Leicester continue winning streak after a routine home win against Sunderland

Leicester City continued their winning ways, taking care of bottom-dwellers Sunderland in a routine 2-0 home win.

The Foxes looked to set the tone early on, with Demari Gray making a nuisance of himself down the left in the opening few minutes. The winger did a quick cutback to Shinji Okazaki, who fired a shot into the side netting, while Jamie Vardy also looked a threat in the opening exchanges.

Despite the positive start, Leicester nearly found themselves behind in the 10th minute after a Danny Simpson header denied Seb Larsson a tap-in at the back post.

From there the game became a bit scrappy, playing straight into Sunderland's hand. Jermaine Defoe had a shot go just wide of the post in the 26th minute, while Demari Gray had multiple cracks at goal, but couldn't buy a shot on target.

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Both teams went into the half with the score rightly even, and despite having quality on their side, Leicester continued to struggle to break Sunderland down in the second half.

Defoe had another chance for the visitors, firing a dangerous volley straight at Schmeichel, which the Dane did well to hold onto.

Leicester continued to press for the most part, but lacked an end-product, which led Craig Shakespeare to haul off Okazaki and Gray for Islam Slimani and Marc Albrighton in the 62nd minute.

The change paid off in less than 10 minutes, with both subs linking up to fire Leicester into the lead. Albrighton cut inside from the left and picked Slimani out perfectly, outmuscling the defender and heading it home to give the Foxes the 1-0 lead.

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Backs to the wall, Sunderland made some attacking changes of their own, and it nearly paid off after a pitiful half clearance fell to Victor Anichebe just inside the area with acres of space to slot the ball into the back of the net. His powerful strike ended up taking a heavy deflection onto the post, with Defoe slashing the rebound into the side netting, a huge let off for the Foxes.

Less than a minute later, Leicester doubled their lead after Albrighton did well to get on the end of a missed Sunderland pass, running half the length of the pitch to expertly pick of Vardy, who smashed it into the top corner to make it 2-0 on 78 minutes, effectively killing Sunderland's hopes of getting back into the game.

The win means Leicester have climbed to 10th in the table, and look no short of confidence with 5 Premier League wins from 5 under Craig Shakespeare. Sundays match against Everton should determine whether or not Leicester can keep their place in the top half of the table.