Manchester City 1 Leicester City 3

Manchester City 1 Leicester City 3

Robert Huth scored twice as Leicester sensationally thrashed title favourites Manchester City 3-1 to continue their remarkable challenge for the Barclays Premier League crown.

Riyad Mahrez also got on the scoresheet as the Foxes tore into their illustrious hosts at the Etihad Stadium, destroying the feelgood factor created by the announcement of Pep Guardiola’s summer arrival.

Sergio Aguero headed a consolation in the closing minutes but City were already well beaten.

Quadruple-chasing City had hoped to pull level with Claudio Ranieri’s men at the top of the table but instead ended the day trailing them by six points.

Manuel Pellegrini wanted news of his imminent departure made public partly in the hope it could galvanise the team for the rest of the season, but on this evidence it had the opposite effect.

Leicester, unheralded at the start of the season, attacked with speed and energy throughout and looked a class above City. The warning signs were evident from early on and Leicester never allowed City’s vulnerable central defensive duo of Martin Demichelis and Nicolas Otamendi to settle.

They caught the hosts napping as they snaffled their first opportunity with three minutes gone. A Mahrez free-kick bounced through the area from the right and Huth was the quickest to react six yards out. Demichelis tried to get his body in the way of the German’s flicked shot but succeeded only in diverting it past the helpless Joe Hart.

City were ragged and things could have got considerably worse as they were pulled apart continually in the opening 20 minutes. Hart needed to be alert to smother an effort from Jamie Vardy and was then quick off his line to deny Danny Drinkwater after another quick counter-attack. Shinji Okazaki also narrowly failed to turn in a dangerous cross from Vardy.