Interim boss Craig Shakespeare helps Leicester City turn page after Ranieri exit with Liverpool win

It came too late to save Claudio Ranieri, but Leicester City finally remembered they are the reigning Premier League champions with a 3-1 victory over Liverpool on Monday.

After five successive defeats without a goal – a run that cost Ranieri his job and had Leicester spiralling towards relegation – caretaker manager Craig Shakespeare took centre stage to mastermind an instant impact on the pitch.

Quite whether Leicester’s players were simply reacting to criticism that they had undermined Ranieri’s command or benefitting from a change of script will become clearer in the weeks to come as they battle to avoid relegation.

But England striker Jamie Vardy, whose goals fired the Foxes to the title but which have dried up alarmingly this season, looked reborn as he scored twice while the tenacity of the likes of Marc Albrighton, Danny Drinkwater and Riyad Mahrez overwhelmed a Liverpool side who never got out of the blocks.

If fans’ favourite Ranieri, whose title success last season against all the odds stunned the soccer world, was watching on television at home he would have been scratching his head.

“I could see in their eyes that they were up to the fight in the warm up,” the 53-year-old Shakespeare said.