Christian Benteke scored his first league goal in 14 games to help Crystal Palace secure a 3-0 victory away at 10-man Leicester City in the Premier League on Saturday.
Benteke, Wilfried Zaha and Bakary Sako all notched on the break at the King Power Stadium for the Eagles, who ended a run of ten consecutive games without an away goal in the top flight in order to record their first win on the road since April.
Palace began the contest with renewed confidence following their midweek win over Watford, leaving Ruben Loftus-Cheek to test Kasper Schmeichel early on with a driven effort down low to the keeper’s right.
Roy Hodgson’s tactical decisions soon proved decisive when the ball was moved out from the middle into the path of Andros Townsend, who turned a curling ball into the box towards Benteke, who snuck between Danny Simpson and Wes Morgan to head beyond Schmeichel and end his drought.
Benteke’s newfound confidence soon led to Palace’s second of the afternoon, as the striker burst forward beyond two markers to feed a pass on the overlap to Zaha, leaving the winger time to produce a step-over to fool his marker and lash down low past Schmeichel.
The visitors continued to show promise on the break in the second half, as James McArthur won back possession before feeding Townsend, but Benteke could not find the quality to convert his diving header at the near-post.
The promise of a Foxes comeback was arguably quashed with just under 30 minutes to play when Wilfred Ndidi was shown a second yellow for a dive on his birthday, leaving Claude Puel quietly seething on the touchline.
Benteke might have returned to bag his second of the afternoon but he was denied by Schmeichel at point-blank range, although the home stopper was later beaten by a an injury-time curling effort from substitute Sako, who condemned the hosts to a humbling 3-0 defeat.
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