Ranieri hails fighting Foxes

Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri could not fault his side after seeing their unbeaten start to the season come to an abrupt end with a 5-2 defeat to Arsenal on Saturday.

The Foxes had taken an early lead at King Power Stadium when Jamie Vardy capped off a sweeping move to fire past Gunners goalkeeper Petr Cech on 13 minutes.

But the north Londoners responded soon afterwards with an equaliser from Theo Walcott before Alexis Sanchez edged them in front just after the half-hour mark.

The hosts, to their credit, kept attacking in an attempt to get back into the contest and even when Arsene Wenger's men added another two through hat-trick hero Sanchez, City never threw in the towel.

Vardy bagged his second of the match in the final minute to take his tally for the campaign to six goals, before Olivier Giroud netted in stoppage time to bring the curtain down on a thoroughly entertaining clash in the West Midlands.

Ranieri was encouraged with the fighting spirit shown by his players on the day and has called for a response when they travel to Norwich City next.

The Italian told Foxes Player HD: "We tried our best and I'm so pleased with my players. They tried to score and tried to do their best.

"I think the first half was good. It was an open match and we touched two posts but they were winning 2-1. That wasn't so good.

"In the second half I hoped to maintain the 2-1 and say if we keep the 2-1 in the last 20 minutes we will try to do our best. Suddenly they scored the third goal.

"We created a lot of chances. Cech made fantastic saves and the defensive line of Arsenal was under pressure. We tried. We tried to do our best and I'm pleased with my players.

"I said OK guys we lost this match but now what's important is the next match in Norwich. Now today we lost, but I want to see our reaction very soon."