High-flying Leicester City have returned to the top of the Premier League table with a 2-1 victory over struggling champions Chelsea.
The first attempt of the game came from Riyad Mahrez within two minutes as the hosts started strongly, but the shot failed to trouble Thibaut Courtois.
The Blues had the chance to open the scoring through Eden Hazard shortly before the quarter-hour mark, but his effort was blocked after he had found space to take the ball down at the back post.
Foxes manager Claudio Ranieri was forced into making a substitution shortly after as Danny Drinkwater was replaced by Andy King due to a hamstring issue, while Chelsea lost a key player of their own to injury when Hazard was forced off following an innocuous clash with Jamie Vardy.
Mahrez had another failed crack at the Chelsea goal from the edge of the box 19 minutes in, but the Algerian turned provider for the opening goal on 34 minutes as league top-scorer Vardy latched on to his cross and volleyed home his 15th of the season.
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The Blues attempted a retaliation immediately afterwards as Nemanja Matic headed just over following a corner, with the ball kissing the top of the crossbar on its way behind.
That was as close as the visitors came, however, and it was Leicester who threatened the game's second goal in the closing stages of the half when Marc Albrighton tested Courtois at his near post, but the gap remained at one going into the break.
Vardy was again the centre of attention within two minutes of the restart, this time as he picked up a booking following a collision with Diego Costa.
A further attempt by Mahrez yielded the Foxes' second goal of the match a couple of minutes later, as he got the better of both Cesar Azpilicueta and the keeper to put the hosts firmly back on the path to the top of the table.
Jose Mourinho opted to swap in Loic Remy for Oscar with 25 minutes left on the clock, which proved justified 10 minutes later as Remy reduced the arrears, a period of slight dominance for the visitors culminating in the Frenchman nodding in from a Pedro cross.
Albrighton had the chance to make things even more difficult for the Blues with seven minutes of regulation time left, but he could only shoot wide of the post after evading Cesc Fabregas.
However, the two goals proved enough as the contributions from Vardy and Mahrez consigned Mourinho's men to a ninth league defeat of the season.
Dan Saney
