Leicester made a winning start to life after the dismissal of Craig Shakespeare as they outplayed Swansea City to earn just a second Premier League victory of the season.
Leicester produced a dominant display against Swansea in Michael Appleton’s first game in caretaker charge to record their first league win in seven.
The visitors created a host of chances and took the lead when Federico Fernandez headed into his own net from Riyad Mahrez’s whipped cross.
A swift counter-attack saw Shinji Okazaki score Leicester’s second early in the second half, before Alfie Mawson hooked in from close range to spark hopes of a Swansea revival.
But the sluggish hosts struggled to create scoring opportunities as they slumped to a fourth defeat from five home league games this season.
Victory lifts Leicester up to 13th in the table, while Swansea drop to 15th, level on points with Stoke in the relegation zone.
This fixture had become synonymous with managerial change, starting two seasons ago when a Mahrez hat-trick gave Leicester a 3-0 win and consigned then Swansea boss Garry Monk to the sack.
Last term, it was a 2-0 Swans victory which proved to be Claudio Ranieri’s final game as Leicester manager and, this time, the Foxes responded superbly to the departure of Ranieri’s successor, Shakespeare.
Appleton could have had a goal within one minute of his tenure’s start as Okazaki had a header saved by Lukasz Fabianski, and the Polish goalkeeper was at full stretch soon after to tip over Marc Albrighton’s firm effort.
The verve in Leicester’s play and the frequency with which they carved Swansea open was in stark contrast to the uninspiring draw at home to West Brom on Monday which had ultimately cost Shakespeare his job.
The only concern for Appleton was that his players had not turned their superiority into a wider winning margin, though those worries were eased with a second goal four minutes after the interval.
It was a goal which typified Leicester’s display, with Albrighton instigating the counter-attack with a darting run and chipping ahead to Mahrez, who squared the ball for Okazaki to tap in from close range.
