Leicester City breezed into the fourth round of the FA Cup with a comfortable 4-0 win away to Stoke City.
The championship side looked good for half an hour until James Justin incredible 20-yard strike ignited the Foxes and from there on, it was a precession.
Well taken goals from Marc Albrighton, Ayoze Perez and Harvey Barnes ensured it was smooth sailing for Brendan Rodgers men.
But with four goalscorers, who were the stand out performers?
Kasper Schmeichel- 6
The Leicester City legend played his 400th game for the club today, and I suspect he had harder afternoons in the previous 399 games. The Dane was largely untroubled as Stoke never really created anything.
Timothy Castagne- 7
‘What did he eat for breakfast, he just doesn’t stop running!!’. That was Stephen Warnock’s assessment of the fullback, and he wasn’t wrong. The Belgian was relentless with his forward runs and Brendan Rodgers will be impressed with the combinations he was involved in, and of course it was a cute little pullback for Perez’s goal. Very positive.
Wesley Fofana- 6
Little Wes was imperious as ever. He kept the tricky Jacob Brown quiet and won a few aerials against Sam Vokes, it was just a standard performance.
Jonny Evans- 6
A similar performance to Fofana. There wasn’t a lot to do but it was equally as dominant.
James Justin- 8
This lad just keeps on getting better and better. To think fans were unsure about the quality of former Luton player last season, but his confidence has escalated beyond anyone’s expectations.
Lung-busting runs, cute 1-2’s and good recovery runs are normal for the England Under 21 international, but the finish took everyone by surprise. WHAT A GOAL! It was like Philippe Coutinho was on the pitch. You can not drop this man.
Wilfred Ndidi- 7
Was every blade of grass covered? Silly question. The Nigerian was everywhere and ensured the players in front of him could win the game. Ndidi in the side is crucial to the Foxes ambitions for this season.
Youri Tielemans- 9 MOTM
I was loving the commentary on the red button. The endless praise for the 23 Year Old was music to any Foxes fans ear. Whilst the first was pedestrian by his standards, the second period was where he showed his class. Defence splitting passes, endless energy and some lovely runs ensured that Leicester City were in the hat for the fourth and fifth rounds of the cup. Tielemans is now playing better football than he was when he first joined the blues on loan.
Dennis Praet- 6
A standard Praet performance. Periods of anonymity and periods of quality. At his best, the Belgian is devastatingly good. His combinations on the right-hand side with Castagne and Albrighton were brilliant. However, it was tainted with his injury at the end, hopefully it’s not too bad.
Marc Albrighton- 7
The purple patch continues! A rare goal for the legend was brilliantly taken, and it was another great performance. Few would have predicted this kind of form, but Albrighton is one of the first names on the team sheet at the moment.
Harvey Barnes- 6
Another goal for the academy graduate, but before that he was very quiet. Barnes has a lot more pace than he realises, which is why is frustrating to see him check back and slow the play down. But a goal is always good for his confidence given his problems with finishing.
Ayoze Perez- 5
Rather surprisingly, the Spaniard was leading the line today, but a lot of fans were excited to see him down the middle. However, for large parts of the match he was either anonymous or very sloppy.
Leicester’s best play evaded him but you could see he was much more comfortable when he came into midfield and linked up the play. The former Newcastle man took his goal superbly, but overall, his performance was below expectations.
Substitutes:
Caglar Soyuncu, Papy Mendy and Kelechi Iheanacho- All 5; they had no time to create anyone sort of impact in an already dying game.