Vardy: A Great Start To 2019

- Striker Jamie Vardy praised Leicester City for recovering from their defeat to Cardiff City by beating Everton
- Claude Puel’s side won 1-0 in the Premier League on New Year’s Day
- Vardy secured the victory with his seventh strike of the campaign

With nothing to separate the two sides in the first half, City capitalised on an error from Michael Keane to go 1-0 up on Merseyside through Vardy with 58 minutes on the clock.

Kasper Schmeichel, untested for large periods of the game, denied Turkey international Cenk Tosun in stoppage time, and Vardy’s strike proved to be enough to secure the Foxes their third victory from four festive Premier League games.

“I think we needed to put our last performance behind us, we were disappointed with our last home game [against Cardiff City],” Vardy said at full-time. “To come to Goodison Park in the New Year and get three points is a great start to 2019.

“At times, it was four of them building up against me and the boss (Claude Puel) told me to get some information over to Hamza [Choudhury] and Wilf [Ndidi]. In the second half, it worked in our favour and we were on top.”

Vardy’s seventh Premier League goal of the campaign came as a result of some quick thinking from Portugal international Ricardo Pereira, who registered his fourth assist in England’s top flight.

“Ricky’s (Ricardo Pereira) seen me straight away and played a one-touch pass,” said the City frontman. He’s slipped me through and he’d tried it a few times in the game.

“He’s been excellent all season and it was a great assist for him. I’m just happy it ended up in the back of the net.

“As a striker, you want to be putting every single shot into the back of the net. Thankfully, that one went into the bottom corner.”

Discussing his celebratory somersault after netting against the Toffees, Vardy added: “I’ve had it in the locker for a while. I just saved it for a special occasion, and what better time to use it than New Year’s Day.”