Schmeichel to undergo surgery

The thunder and lightning were relentless and so were Leicester City for the majority of the game, as the Premier League champions got their title defence up and running with a victory that was far more convincing than the scoreline suggests. Riyad Mahrez squandered a chance to put the game to bed shortly before the hour mark with a poor penalty kick that Lukasz Fabianski saved and it was a moment that Leicester were nearly left to regret when Fer’s goal encouraged Swansea to push for an unlikely equaliser.

Swansea were as abysmal as the weather, fortunate to escape without a more humiliating scoreline and only impressing in the final 10 minutes, but this was the flawless end to a memorable week for Claudio Ranieri and his players.

However, while there were mixed fortunes for City’s usual suspects, with goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel also set to go under the knife to fix a hernia, there was a huge positive to come out of the game for Ranieri, beyond the obvious three points.

But nothing was going to rain on this Leicester parade.

Kasper Schmeichel will undergo a hernia operation on Monday.

“But three points is good from the first victory”. “Of course, some seasons a little more, some seasons a little less, but the goal-scorer never forgets the way”. The goalscorer always scores goals. The first half was outstanding for us and we have to score more goals.

“We complicated our life a little bit”, his manager said. “It was a tough match and the weather was unbelievable – it was like water polo!” “We are happy and now we start our season”.

It was Vardy’s first goal of the season and reward for Leicester’s total dominance as a thunderstorm boomed around the King Power Stadium.

“Leicester are a strong team – they are nearly the same as last season”.

Huth’s header from a corner ricocheted into the path of Morgan who simply hammered the ball home.

Even the celebration looked familiar as Vardy ran towards the visiting fans to rub salt into their wounds after they had been jeering him in the early stages of the game. It’s OK for me. “It is 100 wins and now I want another 100”.

Ron-Robert Zieler was brought on as Schmeichel’s replacement immediately afterwards, but his first job was picking the ball out of the net.

The Leicester ‘keeper limped off in the second half, prompting concerns that he could miss the club’s first ever foray into the Champions League, which starts next month with a trip to Club Brugge. I had to have a meeting with my players at half-time to tell them that the game was not over.

“He was solid, strong and recovered a lot of balls”.

Leicester enjoyed a period of pressure midway through the first half which saw Danny Drinkwater glance a header across the face of goal and a Vardy pull back from the byeline scrambled clear.