Nearly clapped for Jamie Vardy: Liverpool coach Juergen Klopp

Undoubtedly Leicester are in a strong position to win the title – the table doesn’t lie, the adage goes – but history is with them too.

Jamie Vardy scored a brace including a sensational long-range goal as Leicester City sank Liverpool 2-0 on Tuesday to safeguard their spot at the Premier League summit.

In between the two goals, the Foxes’ midfield combined for the kind of quick-footed passing move on the edge of the Liverpool box that, had it involved Barcelona’s Messi, Neymar and Suarez, would have racked up several million YouTube hits by now.

After a tumultuous spell with the Foxes, manager Nigel Pearson was sacked in June and Claudio Ranieri, who had a taste of the Premier League with Chelsea before the Mourinho era, was hired.

After narrowly avoiding relegation last season, Leicester is providing the most unlikely title challenge in the 24-year history of the Premier League.

Hodgson could not suppress a smile when Vardy, pushing for a place at Euro 2016, opened the scoring.

They had not scored in the first half of their last 11 home matches, piling pressure on the Dutchman, but they turned on the style against Stoke with Jesse Lingard and Anthony Martial on target before halftime and Wayne Rooney – with his seventh goal in his last seven games – completing the win after the break.

Criticized for much of the season for its risk-averse attacking approach, United has scored six goals in its last two games.

He said: “It’s incredible what Vardy did”.

It was Mahrez against Mignolet again in the 35th minute, but this time the Belgium worldwide needed to be at the top of his game to keep the Algerian’s first-time effort out, diving full stretch to tip the ball over the bar.

“I can put him with Van Basten when he makes a fantastic goal”.

Klopp could only sigh.

Vardy is expected to sign a new, 31/2-year contract within the next few days, and the double was further proof that his wages deserve to be doubled to £80,000 (S$166,000) a week.

“It’s nothing people don’t know, I’d like to be here for a long time”, Vardy told Sky Sports.

Asked where the opener against Liverpool ranked among his most memorable goals, he said it was the best yet.

Simon Mignolet was called upon shortly afterwards when Vardy chipped the ball in for Shinji Okazaki, but his header was straight at the Liverpool keeper, who tipped it onto the top of the crossbar. “As soon as Riyad (Mahrez) had played it through it bounced quite high and I’ve got no support so I just took my chance and luckily it’s gone over the top of him”, he said. That’s only good for the team. “Now it is important to recover the energy because we have to run a lot against Manchester City”. “The players have a good feeling”.