Ninety-eight seconds. That was all that was required for Ruud van Nistelrooy's Leicester City reign to get up and running. Jamie Vardy's opener offered an early snapshot of Leicester in Van Nistelrooy's image, too. Victor Kristiansen, hugging the left touchline, squared the ball to Bilal El Khannouss, who freed Leicester's No 9, head down, open for business in the left channel. Vardy, wearing garish pink boots, stroked a timeless right-foot finish into the far corner.
After a VAR check, he clinked into celebration mode, chuntering towards the away fans giving him grief. Even before Patson Daka made it 3-0 with stoppage time looming, the same supporters switched their attention to their manager. You're getting sacked in the morning, came the chant. Julen Lopetegui, ashen-faced at the final whistle, will do well to survive this grisly defeat.
Van Nistelrooy is back on the train, as he put it, this unforgiving hamster wheel. For most of this game he hogged the edge of the home technical area, quietly observing, rarely more than a few feet from Lopetegui, though the pair could hardly be in different spots. One is upbeat about reigniting his coaching career in the dugout, the other clinging to his job after another damaging defeat.
When in interim charge of Manchester United, after the draw against Chelsea at Old Trafford last month, the Dutchman quizzed Enzo Maresca, who led Leicester to the Championship title last season, about the health and structure of the club, with a view to replacing Steve Cooper. Now Van Nistelrooy is Leicester's king. He applauded all four sides of the ground in the seconds before kick-off and sections of the home support.
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