Jamie Vardy admits Leicester wanted 10-0 win as Foxes equal record with Southampton rout

Jamie Vardy has admitted Leicester were chasing a 10-0 victory away at Southampton on Friday night as the Foxes embarrassed the beleaguered 10-man Saints.

Leicester equalled the record for the biggest ever win in Premier League history, matching Manchester United’s 9-0 defeat of Ipswich back in 1995.

And their nine-goal haul represented the largest margin of victory ever on the road, surpassing United’s 8-1 triumph over Nottingham Forest 20 years ago.

Brendan Rodgers’ men had rattled up five by half-time through Ben Chilwell, Youri Tielemans, two from Ayoze Perez and a strike from Jamie Vardy. 

That was after Ryan Bertrand saw red after just 12 minutes having recklessly caught Perez with his studs in the build-up to Chilwell’s opening goal.

Forty-five minutes later, Perez and Vardy both had claims for the match ball after both earning hat-tricks at St Mary’s while James Maddison also curled in a fine late free-kick.

But Vardy, speaking after becoming the Premier League’s top goalscorer on nine goals in 10 games, admitted team-mate Jonny Evans had implored Leicester to try and rack up 10 to set a new top-flight record.

“Well we actually found out [about the record] at 6-0 when Jonny Evans came sprinting over, saying if we carry on doing what we’re doing we can get the record,” he told Sky Sports. 

“We’ve gone all the way to the end and managed to do it.

“It’s a great victory, a great performance for the lads and I’m absolutely buzzing for the fans.

“I think that was a complete performance. We know when you’ve got 10 men it can be made difficult but we also knew if we kept to our game plan we could cause them a lot of problems.

“Like you see from the result, credit to the boys, great win.”

Vardy was quizzed by Gary Neville how Rodgers’ current Leicester team compares to the side that won the league against all the odds under Claudio Ranieri in 2016.

And he responded: “I think football-wise, it’s different, there was a lot of counter-attacking when we won the league. 

“You saw from tonight that we can attack but keep the ball really well, at pace, and we can hurt anyone.”

Asked if the emphatic victory on the south coast served as a fitting tribute for the club’s former owner, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who passed away 12 months ago in a tragic helicopter crash outside the club’s stadium after a match against West Ham, Vardy hoped the late chairman is “looking down” on the club.

“Definitely. The main thing Khun Vichai ever wanted from us was to fight and win,” he added.

“And I think you can see from the boys tonight that we’ve done that in amounts beyond what we’ve ever seen for us playing-wise. 

“Credit to the boys and hopefully the boss is looking down on us.”

source: express.co.uk