Happy return for Maresca at Leicester as Jackson and Fernandez earn Chelsea victory

Londoners run out 2-1 winners at King Power Stadium to add to Foxes' Premier League woes

Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez celebrates scoring their second goal against Leicester City in their 2-1 Premier League victory at the King Power Stadium. AFP

Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez scores their second goal. Action Images

Chelsea's Romeo Lavia concedes a penalty against Leicester City's Bobby de Cordova-Reid. Reuters

Robert Sanchez of Chelsea fails to save a penalty scored by Jordan Ayew of Leicester City. Getty Images

Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson celebrates scoring the opening goal against Leicester with Enzo Fernandez. PA

Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson scores their first goal. AP

Chelsea's Noni Madueke scores a goal that was later disallowed for offside. Reuters

Chelsea's Nicolas Jackson celebrates his opener with teammates. AFP

Chelsea's Cole Palmer holds his ankle after a challenge from Leicester City's Wilfred Ndidi. PA

Leicester City's manager Steve Cooper speaks with Oliver Skipp as he comes on as an early substitute to replace the injured Harry Winks. AFP

Harry Winks of Leicester with manager Steve Cooper as he is substituted after picking up an injury. Getty Images

Enzo Maresca made a winning return to the King Power Stadium as goals from Nicolas Jackson and Enzo Fernandez earned Chelsea a 2-1 victory against Leicester City on Saturday.

Italian manager Maresca guided Leicester to the Championship title last season before he left the Midlands for Stamford Bridge in June.

Jackson, 23, made it five goals in four consecutive games with quarter of an hour gone before Fernandez sealed the win with a 75th-minute header. Jordan Ayew scored a late penalty for the hosts.

Maresca is well on the way to restoring Chelsea as a Premier League force, while his replacement at the Foxes, Steve Cooper, is finding his new role a tougher assignment.

The former Nottingham Forest manager has managed to guide his new charges to just two wins from their opening 12 games, and finds himself feeling the pressure as they sit just two points above the relegation places.

Ayew's penalty in the fifth minute of injury time – after Bobby de Cordova-Reid was brought down in the box by Romeo Lavia – was their only shot on target in the game.

Chelsea controlled things from the start and went ahead in the 15th minute after sloppy defending by the home side.

Belgian centre-back Wout Faes had several chances to clear a long ball but was outmuscled by Jackson and, when the Chelsea striker got it back from Fernandez, he coolly converted with the outside of his foot.

The chances kept coming for the visitors, with Moses Caicedo skewing wide when a loose ball fell kindly to him on the edge of the area and Noni Madueke forcing Mads Hermansen into a fine stretching save after dancing into the area.

The England international thought he had doubled the lead just after the half-hour when he swept home Marc Cucurella’s pull back, but the flag went up as the Spaniard was offside.

Leicester eventually turned up, albeit briefly, and fashioned two good chances to equalise before the break.

First, Oliver Skipp played in Kasey McAteer, but his shot whistled just past the post before Wilfred Ndidi prodded wide after Victor Kristiansen’s pull back fell into his path.

That spell was brief, though, and Madueke had another chance to make it two before the break but he put Jackson’s cross wide after a lightning quick breakaway.

It was turning out to be one of those days for Madueke as he then, inadvertently, stopped his side adding a second early in the second half.

Jackson’s shot was superbly saved by Hermansen and Cole Palmer was destined to have an easy tap-in, but Madueke was in the way and blocked the shot as he took evasive action.

The second half was one-way traffic and the second goal eventually came in the 75th minute.

Jackson’s header from Cucurella’s cross was straight at Hermansen but the rebound fell perfectly for Fernandez to head home.

Leicester thought they should have had a penalty late on when Stephy Mavididi went down under a challenge from Wesley Fofana, but referee Andrew Madley waved away protests and VAR agreed with him.

Madley did point to the spot deep into injury time after VAR advised him that Lavia had fouled De Cordova-Reid and Ayew slotted home.

Chelsea boss Maresca told BBC Sport: "Good performance. Overall we deserved to win. For the first 30 minutes we were in complete control of the game and then started to make some mistakes and lost some control. In the last 10 minutes of the first half we started to be a bit sloppy. This is something we can learn that in football you can’t drop anything."

On Nicolas Jackson, he said: "Since we started he’s doing fantastic. Everyone is watching the goals and assists but the way he works off the ball and presses, he’s doing very well."

Leicester boss Cooper told TNT Sports: "We’ve had some terrible luck with this referee. That’s continued today. There’s also the game to talk about. Tough first half in terms of Chelsea territory and dominance with the ball. We gave away a poor goal. It should have been 0-0. We had two good chances ourselves in the first half.

"Defensively we were generally OK. We need to be showing good courage and belief. If we do that we can create chances and be a threat. We’ll always be disappointed with the goals we conceded.

"The big moment is the first penalty [not given], it’s clear what happened there. The second one was offside [before VAR] and you see how onside he was. That was the story of the officials’ game. You can [speak to them] after 30 minutes. I’m not sure if I will or won’t."