Rodgers hails ´ruthless´ Leicester as Saints boss ´takes responsibility´ for 9-0 rout

Leicester boss Brendan Rodgers hailed his team as "ruthless" for their record-equalling 9-0 rout of Southampton in the Premier League on Friday as besieged Saints coach Ralph Hasenhuttl insisted: ´Blame me´.

Ayoze Perez and Jamie Vardy both hit hat-tricks as Rodgers´ side moved second in the table.

The rout equalled Manchester United´s 9-0 demolition of Ipswich at Old Trafford in March 1995 for the biggest win in Premier League history.

"We were ruthless. I´m very proud to stand and be the manager of that team," said Rodgers after a game played out in driving rain at St Mary´s Stadium.

"A mark of the good sides is you don´t let up. We wanted to show we´re a good side and we certainly did that in the second half.

Read more: Leicester make history with nine-goal destruction of Southampton

"We were ruthlessly simple in our game. When you´re so many goals up you can easily slow but we kept focused. We want to be a top team and to be a top team you must be clinical."

Hasenhuttl saw his team slip into the bottom three and he pulled no punches after a performance which also saw Ryan Bertrand red-carded after 10 minutes.

"The performance was a disaster and I have to apologise and take 100 percent responsibility — I´ve never seen a team act like this, there was no fight for anything," admitted the Saints´ coach.

Southampton midfielder Nathan Redmond added: "It was an embarrassing performance, the stuff of nightmares."

Leicester are just five points behind league leaders Liverpool, who host Tottenham on Sunday, after recording the biggest-ever victory by an away side in an English top-flight match in the 131-year history of the Football League.

Ben Chilwell began the destruction in the 10th minute when he tapped in on the rebound, and Ryan Bertrand´s red card — awarded via VAR for a late tackle on Perez in the build-up to the opener — helped the away side open the floodgates.

Raining goals 

Quickfire strikes from Youri Tielemans and Perez put Leicester three goals to the good with less than 20 minutes gone amid a downpour on the south coast.

Perez struck again seven minutes before the break from a Chilwell cross to make it four before Vardy scored his first of the evening as Leicester racked up five goals in the first half of a league match for the first time since 1984.

Read more: Man City look to Spurs to slow Liverpool Premier League charge

It was also the first time that a side had crashed home that many goals in the opening period of a Premier League game since Manchester City beat Burnley 6-1 in April 2010.

That didn´t stop Leicester from raining down goals on Southampton however, with two coming within a minute just before the hour mark.

First Perez completed his treble after collecting Hervey Barnes´ superb lofted through ball in the 57th minute, and Vardy headed home from another precise Chilwell cross seconds later.

James Maddison made it a record-breaking away scoreline with five minutes remaining when he swung home a perfect free-kick that zipped past the desperate Angus Gunn.

And Vardy sealed Leicester´s place in the record books with his ninth of the season deep into stoppage, firing home a penalty that also took him top of the Premier League scoring charts with nine goals after he was brought down by Jan Bednarek.