who was a surprise choice to take over at Leicester following a career that included spells at Valencia, Atletico Madrid, Chelsea, Juventus, Roma, Inter Milan and Monaco, could not have hoped for a better start by his side, who dominated for long spells and never looked in danger of losing the match.

Fletcher had the final say but there was to be no opening-day comeback for the visitor – Advocaat left with food for thought, especially at the back.

West Ham, Tottenham, Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Stoke are all winnable games and if the Foxes can get points on the board early, they should be in for a more comfortable season.

Despite the season not starting yet, both teams have a player or two missing through injury.

Pantilimon then kept out a Mahrez effort after Patrick van Aanholt had left him free to race down the right before the Sunderland keeper tipped his shot behind at the near post.

Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City ran riot against Sunderland in their Premier League opener at the King Power Stadium.

The last Foxes player to score against Sunderland was a 20 year old Matty Fryatt. Christian Fuchs is a solid signing with a lot of Bundesliga appearances for Schalke, whilst Shinji Okazaki scored 12 goals in the same league for Mainz last season.

Back in those days The Valley was one of the most feared grounds in the league, a fortress where warriors like Shaun Bartlett, Matt Holland and Scott Parker – who joined Chelsea during the season – would make opposition teams quake in their boots. Vardy is sent clean through by Mahrez but Pantilimon stands up well to deny Leicester what would have been a remarkable fourth first-half goal.

Sunderland were rocking, memories of last season’s 8-0 drubbing at Southampton among other defensive horrors, surely flooding back.

After avoiding relegation by the skin of their teeth last season, Sunderland have looked to strengthen their squad this summer.

Dutch worldwide Jeremain Lens is the one player of true quality that Sunderland have added this summer, and he cost north of £8m. A big problem for Sunderland last season was their inability to put the ball into the net. It remains to be seen whether Okazaki’s skill set will translate for Leicester, but having sold Chris Wood they needed another striker in and appear to have found their man. Only Burnley scored fewer goals than them and it almost cost them their Premier League place. He was sacked from the French club despite a win percentage of over 60%, and after a brief stop with the Greek national team was also relieved of his duties there.

Defoe pulled one back on 60 minutes but that joy was short-lived as more bad defending from Sunderland presented Albrighton with the chance to score from the edge of the box after 66 minutes. It was fantastic to watch this Leicester and I want to restart at the same level.