Ruud van Nistelrooy enjoyed a dream start to his reign as Leicester manager after a 3-1 win over West Ham, whose boss Julen Lopetugui is under increasing pressure.

Van Nistelrooy has replaced Steve Cooper at the King Power Stadium and saw Jamie Vardy open the scoring after just 98 seconds.

Bilal El Khannouss and Patson Daka added goals after the break to ensure the Dutchman started with three points in style.

His task is to keep the Foxes in the Premier League this season and after ending a five-game winless run they moved up to 15th, four points clear of the relegation zone.

West Ham’s hierarchy will have seen what impact a managerial change can have as the jury remains out on Lopetegui, with away fans making their feelings clear by chanting “You’re getting sacked in the morning”.

Niclas Fullkrug scored a consolation goal at the death but it counted for nothing and forthcoming games against Wolves, Bournemouth, Brighton and Southampton could determine the Spaniard’s future.

When Van Nistelrooy went to bed last night, even he would not have dreamt of his side starting as well as they did as they went ahead with less than two minutes on the clock.

One of the Dutchman’s first conversations following his appointment was to take Vardy to task for breaking his record for scoring in the most consecutive Premier League games nine years ago.

And the veteran striker rolled back to the years as, living on the shoulder of the West Ham defence, he raced clear from El Khannouss’ through-ball and slotted into the corner.

The linesman’s flag immediately went up but a lengthy VAR review ruled Vardy had timed his run perfectly and the goal stood.

Vardy could have added a second from a similar move but this time Lukasz Fabianski denied him.

The Dutchman quickly learned about the frailties of his side as West Ham created a raft of chances in search of an equaliser.

Jarrod Bowen forced Mads Hermansen into a stretching save when he cut in from the right before Ings’ header crashed into the post and Max Kilman slipped at the crucial point from the rebound.

Bowen, a constant threat, sent a ball across face of goal which evaded everyone before the England international was denied by a reflex save from the busy Hermansen.

The Danish goalkeeper needed to be alert to tip over Mohammed Kudus’ deflected effort early in the second half before he was saved by the referee’s whistle after after his attempted punch went into his own goal, Tomas Soucek the man penalised.

Leicester goalkeeper Mads Hermansen punches into his own goal while being challenged by Tomas Soucek, with the goal disallowed

Leicester remained a threat on the counter-attack and that is how they doubled their lead just after the hour.

Kasey McAteer was set clear down the left and his ball inside was perfect for El Khannouss to find the bottom corner from 15 yards.

It was almost three as Fabianski produced an acrobatic save from Wilfred Ndidi’s header before Leicester needed a heroic piece of defending to keep their 2-0 lead intact.

There have been significant changes at the top of the Premier League table following this weekend’s action.

Liverpool now lead the way by nine points following yet another statement win under Arne Slot, this time at home to Manchester City as goals from Cody Gakpo and Mohamed Salah sealed a deserved 2-0 win.

A fourth Premier League defeat in succession for Pep Guardiola’s side means they have slipped out of the top four altogether by virtue of an inferior goal difference to Brighton.

As a result, Arsenal and Chelsea are now the nearest challengers to the Merseyside outfit as the London pair sit second and third respectively after winning by three-goal margins at the weekend.

The Gunners beat West Ham United 5-2, whilst the Blues overcame Aston Villa 3-0 at Stamford Bridge with Cole Palmer scoring the pick of the goals.

Those results left the pair with identical records. Both have now won seven games, drawn four, lost two, scored 26 goals and conceded 12 in the Premier League this season.

Interestingly though, Arsenal sit above Chelsea in the table and it’s not because ‘A’ appears in the alphabet before ‘C’.

No, the reason is due to a Premier League ruling with regard to separating teams level on points, as the first method to split them should be goal difference, followed by goals scored, followed by which team collected the most points during matches between the two sides.

If those first three methods cannot separate them then the team that scored more away goals during their head-to-head matches is the fourth criteria.

Justin Kluivert scored the first ever Premier League hat-trick of penalties as Bournemouth won 4-2 at Wolves on Saturday and Kevin Schade also scored three in Brentford‘s 4-1 victory over Leicester.

Nottingham Forest moved into the top six thanks to a 1-0 win over Ipswich, while Newcastle were denied by Daniel Munoz’s 94th minute equaliser for Crystal Palace in a 1-1 draw at Selhurst Park.

Kluivert made history at Molineux to curtail Wolves’ mini-revival.

The Dutchman opened the scoring, Jorgen Strand Larsen replied for Wolves before Milos Kerkez made it 2-1 for the visitors inside eight minutes.

Kluivert made it 3-1 just 10 minutes later and completed his hat-trick 16 minutes from time after Evanilson also set a record by winning a third penalty.

Strand Larsen pulled another goal back for Wolves, but Gary O’Neil’s men slip back into the relegation zone.

Brentford continued their stunning home form to thrash the Foxes in front of Leicester’s in-coming manager Ruud van Nistelrooy.

Facundo Buonanotte had put the visitors in front in west London.

But Brentford roared back to make it six wins and one draw from seven home league games this season.

The German had only scored two Premier League goals since joining the Bees in 2023 but matched that tally in 24 minutes to put the home side in front before half-time.

Schade then rounded off the scoring to show Van Nistelrooy the scale of the task that awaits him ahead of his first game in charge at home to West Ham on Tuesday.

Chris Wood’s emphatically struck penalty was enough to get Forest back to winning ways and leave Ipswich still in the bottom three.

Palace edged out of the relegation zone on goal difference thanks to late drama against Newcastle.

Marc Guehi, who had been the subject of multiple bids from Newcastle during the transfer window, put the Magpies in front early in the second half with an own goal.

However, the England defender redeemed himself as from his cross Munoz powered home a header at the back post.

Runaway leaders Liverpool host Manchester City in a top-of-the-table clash on Sunday.

The Reds enjoy an eight-point lead over the defending champions, who are winless in six games.

Manchester United boss Ruben Amorim is also targeting his first Premier League win on Sunday when lowly Everton visit Old Trafford.