HANGOVER FROM THE VARDY PARTY LINGERS

JAMIE VARDY provided a snapshot of Leicester’s topsy-turvy season this week.

The England striker scored a stunning hat-trick – his first club goals since September 10 – as Leicester beat Manchester City 4-2 last Saturday.

Then Vardy (above) drew a blank in Tuesday’s defeat at Bournemouth to leave last season’s champions stranded in the lower half of the Premier League table.

Leicester have drawn Sevilla in the last 16 of the Champions League – a tough draw against the Europa League winners, but one which they feel they can win.

But it does beg the question – how can they win that European tie if they have been so poor and inconsistent in the Premier League?

And would the disgruntled Leicester fans – a vocal minority have even been on radio phone-ins calling for Claudio Ranieri’s head – swap a place in the Champions League final even if it meant being relegated?

The Foxes’ unpredictable form is impossible to explain, but it does suggest the players can still lift themselves.

Beating Manchester City, for example. They have also turned it on for Champions League nights as they qualified for the last 16 with room to spare.

That begs the question as to whether the players are still listening to Ranieri or whether the Italian has simply targeted the Champions League to such a degree that they have eased off in domestic games.

Ranieri (below) lost N’Golo Kante in the summer and the France star was Leicester’s midfield kingpin.

But Vardy turned down Arsenal, played the early part of the season as if he regretted it, but has been back to his hard-working, menacing best in the past couple of months. The win over City showed that the potential and fight is still there deep within – even if Ranieri’s summer spending brought in players who have struggled to settle and maybe even disrupted Leicester’s ‘band of brothers’ spirit in the dressing room.

It also reawakened the nation’s love for the underdog because Leicester’s win reminded us of what a great story last season was.

An unfancied club, tipped for relegation, won the Premier League title. Mission Impossible.

Now they look in danger of relegation because it is difficult to turn performances on and off like a tap.

So if they continue to target European success then it will come at the expense of their Premier League campaign.

It could also leave them lacking form and intensity when the Champions League returns.