Leicester 4-0 Nottingham Forest: Magnificent James Maddison leads Foxes to first win of the season

James Maddison breathed life into Brendan Rodgers’ Leicester City reign with a display that may hasten the end of Steve Cooper’s tenure at Nottingham Forest.

Maddison scored twice, had a hand in the other two and teased Forest all night with his guile and vision. Somehow, Gareth Southgate continues to ignore him, despite England’s problems of creativity. He helped Leicester off the bottom of the table and sent Forest down there instead.

‘To have that ability off the bench in a tight World Cup game is what a team like England need,’ said Rodgers. ‘I would really hope there would be a place in the squad for someone so talented.’

James Maddison scored twice to lead Leicester to their first Premier League win of the season

Maddison opened the scoring as his shot from outside the box took a wicked deflection

Back in February, Leicester were thrashed 4-1 by Forest in the FA Cup, but here they took revenge by claiming their first win of the season. Had this one gone the other way, who knows what Rodgers’ fate might have been?

Instead, Maddison’s double, either side of Harvey Barnes’ stunner, put the Foxes 3-0 up at the break before substitute Patson Daka added an impish fourth.

‘The club trust me in my work and maybe that’s why I’m still in the job,’ Rodgers acknowledged. ‘This was a season-changing game if we could produce a result and performance. It feels like the first game of the season and hopefully now we can climb the league.’

Now it is Cooper who fears for his future. After spending £150million in the summer on 22 players, Forest owner Evangelos Marinakis is unlikely to accept a run of five straight defeats, with Rafa Benitez among those on their radar.

‘I refuse to be really critical of the players because relationships are built over time and we haven’t had that,’ said Cooper. ‘But we gave too much space to Leicester and I didn’t like us in duels. We are not yet the team we want to be.’

Yet his reputation as one of the brightest coaches in the game remains intact, and the Forest fans made their feelings clear, chanting Cooper’s name regularly.

Leicester chairman Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, known as Khun Top, was watching from the directors’ box and urged disillusioned fans to encourage their team.

Sure enough, they heard his call and should have been rewarded with an early goal, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Jamie Vardy missing chances.

Leicester were dominant early on but remain so fragile at the back. Before this one, they had conceded 22 goals in their opening seven games and Taiwo Awoniyi was desperately close to making it 23, shooting against a post.

Harvey Barnes celebrates as his stunning strike doubles Leicester’s lead in the first half

Maddison made it three-nil with a superb free-kick that left Dean Henderson stranded in goal

How Forest were made to pay. Jesse Lingard made a mess of a clearance on the edge of the box and Maddison gathered it before shooting. Henderson moved towards it but once the ball clipped Scott McKenna’s arm, he could only watch it drift past him.

Their second was class. Maddison found Barnes on the left, who cut inside to unleash a perfect strike. Two goals in 110 seconds.

Ten minutes before the break, Cheikhou Kouyate shoved Dewsbury-Hall over. Maddison did the rest, sending his free-kick over the wall and in off a post. Are you watching, Gareth?

Steve Cooper (left) is now under immense pressure as Forest boss while Brendan Rodgers (right) has bought himself time in the Leicester dugout

Cooper stood, hands on knees and head bowed, in the technical area, as the home fans crowed, ‘Sacked in the morning’. Early in the second half, Barnes’s volley struck Steve Cook on an arm but nothing was given, much to the anger of the home fans.

Forest made three changes at half-time — Kouyate, Lewis O’Brien and Neco Williams off.

Daka had replaced Vardy and, when Maddison sent in a low cross from the right, the Zambian showed fabulous invention to wrong-foot Henderson with a Johan Cruyff-style flick that crept in via the keeper’s hand.

Forest players looked at odds for answers during their 4-0 hammering at the King Power

Leicester’s stunning victory also earned them their first clean sheet of the new season

Patson Daka made it 4-0 with a brilliant backheel flick to score the only goal of the second-half

Daka celebrates as his goal ensures Leicester wrap up all three points against Forest

Re-live all the action from the King Power Stadium as it happened below.