Leicester City manager Claude Puel has admitted that his side were outplayed today as they fell to a 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Crystal Palace.
Christian Benteke, Wilfried Zaha and Bakary Sako all found the net for Roy Hodgson's visitors at the King Power in a game that also saw Foxes midfielder Wilfred Ndidi celebrate his 21st birthday by seeing red.
The result marked the end of an impressive run of four consecutive wins for Leicester, while the Eagles extended their unbeaten league run to seven games and moved up to 14th in the Premier League table.
"A lot of things were missing today, it was not a good day for us," Puel told Sky Sports News afterwards. "From kickoff, we did not have good intensity and could not find a solution. Our play was too slow against a good team with a strong defensive unit and we needed more quickness and quality in the play. Today it was not possible, was it tiredness or something else?
"The red card prevented us to try and come back in the game. Without Wilfred Ndidi, it was difficult to recover the ball and put Crystal Palace under pressure. I did not see the two incidents but he did not make too many faults in the game and was sent off. It was not our day and not a good game for us. Palace deserve the result, they played with desire, togetherness and quality. We did not deserve a win.
"It was not a good start and then we knew we have to play a lot of games and we have a short space of time to recover, it is the same for other teams. We need to come back with a strong spirit."
Next up for Puel's side is a tough home encounter with Manchester United next Saturday evening.
Neil Wilkes
