Leicester City recorded the biggest ever away victory in top-flight English football by beating a 10-man Southampton 9-0 in a rain-swept St Mary’s that took Brendon Rodgers’ side to second place in the 2019-20 Premier League. The victory – which featured two hat-tricks – also helped the 2016 league champions equal a 24-year-old record set by Manchester United way back in 1995 for the biggest ever Premier League victory leaving The Saint to stare at another relegation battle after humiliation at home. The win at rain-sodden St Mary’s wasn’t as miraculous as their title triumph in 2016 but for once more Leicester hit the history books again and reset many records, while also grazing past some others. Leicester City Demolish 10-Man Southampton 9-0 for Record Premier League Away Win.

Ayoze Perez and Jamie Vardy scored the hat-tricks for Leicester – a unique record – while Ben Chilwell, Youri Tielemans and James Maddison added to the scores after Southampton were left with 10-men just 12 minutes into the fixture. Ryan Bertrand was shown a straight red after VAR introspected his challenge on Perez in the build-up to Leicester opening goal. Records tumbled at St Mary’s but while the Foxes etched new heights, Southampton hit new lows. They are placed 18th – among 20 teams – with just eight points off 10 games. Leicester jumped to second and – depending on Manchester City’s results against Aston Villa on October 26, 2019 (Saturday) – might finish there in the weekend.

Records and Record Breakers

Rogers’ boys led 5-0 at half-time – a record only matches by Man City – with goals coming as early as the 10 and 17and 19 minutes. Chilwell opened the scoring before Tielemans added a second and Perez scored the first two of his hat-trick. Vardy scored one in the 45th minute and completed his hat-trick in the fourth minute of added time to make 9-0 to Leicester and rewrite the record books. Take a look at some of the records the Foxes smashed, created and recreated.

  1. Leicester registered the joint-biggest ever win in Premier League history. The 9-0 scoreline matched Manchester United's 9-0 victory over Ipswich Town at Old Trafford in 1995.
  2. Incidentally, Peter Schmeichel was the Manchester United goalkeeper when they created the record against Ipswich Town. His son Kasper was guarding Leicester's post against Southampton on Friday, making them only two goalkeepers in the Premier League to keep a clean sheet when the opposition conceded 9 goals.
  3. The 9-0 victory over Southampton is also the biggest-ever win by any away side in an English top-flight league match in its 131-year history. United were the last team to achieve the feat when they beat Nottingham Forest 8-1 in 1999.
  4. Leicester are also only the second team in Premier League history to head into the half-time break with 5-0 goal lead. Manchester City did it first against Burnley in April 2010.
  5. Jaime Vardy and Ayoze Perez scored hat-tricks for Leicester in the landmark win, making them only the second team after Arsenal to have two players score a hat-trick in the same game. Arsenal had also done it against Southampton. Jermaine Pennant and Robert Pires had scored three goals each in the match in May 2003.
  6. The 0-9 defeat was Southampton's biggest ever loss across all competitions. It broke the 1-7 loss to Liverpool in 1999.
  7. They are the second team to concede five goals in the opening 45 minutes after Burnely in 2010.
  8. This was also the first time since 2014 that two hat-tricks have been scored in a single game. The feat was last repeated in Liverpool vs Man City clash with Yaya Toure and Luiz Suarez scoring three goals each.
  9. Leicester were 3-0 ahead insides the opening 20 minutes, making it the first time they have scored thrice in that time since 1998 in the Premier League.

“Perfect performance, wasn’t it? From the very first whistle, we showed our intent,” said Rodgers after his team’s emphatic win. For Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl, it was a sorry night. “I must apologise for this performance and take 100 per cent responsibility for what happened,” he said. “You can call it, if you want, gave up, you can call it helpless. It was a disaster.”

The ruthless manner in which they crushed the hosts should serve as a warning to others and if isn’t then this certainly will: Leicester have 20 points after 10 games, one more than they had collected at this stage in the title-winning campaign of 2016.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Oct 26, 2019 10:02 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).