Football news - James Maddison shines as Leicester City get back to winning ways at Newcastle

Leicester City arrested a mini-slump as they won 3-0 at Newcastle United to consolidate their hold on second place, with James Maddison in fine form.

The win meant that Brendan Rodgers' second-placed side have 45 points from 21 matches, 10 points behind Liverpool who have two games in hand and host Sheffield United on Thursday.

Leicester made light of Jamie Vardy's absence due to a calf injury as Perez pounced on a poor pass across the back line from Newcastle defender Florian Lejeune and rode a tackle from Fabian Schar before slotting past Martin Dubravka in the 36th minute.

Lejeune was in the spotlight for the wrong reasons again as his poor clearance found its way to Perez who fed Maddison, and the England international blasted in a left-footed shot from distance three minutes later.

The double blow came shortly after Newcastle had missed the chance to take the lead through Brazilian forward Joelinton, who sprinted onto a pass over the top of the Leicester defence but failed to beat goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel with two attempts.

With Newcastle reduced to 10 men after using up their three substitutions and Schar unable to play due to injury, Leicester made it 3-0 in the 87th minute through Hamza Choudhury who curled in a shot from outside the penalty area.

Leicester take on Wigan in the third round of the FA Cup on Saturday, while Newcastle are up against Rochdale.