Man City 2-5 Leicester: Jamie Vardy hits hat-trick as Foxes maul Pep Guardiola’s headless defence

Jamie Vardy hit a scintillating hat-trick as Leicester thrashed Manchester City to maintain their perfect start to top the Premier League table.

City looked set for a routine afternoon after Riyad Mahrez gave the hosts an early lead, but Vardy brought the game level prior to the half-time whistle, before the Englishman scored two more, alongside goals from James Maddison and Yuri Tielemans to hand Leicester a highly impressive 5-2 victory.

The stunning defeat hands champions Liverpool an early opportunity to open a six-point lead and lay down an early marker in the title race when they face Arsenal tomorrow night.

Both sides opted for two changes as Riyad Mahrez replaced an injured Gabriel Jesus with John Stones dropping out for Eric Garcia, while Leicester welcomed Jonny Evans and Daniel Amartey to the side in place of Wilfred Ndidi and Ayoze Perez.

City entered the game in full confidence having earned a hard-fought win away at Wolves in their opener, and it took them just four minutes to take the lead against a Leicester who were dumped out of the Carabao Cup by Arsenal in midweek.

Kevin De Bruyne’s in swinging corner was headed clear by James Justin but only as far as Marhez, who unleashed an unstoppable strike into the top corner with his weaker right foot.

The hosts missed a glorious chance to double their lead as De Bruyne’s free-kick was tamely headed into the arms of a grateful Kasper Schmeichel. They had the ball in the back shortly after, but Rodri’s inch-perfect header was correctly ruled out for offisde.

City were left to rue missed chances, however, as Leicester equalised with their first attempt on goal after Walker brought down Vardy in the area, last season’s Golden Boot winner standing up and smashing home the resulting penalty.

The home side started the second half the brighter but it was Leicester who stole another goal against the run off play as Timothy Castagne’s driven cross was delightfully flicked in by Vardy for his second of the game.

And the 33-year-od wasn’t finished there. He nipped in ahead of Eric Garcia who clumsily brought the Leicester man down for another spot kick, which Vardy calmly passed into the bottom corner.

Maddison, making his first appearance of the season, then put the game beyond doubt, picking the ball up on the left-hand side before curling a pin-point strike into the top right-hand corner.

And though Nathan Ake scored his first City goal to hand the Manchester club a lifeline with just over five minutes remaining, Maddison was then brought down in the area, with Yuri Tielemans slotting home the resulting penalty for a 5-2 lead.