The 23-year-old played a key role in two of the Foxes four goals at the King Power Stadium on Wednesday night to earn rave reviews from the club’s fans.
Kelechi Iheanacho featured for 47 minutes, and he delivered a fine performance to help Leicester City record a straightforward 4-1 victory over West Ham.
The Nigeria international was introduced just before half-time in place of former England international Jamie Vardy who appeared to pull a muscle when clearing the ball inside his own area.
By this point, Brendan Rodgers men were only one-nil up thanks to a 24th-minute Harvey Barnes strike, but Ricardo Pereira doubled the home team’s lead moments after Iheanacho’s introduction. Mark Noble reduced the deficit from the penalty spot for the Hammers shortly after the restart.
With David Moyes men snooping around for an equalizer, Iheanacho outwitted the kingpin of the visitor’s defence Angelo Ogbonna to earn a penalty for the Foxes.
With Vardy off the pitch, it was Ayoze Perez who stepped up to power his spot-kick past Darren Randolph.
Leicester put some gloss on the scoreline in the 88th minute when Iheanacho laid the ball off for Perez, who turned expertly to fire into the bottom corner.
Many Leicester City fans were pleased with the contribution of the former Manchester City striker, and a few took to Twitter to express their delight.
Iheanacho has his passion back. He even celebrating his assists!
Been through a lot since he joined but he’s now beginning to look like a key player for us.
So positive and links our play together brilliantly. The passing seems so much smoother when he’s on the pitch. #lcfc
— Jack Johnson (@JackJ_2000) January 22, 2020
Just going to put it out there… Iheanacho is starting to look a player again isn’t he? #lcfc
— WTFox (@WTFox1884) January 22, 2020
Anyone who says Vardy is integral to the way #lcfc play is either in a 2016 time warp or clueless. As superb as vardy is, actually, iheanacho is more suited to this style. IF Vardy is out, it’s no major issue to #lcfc nowadays.
— Paul Sherwood (@paulifd) January 22, 2020
Iheanacho didn't travel to the village for Christmas last year.
He has been doing amazingly well at the field of play.
— Nwoke Nkwerre 🖊 (@alvanchinaka) January 22, 2020
Kelechi Iheanacho going from substitute to SSJ like a boss pic.twitter.com/tKWhWCmrW0
— Taj Dhaliwal (@TajiDhaliwal) January 22, 2020
Kelechi Iheanacho came on as a substitute to provide two assists tonight.
What a superb performance by the Nigerian.
Vardy injured 💔#LEIWHU pic.twitter.com/ZPkekUuqF1
— MOLATsportgist ™🇳🇬 (@Molatsportgist) January 22, 2020
If only iheanacho can continue with this form ehn, he might be PFA Premier League Player of the month. pic.twitter.com/odXzPOkycW
— Cornex (@cornexology9) January 23, 2020
Since Jamie Vardy last scored for Leicester in the Premier League:
⚽️ Iheanacho
⚽️ Gray
⚽️ Perez
⚽️ Maddison
⚽️ Choudhury
⚽️ Praet
⚽️ Barnes
⚽️ Barnes
⚽️ Pereira
⚽️ Perez
⚽️ PerezNo Vardy, no problem. #LCFC pic.twitter.com/8cCmY6D72h
— bet365 (@bet365) January 22, 2020
Iheanacho will hope he has done enough to lay claim to the striking role with the absence of teammate Vardy.
Brendan Rodgers men next fight out an FA Cup fourth-round clash with Brentford before playing host to Chelsea in an English top-flight tie.