Kelechi Iheanacho showed strike partner Jamie Vardy the route to goal as Leicester City overcame an occasionally bruising encounter with Crystal Palace to strengthen their grip on a Champions League place.
Iheanacho, for so long in Vardy’s shadow, has emerged to take the limelight in recent weeks and plundered the winner with his 12th goal in his last nine games in all competitions and 17th of the season.
“It could be [the best form of my career],” Iheanacho said. “There’s so much to improve in games so I’ll keep going, keep doing my best.
“It’s a massive three points and a great goal. I wasn’t thinking of anything except shift and shoot. It could have gone anywhere.”
For all the deserved plaudits for his stunning goal, Iheanacho showed that quality that’s sometimes foreign to goalscorers — an unselfish streak.
Four times he set up Vardy and three times the 34-year-old missed the chance while he was ruled offside on the other occasion.
Victory put Brendan Rodgers’ side seven points clear of fifth-placed West Ham United with five games left.
Leicester created three chances in the opening minutes for Vardy.
First he was put through by Iheanacho and rounded Vicente Guaita, but the Palace goalkeeper pushed the ball on to Vardy’s foot and the ball rolled harmlessly behind.
Then Timothy Castagne sent the former England striker racing clear, but although defender Cheikhou Kouyate nipped in to clear behind, the referee blew for a foul.
Vardy then fired over the bar from 12 yards after Iheanacho had missed an overhead kick from Castagne’s cross.
Palace’s reply was ruthless as they broke on the counter in the 12th minute to score with their first attack.
Christian Benteke outmuscled Youri Tielemans on halfway, and Eberechi Eze slotted Wilfried Zaha through the middle to sidefoot coolly past Kasper Schmeichel from 15 yards for his 10th goal of the season. The goal rocked Leicester and Palace began to assert themselves with plenty of tackles won and physicality on display.
That was shown when Joel Ward buffeted Iheanacho right on the edge of the box and VAR checked for a penalty but denied Leicester a spot kick.
If VAR was no friend to Leicester in the first half, it was smiling on them in the second as they forced a 50th-minute equaliser. The video assistant checked for a handball when Iheanacho controlled Tielemans’s pass as he outmuscled the off-balance Kouyate before teeing up Castagne to rifle into the roof of the net.
Leicester forced their own luck in the next attack with a brilliant piece of defending by Jonny Evans.
Zaha split the defence for Jairo Riedewald to go one on one with Schmeichel and the midfielder squared to give Benteke a tap in. But the Northern Ireland international got across the slide the ball away.
Vardy had a fourth chance to get on the scoresheet when he cut in the from the left only for Guaita to smother his low shot. He finally found the net only to be ruled out for offside after Guaita blocked from Iheanacho.
Vardy was unlucky again when he fired across goal after Iheanacho put him in. But then the latter took centre stage with a peach of a finish, taking a long pass from Evans before running at Scott Dann and lashing a fierce shot into the roof of the net.
LEICESTER (3-4-1-2): Schmeichel 7; Fofana 6, Evans 7, Söyüncü 6; Castagne 8, Ndidi 6, Tielemans 6, Thomas 6 (Albrighton 70 mins, 6); Maddison 6 (Pérez 70 mins, 6); Vardy 7, Iheanacho 9.
CRYSTAL PALACE (4-4-2): Guaita 7; Ward 7, Kouyate 6, Dann 6, van Aanholt 6; J Ayew 6 (Townsend 78 mins, 6), Milivojevic 6 (McCarthy 83 mins, 6), Riedewald 7 (Schlupp 85 mins, 6), Eze 7; Benteke 7, Zaha 7.
Referee: Graham Scott 7/10
