Leicester ....... 2 Everton ..... 0 Brighton..1 Southampton..1
DEMARAI LIGHTS UP FOR BOSS CLAUDE
CLAUDE PUEL shook off his boring tag and served up a sizzling Nifty Shades of Gray.
Leicester’s new boss put Demarai Gray centre stage and watched his young winger turn into a red-hot leading man.
This was all about Gray – not grey – as caretaker boss David Unsworth got a sharp reminder that Everton have got some serious problems.
“All that money and you’re going down” came the chants from the home fans, and though relegation might be a premature prediction, Everton find themselves in the bottom three and under the spotlight for all the wrong reasons.
They were certainly better in the second half but that wasn’t difficult after they were torn apart in a blistering opening 45 minutes.
It was the lightning pace of Gray which did all the early damage as he ripped into Unsworth’s charges.
If anyone was waiting for Puel’s regime to start cautiously, they were in for a big surprise.
The French boss is renowned for his quiet, hushed delivery but whatever he whispered in Gray’s ear certainly seemed to do the trick. The 21-year-old seemed to be given licence to run at Everton and he gave the visitors a real roasting in an explosive first-half performance.
By the time Gray had run them ragged, Everton found themselves two down and struggling to turn things around.
Caretaker Unsworth was given an early warning when Gray chanced his luck from 25 yards after three minutes and was only just wide with his shot.
But what was to come shortly after was truly dynamic, Gray singlehandedly dismantling Everton with a blistering run from just outside his own box.
The youngster swivelled and headed off in the general direction of the Everton goal but by the time Tom Davies, Idrissa Gueye and Wayne Rooney had reacted, it was too late.
Gray’s run had taken him to the other box and he then slipped a perfect pass to send Riyad Mahrez down the right flank.
Mahrez didn’t even have to check his stride and when he squared his low centre across the six-yard box, there was Jamie Vardy waiting to pounce.
Blasting
There was only ever going to be one outcome with Vardy seizing on it and blasting an unstoppable shot into the roof of the net.
On the half-hour, Leicester went further in front and Gray was right in the thick of things again.
He sent a curling ball towards the edge of the six-yard box and poor Jonjoe Kenny sliced it past Pickford as he attempted to hoof it away.
Everton tried to get back into it and had decent claims for a penalty turned down when Aaron Lennon was sent tumbling by Christian Fuchs.
Rooney split the defence with a beautiful ball to send Lennon down the right but, when he got his cross in, Morgan just managed to get a block in.
Then Kasper Schmeichel had to move sharply to turn a Kevin Mirallas snapshot around his post.
But this simply wasn’t good enough from an Everton side who have a look of desperation about them.
When they have a £45m substitute in Gylfi Sigurdsson who only gets 16 minutes on the pitch, it does pose more questions than answers.