Claude Puel’s Leicester reign got off to a dream start as his side brushed dreadful Everton aside and went a small way to dismantling the Frenchman’s ‘boring’ reputation.
But David Unsworth’s hopes of landing the permanent Everton manager’s job suffered a serious blow as his side were outclassed and his credentials were savaged by outspoken player-turned pundit Joey Barton.
The former Premier League midfielder and boyhood Evertonian, covering the game for TalkSport, compared the Toffees caretaker boss to a ‘glorified PE teacher’ and his appearance to that of a steward.
Unsworth claimed he “could not care less” about the jibes, but even without them, his side’s performance did his job prospects little good as Leicester ran them ragged in the opening 45 minutes.
“The second half was far better but I wasn’t happy at all at half-time,” he admitted after seeing Jamie Vardy’s opener and a bizarre Jonjo Kenny error hand Leicester a 2-0 lead that rarely looked in danger.
“That wasn’t the performance I expected. We were a little bit fearful, we sat back for some reason.
“I was disappointed with the manner of the first goal.
“Any manager who comes in wants to get quick results to get confidence rolling but you need time on the grass to get your opinions over.”
Unsworth lost defender Michael Keane before the game to an infected cut that saw the England defender hospitalised.
He is expected to be recover in the next few days but without him Everton had no answer to a Leicester side inspired by Puel’s decision to include Demarai Gray.
The winger dragged a 20-yard effort just wide of goal early on then forced a corner which was flicked by Vicente Iborra as far as Wes Morgan, who scooped an effort over the crossbar.
The second half was less swashbuckling for Leicester, but they soaked up what little Everton created and closed out victory with the minimum of fuss as Puel, damned by Southampton fans last season for his side’s dour displays, made a positive first impression on Foxes fans.
“With Southampton, we played some good football and there were a lot of chances that we created but without a good clinical edge,” said the quietly-spoken Frenchman.
When you don’t score it is always difficult and a problem is ‘we don’t play football’.
“But it was not this with Southampton because we started with the ball, we created a lot of chances.
“We were sixth or seventh in the table for the number of chances created but 20th for being clinical.
“Of course I prefer a team scoring a lot of goals, I enjoy football.
“I like the attack, I like offensive play and quality, of course.”
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