Champions Leicester finally guarantee their Premier League status
LEICESTER boss Craig Shakespeare hailed the Foxes’ successful survival bid after Premier League safety was assured on Saturday.
Wilfred Ndidi, Riyad Mahrez and Marc Albrighton scored to seal a 3-0 victory against Watford and lift the Foxes into the top 10.
They preserve their topflight status with three games left while Shakespeare has won seven of his 10 league games since replacing Claudio Ranieri, until the end of the season, in February.
The defending champions flirted with relegation and Ranieri was sacked when they were a point above the bottom three, but Shakespeare saluted their recovery effort.
He said: ‘It’s one we can look at now, the whole club, and be very pleased we have managed to secure Premier League survival.
‘The result was always going to be important. There hasn’t been any points target and we just want to finish as high as possible.
Ndidi broke the first-half deadlock when he fired in after Watford failed to deal with a corner before Mahrez marked his 100th Premier League appearance with his 10th goal of the season to make it 2-0.
Albrighton wrapped it up with a breakaway third in injury time and Leicester have now won five straight home games in the league.
Mahrez was unhappy to be substituted in last week’s 1-0 win at West Brom but Shakespeare praised his response.
‘In all the conversations I’ve had with Riyad he is very selfcritical,’ said the manager.
‘He wants to score more goals and thinks he should score more goals. It’s pleasing he has turned that talk into action.’
Defeat was Watford’s fifth straight away league loss and they have failed to find the net on the road since January, losing seven of their last 11 games. Leicester: Schmeichel, 7 Simpson 7, Huth 7, Benalouane 7, Fuchs 7, Albrighton 8, Ndidi 7, Drinkwater 7 (King, 66, 5) , Mahrez 8 (Gray, 77), Okazaki 6 (Slimani, 62, 5) Vardy 7 Goals: Ndidi 38, Mahrez 58, Albrighton 90+3 Watford: Gomes 6, Mariappa 5, Prodl 6, Kabasele 6 (Zuniga, 71, 5), Amrabat 6, Doucouré 6, Cleverley 7, Capoue 6 (Deeney, 66), Janmaat 7, Niang 6 Pereira, 84) , Okaka 6 referee: Roger East Attendance: 31,628 Man of the match: Mahrez