Rodgers so happy to finally beat Mourinho

LEICESTER City boss Brendan Rodgers is delighted to have finally beaten Jose Mourinho – if only because it ends the questions over his record against his former mentor, writes Jordan Blackwell.

Rodgers took his City side to Spurs having failed to beat Mourinho in seven previous meetings.

But a Jamie Vardy penalty and a Toby Alderweireld own goal moved them to second in the Premier League table and earned Rodgers his first win over Mourinho – more than 15 years after they worked together at Chelsea.

Questioned on beating his counterpart, Rodgers said: “At least you won’t have to ask any more on that one.

“I’ve got huge respect for

Jose, with what he’s won in the game. He’s an incredible tactician. You know when you’ve beaten one of his teams you’ve really had to work. I thought, tactically, the players were exceptional.

“We’ve seen Tottenham all season and how dangerous they are and how difficult they are to play against, and I thought we nullified that threat really well.

“We can play our football too, which was very pleasing.”

The win was City’s sixth on the road in the Premier League this season, and Rodgers said his side learned from their previous trip to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, when they were caught out by Spurs’ counter.

Rodgers also said the quality of performance was due to the returning injured players, with Timothy Castagne back after eight weeks out, and Wilfred Ndidi starting just his second Premier League game in midfield since his long injury. “I thought it was an outstanding team performance,” Rodgers, left, said.

“All teams are looking for consistency this year and the one thing we have is that we never lose enthusiasm when we lose a game. “We do our work and then we arrive to play a team who have been outstanding. I thought our performance level was very good and we thoroughly deserved to win it.

“We’ve had a lot of good performances but in terms of the strategy of the game, we learned from six months ago when we were 3-0 down at halftime.

“It was going to be important we imposed our way of playing on the game, but also manage their counter-attack, and I don’t think we had any against us.

“That’s a tribute to the players and how focused they were in our game plan, but also playing how we want to play, having the ball, and having the rhythm.

“But also having certain players back allowed us to put in an outstanding performance.”