Leicester drew level with leaders after Watford win

Claudio Ranieri's team have 25 points from 12 games after N'Golo Kante and Jamie Vardy, with his Premier league-leading 12th goal of the season, fired them to a seventh win of the current campaign.

City, who travel to rock bottom Aston Villa, and Arsenal, who host north London rivals Tottenham, both on Sunday, have a better goal difference and would move three points above the Foxes with victory.

But the fact that Leicester are still hogging a Champions League qualification berth, a point clear of Manchester United, almost a third of the way into the season, speaks volumes for the impressive job being done by Italian Ranieri, the former Chelsea manager.

The best chance of a goalless opening period fell to the Hornets as Ohion Ighalo crashed a shot against the post, with goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel saving Almen Abdi's follow-up.

Leicester came into the game with a league-leading 42 goals having been scored in their 11 matches until then and they stayed true to form as the net started to bulge after the break.

The central character was Watford's hapless Brazil international goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes, formerly of Spurs.

On 52 minutes he let Paris-born Kante's weak shot from inside the area slip through his grasp and over the line.

He then compounded matters by bringing down Vardy in the box, with the striker dusting himself down to crisply fire home the resultant penalty on 65 minutes, thus extending the record run of consecutive games in which he has found the net to nine.

In between, Allan Nyom almost equalised for Watford, but his rasping drive flashed just over Schmeichel's crossbar.

In a match that was punctuated by costly mistakes, midfielder Kante bundled over Juan Carlos Paredes in the box and Troy Deeney sent Schmeichel the wrong way from the spot to reduce the arrears 15 minutes from time.