Leeds are considering sacking Javi Gracia after just two months in charge, according to reports, with Sam Allardyce said to be among the names in the frame to replace him.

Gracia was appointed as Jesse Marsch’s successor in February, on a deal until the end of the season, with Leeds in the bottom three at the time.

Former Watford boss Gracia won three of his first six games in charge as Leeds climbed to 13th.

But Leeds’ terrible April – which saw them lose successive home games to Crystal Palace and Liverpool 5-1 and 6-1 and concede 23 goals – has left them perilously close to the relegation zone.

After Sunday’s 4-1 defeat at Bournemouth, Leeds are now 17th and just outside the bottom three on goal difference ahead of Saturday’s visit to leaders Manchester City.

A daunting run-in also includes home games against Newcastle and Tottenham and a trip to West Ham.

Former England manager Allardyce has emerged as a strong contender to succeed Gracia at Elland Road should the Spaniard be sacked.

The 68-year-old has been out of football since leaving West Brom in May 2021 following his first top-flight relegation.

Lee Bowyer, who made 265 appearances for Leeds between 1996 and 2003 and has managed Charlton and Birmingham, has also been mentioned as a possible short-term replacement.

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is hoping to meet with England and West Ham star Declan Rice, 24, as soon as the season ends, with the Gunners eager to secure the £100million-rated midfielder’s signature, the Mirror said.

Arsenal are also looking to add depth to their side as they consider a bid for Crystal Palace defender Marc Guehi, who has played three games for England and captained Palace on several occasions, according to the Daily Mail.

Tottenham have also showed interest in the 22-year-old who has played 78 times for Palace since moving from Chelsea in 2021.

If Southampton get relegated  captain James Ward-Prowse could be on the move, with Tottenham and Newcastle both waiting to see what price tag gets put on the England international midfielder, the Daily Mail said.

The Mirror says Manchester United are reportedly considering signing Roma striker Tammy Abraham as an alternative if they cannot tempt Harry Kane away from Tottenham this summer.

Michael Olise: Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson said the club could struggle to keep the 21-year-old French winger, with Arsenal and Paris St Germain reportedly among those interested, the Evening Standard said.

Randal Kolo Muani : The Eintracht Frankfurt forward is reportedly being chased by Manchester United and Bayern Munich as both clubs look to sign the 24-year-old France international.

Leicester completed one of the biggest sporting fairy-tales of all time on this day in 2016 when they were crowned Premier League champions.

The Foxes defied odds of 5,000-1 at the start of the season to win the title for the first time in the club’s 132-year history.

They began the campaign among the favourites for relegation under new manager Claudio Ranieri, but having lost 19 matches the previous season, fell to just three defeats on the way to a stunning triumph.

Leicester were deserved champions having won at both title rivals Manchester City and Tottenham, while an unbeaten run from mid-February proved beyond any doubt they had the nerve to finish the job.

In the end, a little help from the previous Premier League winners Chelsea helped complete their rise from relegation fodder to champions.

Second-half goals from Chelsea pair Gary Cahill and Eden Hazard secured a 2-2 draw against second-placed Tottenham, halting Spurs’ bid on a night of high drama that Leicester’s players watched unfold from striker Jamie Vardy’s home.

Foxes fans coined the chant ‘Jamie Vardy’s having a party’ and the top scorer had quite the shindig in Melton Mowbray, where videos showed the group celebrating wildly as the title was confirmed.

Ranieri’s experience was more tranquil having flown back from Italy after visiting his 96-year-old mother in Rome to return home in time to watch Tottenham’s draw with his family.

“I am very, very happy now because maybe if I won this title at the beginning of my career maybe I would forget,” Ranieri, then 64, said. “Now I am an old man I can feel it much better.

“I said every time I am very happy for the fans, for the chairman and for all the Leicester community. I don’t know the secret. The players, the heart, the soul and how they play.”

Leicester boss Dean Smith refused to blame James Maddison after his penalty miss in the chaotic 2-2 draw with Everton.

Jordan Pickford saved the forward’s first-half spot kick, denying the Foxes a 3-1 lead, and Alex Iwobi salvaged a point for the Toffees.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s spot kick opener was swiftly cancelled out by Caglar Soyuncu and Jamie Vardy in a thrilling game.

The draw lifted Leicester out of the drop zone on goal difference, with Everton – who lost Seamus Coleman to a serious looking knee injury – second bottom and a point from safety with four games left.

Boss Dean Smith said: “James is our top scorer, if he scores no-one is asking the question. The goalkeeper stood up which not many do. It happens.

“There were times I felt it was two points lost, there were times I felt it was a point gained.

“In the first half we were second best for long periods, the game became a bit like basketball and we were counter attacking at home which is not what we want.

“I was disappointed as we were second best for the first half. There was just so many unforced errors.

“We’ve just played Leeds and Everton, got two points out of it. If we had won one and lost one would that have put us in a better situation because one of our rivals would have had three points?

“We know we will play better, there’s more to come.”

Daniel Iversen thwarted Iwobi early but Calvert-Lewin’s penalty put Everton ahead on 15 minutes after the striker was barged over by Timothy Castagne in the box.

Leicester levelled seven minutes later when Soyuncu steered in from Wout Faes’ knockback.

Just 11 minutes later they turned it around when Maddison sent Vardy clear to round Pickford and score.

Calvert-Lewin then missed a fine chance to level and Vardy hit the bar after a quick break.

Coleman was carried off after a Boubakary Soumare challenge before Pickford’s crucial stop when he stayed to beat away Maddison’s penalty when the forward went down the middle following Michael Keane’s handball.

The notes on Maddison’s technique on the goalkeeper’s water bottle said ‘stay’.

Iwobi took advantage to find the corner after 54 minutes and a thrilling game continued when James Tarkowski cleared Vardy’s goal bound header.

Iversen ensured it would finish level with a fine save from Abdoulaye Doucoure with Leicester unbeaten in their last three games.

Everton boss Sean Dyche said: “It’s a such a strange journey since I’ve been here. When I got here they’d taken five points from 12 games now we’re a point for point on games. Now it’s about taking it on even further.

“Sometimes you think ‘I don’t know how they are 2-1 up’ and I certainly thought that at half time. The composure of the team to keep performing in the second half was pleasing and we’re going to keep needing that.

“I’ve seen this league change many times. We’ve got tough games but everyone’s got tough games, this stage of the season is about tough games.

“Every game should be a must win when you are a professional. I thought it was a very good performance, the will, the demand but also the quality to create things.

“All the markers which usually bring a win were there. They didn’t but we have to keep doing that because it shows there’s a clear shift from the last game.”

On Coleman he added: “We’re waiting on news. It doesn’t look great and we’re waiting on more details.”

Luca Brecel withstood a stirring fightback from Mark Selby to clinch a dramatic 18-15 victory and become the first player from mainland Europe to win the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible.

Having clawed back outlandish deficits to sink both Ronnie O’Sullivan and Si Jiahui in the previous rounds, the brilliant 28-year-old switched roles to fend off a late surge by the four-time champion.

Resuming 9-8 in front after a first day when the headlines were hogged by Selby’s historic maximum break, Brecel blasted four centuries in a blistering penultimate session to severely test his opponent’s storied reputation for triumphing against the odds.

Brecel proceeded to extend his lead to 16-10 but watched in increasing exasperation as Selby clawed back five in a row to threaten a dramatic finale before the Belgian edged one frame closer and then got over the line in style with his fifth century of the match.

“I just didn’t fancy winning this final,” Brecel admitted after picking up the winner’s cheque worth £500,000.

“I think it’s been too long, too much pressure, too many late nights. I had been behind in most of my games and I was expecting to go home against Ronnie and especially Si.

“Today when Mark got back from 9-5 to 9-8 I felt like I’d lost it already. I just didn’t fancy winning but if you feel like that and you still produce those breaks, I feel like I deserve it.”

His victory made him the youngest winner since Shaun Murphy in 2005 and capped a remarkable if belated ascent from Brecel, whose outrageous promise as a junior had threatened to evaporate in a relatively frustrating few years on the professional circuit.

And it was all the more remarkable in the context of Brecel’s claims that he had come into the tournament – and squeezed past Ricky Walden in a final-frame decider in the opening round – fuelled by a regime of negligible practice and plenty of parties.

“It’s not going to be early but I’m not going to go wild,” insisted the new champion of his imminent celebration plans.

“I’m not a party guy, it’s just coincidence that it happened before this World Championship. I will probably have a couple of drinks with my family but I have got to go home tomorrow.”

Brecel’s exhilarating intent to take on almost every conceivable pot made him an instant favourite among Crucible fans and sabotaged Selby’s hopes of continuing the recovery he had kick-started late on Sunday.

Brecel returned on Monday looking simply devastating, firing three centuries in the first four frames of the day to fashion a 13-9 lead before the mid-session interval gave the favourite some respite from the avalanche of potting that had come his way.

The four-time champion was distinctly out of sorts, cueing up many of Brecel’s chances by leaving reds dangling desperately over corner pockets, but no-one would have expected anything less than one of his trademark fightbacks.

Just as he dredged his way back to win previous finals over Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins, Selby launched his assault straight after the interval, winning two in a row, including the 23rd frame after a lengthy safety battle.

Yet where other opponents might have felt the pressure, Brecel was unfazed, and he duly returned to the table to sink an audacious opening red before proceeding to clear the balls for his nerveless fourth century of the session.

Arguably Brecel’s most impressive frame was yet to come, as he wiped out Selby’s carefully constructed 40-point lead off the back of another long red, his own pressure-filled break of 40 every bit as rewarding as his earlier hundreds.

Brecel continued his potting exploits when he took the first frame of the final session with a break of 67 to move two frames from victory at 16-10.

Inevitably, however, Selby stirred. He launched his improbable fightback with a break of 78 before reeling off the next four frames in a row to move to the brink of parity at 16-15.

But there was one more dramatic momentum shift in the 32nd frame when Selby missed a simple black, allowing Brecel to stop the rot, before a brilliant knock of 112 got him over the line.

Selby paid tribute to Brecel and said he would have no problem putting the defeat in perspective following his much publicised struggle with mental health concerns, while his wife Vikki is also recovering from illness.

“Some of the snooker Luca played today was incredible,” said Selby. “To be playing in his first final and to make four centuries, he just kept knocking the balls in every time he got a chance.

“Just coming out of the other side with my mental health from where I was, that’s me winning really – it’s irrelevant what else goes on because if you don’t have your health you have nothing.

“If this had been last year I wouldn’t have been able to come back from where I battled back from. As long as I keep putting the work in and my health is good, hopefully I’ve got more time.”

Cameron Norrie bowed out of the Madrid Open despite not facing a single break point as China’s Zhizhen Zhang battled from a set down to advance to the fourth round.

The British number one, seeded 11th in the Spanish capital, looked to be cruising when he won four games in a row to take the first set 6-2 and the second looked to be following a similar pattern.

However, the left-hander spurned five break point opportunities and his opponent, ranked 99th in the world, hit back to record a 2-6 7-6 (2) 7-6 (2) win to set up a clash with eighth seed Taylor Fritz.

After falling 0-40 down at 2-2 in the second set, Zhang won 27 successive points on serve to establish some rhythm and while he was unable to make inroads on the return, he held his nerve in the tie-breaks.

Despite going 2-1 down in the second set tie-break, Zhang reeled off six consecutive points to send the match to a decider, where neither player backed down on serve.

Another tie-break ensued and it was Zhang who hit the front this time, claiming victory in two hours and nine minutes to reach the last 16 of a Masters 1000 event for the first time.

While American Fritz saw off Chile’s Cristian Garin 6-1 7-6 (4), second seed Daniil Medvedev hit back from a set down to record a 4-6 6-1 7-5 triumph over fellow Russian Alexander Shevchenko.

Fourth seed Stefanos Tsitsipas was also taken the distance before the Greek collected a 7-5 3-6 6-3 success over Argentinian 25th seed Sebastian Baez.

Luca Brecel’s sensational march to the World Snooker Championship title in Sheffield concluded 17 days of significant shocks and sensational upstarts.

Early defeats for the likes of in-form Shaun Murphy and Judd Trump blasted open the seedings while up-and-comers like Brecel and Si Jiahui came of age.

Here, the PA news agency casts an eye over the highlights from another unforgettable fortnight and a bit at the Crucible.

A superstar prospect who seemed destined not to fill his enormous early potential, Brecel has finally hurled himself among the elite. With a swashbuckling style that evokes former Crucible greats like Alex Higgins and Jimmy White, Brecel won the hearts of the Sheffield crowd during his irresistible march to his maiden title.

Out of the dark cloud of the match-fixing scandal that snared 10 of their compatriots emerged a new generation of Chinese talent, spearheaded by the extraordinary Si Jiahui. His run to the last four will remain an abiding memory of this tournament and, as one of four first-time Chinese qualifiers, the future of the sport in the east is evidently in good hands.

While the rest of the circuit bows to TV pressure for shorter-form affairs, the 2023 tournament served as a reminder of what makes the marathon format so special. Brecel’s epic comebacks against Si and Ronnie O’Sullivan, and the extraordinary endurance shown by Mark Selby and Mark Allen in their early-hours semi-final, underscored what makes the Crucible unique.

With the glowing exception of Jak Jones, the single home-grown debutant who soared all the way to the quarter-finals, there are few signs of the next generation of rising British talent. Jack Lisowski once again came up spectacularly short, and besides Jones, first-round loser Elliot Slessor was the only other Briton in the draw aged under 30.

The fabled ‘Class of 92′ once again had their moments, but the manner of their eventual defeats hinted that their time as multiple title winners may finally be nearing an end. O’Sullivan admitted he had no answer to Brecel’s seven-frame streak in the last eight, while John Higgins’ stellar run was shattered in his own quarter-final loss to Selby.

Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall called for his side to quickly recover their spirits after the Gunners narrowly failed to reach the Women’s Champions League final with a 3-2 extra-time defeat to Wolfsburg.

Arsenal remain the only English side to have won the European club title and it took until the second half of extra time in front of a sold-out crowd of 60,063 at the Emirates for Pauline Bremer to set up a meeting with Barcelona in the June 3 Eindhoven final.

It was nevertheless a valiant effort from the depleted hosts, whose injury-plagued season has seen them lose top talent including skipper Kim Little, forwards Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead, and, most recently, England captain Leah Williamson.

“[We’re hurting] quite a bit,” admitted Eidevall. “It’s tough. No doubt about it, because it was a game of such fine margins and they’re not on our side tonight.

“So I think we’re allowed to hurt tonight, we’re allowed to feel empty, but we’re also allowed to feel proud of our performance and for the occasion with the supporters that are magnificent, so there’s a lot of emotions.

“Sometimes things go for you and you think that’s always justified, sometimes that goes against you and it feels terrible.

“But I also choose to look at it that way, that we as a group, we come to the Champions League semi-final with all the injuries we have, with all the challenges we have, we do that, and that is actually incredible. And I’m so proud of the players and the staff that they are able to do that.

“We are in a tough situation on the remainder of the season both to get our feet and heads back from here, but already on Friday we have a really important [Women’s Super League] game against Leicester.”

The hosts, who sit fourth in the WSL but with two games in hand over league leaders Manchester United, were first on the scoresheet when Stina Blackstenius marked a half-century of appearances for Arsenal with the opener, but saw it cancelled out by former Gunner Jill Roord before half-time.

Wolfsburg skipper Alexandra Popp pulled the visitors ahead after the restart before Jen Beattie’s equaliser forced extra time, when Katie McCabe’s cross hit the woodwork before a defensive lapse from England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy allowed Jule Brand to pounce and feed Bremer, who slid and scored the winner in the 119th minute.

Wubben-Moy otherwise had an excellent evening, with a critical tackle to deny Ewa Pajor a chance before setting up Beattie’s equaliser, but looked crushed by the final result.

Asked how she was feeling, her boss replied: “I’ve told her to keep her head high, there’s no need to apologise. Mistakes happen in football. We win as a team, we lose as a team. We’re there for each other.

“We learn. It’s inevitable sometimes. Today they also made mistakes and we were close to profiting from them. So it’s part of the game. She was absolutely fantastic if you look at it as a total performance and she has been lately as well. We’re there for each other.”

Arsenal boss Jonas Eidevall called for his side to quickly recover their spirits after the Gunners narrowly failed to reach the Women’s Champions League final with a 3-2 extra-time defeat to Wolfsburg.

Arsenal remain the only English side to have won the European club title and it took until the second half of extra time in front of a sold-out crowd of 60,063 at the Emirates for Pauline Bremer to set up a meeting with Barcelona in the June 3 Eindhoven final.

It was nevertheless a valiant effort from the depleted hosts, whose injury-plagued season has seen them lose top talent including skipper Kim Little, forwards Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead, and, most recently, England captain Leah Williamson.

“[We’re hurting] quite a bit,” admitted Eidevall. “It’s tough. No doubt about it, because it was a game of such fine margins and they’re not on our side tonight.

“So I think we’re allowed to hurt tonight, we’re allowed to feel empty, but we’re also allowed to feel proud of our performance and for the occasion with the supporters that are magnificent, so there’s a lot of emotions.

“Sometimes things go for you and you think that’s always justified, sometimes that goes against you and it feels terrible.

“But I also choose to look at it that way, that we as a group, we come to the Champions League semi-final with all the injuries we have, with all the challenges we have, we do that, and that is actually incredible. And I’m so proud of the players and the staff that they are able to do that.

“We are in a tough situation on the remainder of the season both to get our feet and heads back from here, but already on Friday we have a really important [Women’s Super League] game against Leicester.”

The hosts, who sit fourth in the WSL but with two games in hand over league leaders Manchester United, were first on the scoresheet when Stina Blackstenius marked a half-century of appearances for Arsenal with the opener, but saw it cancelled out by former Gunner Jill Roord before half-time.

Wolfsburg skipper Alexandra Popp pulled the visitors ahead after the restart before Jen Beattie’s equaliser forced extra time, when Katie McCabe’s cross hit the woodwork before a defensive lapse from England defender Lotte Wubben-Moy allowed Jule Brand to pounce and feed Bremer, who slid and scored the winner in the 119th minute.

Wubben-Moy otherwise had an excellent evening, with a critical tackle to deny Ewa Pajor a chance before setting up Beattie’s equaliser, but looked crushed by the final result.

Asked how she was feeling, her boss replied: “I’ve told her to keep her head high, there’s no need to apologise. Mistakes happen in football. We win as a team, we lose as a team. We’re there for each other.

“We learn. It’s inevitable sometimes. Today they also made mistakes and we were close to profiting from them. So it’s part of the game. She was absolutely fantastic if you look at it as a total performance and she has been lately as well. We’re there for each other.”

Athletic Bilbao kept themselves in the hunt for European qualification as a stoppage-time penalty from Inaki Williams salvaged a 1-1 LaLiga draw at Mallorca.

With top-six rivals Real Betis having lost 4-0 at Barcelona on Saturday, Athletic were looking to get their own campaign back on track following defeat last time out against in-form Sevilla.

Mallorca, though, took the lead just before the hour through a scrappy effort from Lee Kang-in, which went through the legs of Athletic defender Yeray Alvarez as he tried to clear the ball off the line.

It looked like that would be enough to secure Mallorca – all but already safe in midtable – victory, but there was a dramatic finish when Bilbao were awarded a penalty deep into stoppage-time following handball by Inigo Ruiz De Galarreta.

Ghana forward Williams made no mistake as he coolly dispatched the spot-kick, which proved the last action of the match.

Athletic remain seventh, but are now just two points behind Betis ahead of their showdown at San Mames on Thursday in the battle for Europa Conference League qualification.

In Monday’s late match, Valentin Castellanos was on target again as Girona won 2-0 at Sevilla.

Juanpe put the visitors ahead from a corner in the 23rd minute.

On loan New York City forward Castellanos – who scored four in the win over Real Madrid – doubled the lead early in the second half as Sevilla’s seven-match unbeaten run came to an end.

Girona climb to eighth, three points behind Bilbao.

Luca Brecel withstood a stirring fightback from Mark Selby to clinch a dramatic 18-15 victory and become the first player from mainland Europe to win the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible.

Five previous visits to the famous venue had yielded no success for Brecel but, having clawed back outlandish deficits to sink both Ronnie O’Sullivan and Si Jiahui in the previous rounds, he switched roles to fend off a late surge by the four-time champion.

Resuming 9-8 in front after a first day whose headlines were hogged by Selby’s historic maximum break, Brecel blasted four centuries in a blistering penultimate session to severely test his opponent’s storied reputation for triumphing against the odds.

Brecel proceeded to extend his lead to 16-10 but watched in increasing exasperation as Selby clawed back five in a row to threaten a dramatic finale before the Belgian edged one frame closer and then got over the line in style with his fifth century of the match.

His victory made the 28-year-old the youngest winner since Shaun Murphy in 2005 and capped a remarkable if belated ascent from Brecel, whose outrageous promise as a junior had threatened to evaporate in a relatively frustrating few years on the professional circuit.

And it was all the more remarkable in the context of Brecel’s claims that he had come into the tournament – and squeezed past Ricky Walden in a final-frame decider in the opening round – fuelled by games of darts and drinking binges.

Such a refreshing approach, combined with an exhilarating intent to take on almost every conceivable pot, made him an instant favourite among Crucible fans and sabotaged the attritional approach with which Selby has won down so many of his previous opponents.

If Selby, two of whose previous title wins had entailed recovering from greater deficits than the four frames by which he twice trailed on the opening day, will have been undaunted after Sunday’s opening session, Monday’s resumption appeared to put hopes of a fifth title in stark perspective.

Brecel looked simply devastating, firing three centuries in the first four frames of the day to fashion a 13-9 lead before the mid-session interval gave the favourite some respite from the avalanche of potting that had come his way.

The four-time champion looked distinctly out of sorts, cueing up many of Brecel’s chances by leaving reds dangling desperately over corner pockets, but no-one would have expected anything less than one of his trademark fightbacks.

Just as he dredged his way back to win previous finals over Ronnie O’Sullivan and John Higgins, Selby launched his assault straight after the interval, winning two in a row, including a potentially pivotal 23rd frame after a lengthy safety battle.

Yet where other opponents might have felt the pressure, Brecel was unfazed, and he duly returned to the table to sink an audacious opening red before proceeding to clear the balls for his nerveless fourth century of the session.

Arguably Brecel’s most impressive frame was yet to come, as he wiped out Selby’s carefully constructed 40-point lead off the back of another long red, his own pressure-filled break of 40 every bit as rewarding as his earlier hundreds.

Brecel continued his potting exploits when he took the first frame of the final session with a break of 67 to move two frames from victory at 16-10.

Inevitably, however, Selby stirred. He launched his improbable fightback with a break of 78 before slugging his way through a long and scrappy frame to bring Brecel back within four frames at 16-12.

These were worrying times for the Belgian, whose long potting percentage was beginning to nosedive, and Selby ruthlessly converted his opportunities by taking the next three frames including his third century of the final.

Brecel had not potted a ball for an hour, and when he missed another rash attempt at a long red early in the next frame he returned to his seat with a wry smile, seemingly resigned to the increasing futility of trying to keep Selby at bay.

But having battled back to the brink of parity, there was one more dramatic momentum shift in the 32nd frame when Selby missed a simple black, allowing Brecel to stop the rot, before a brilliant knock of 112 got him over the line.

Alex Iwobi rescued a point for Everton in a pulsating 2-2 draw at drop rivals Leicester.

The forward capitalised on Jordan Pickford’s crucial penalty save when he stopped James Maddison making it 3-1 just before the break.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s spot-kick opened the scoring, his first goal since October, before it was cancelled out by Caglar Soyuncu.

Jamie Vardy’s goal sent Leicester ahead and Maddison missed the chance to put the hosts in control, with Iwobi levelling soon after the re-start.

Everton also lost captain Seamus Coleman to a serious injury to further add to their problems.

Realistically, a point did little to aid either side’s Premier League survival hopes in the short-term, although it did lift Leicester out of the bottom three on goal difference. Everton remain second bottom, a point from safety, with four games left.

May 2 marks the seventh anniversary of the Foxes’ Premier League triumph in 2016.

Five days later, basking in the glory, Leicester battered a disinterested Everton 3-1 before lifting the title to complete their fairy tale.

Andrea Bocelli had already sung an emotive Nessun Dorma and the Toffees had given the hosts a guard of honour at an electric King Power Stadium.

Fast-forward and after two fifth-place finishes, FA Cup win, a Champions League quarter-final and a Europa Conference League semi-final, the class of 2023 faced a different game against the visitors.

Everton, protecting a top-flight status which stretched back to 1954, were winless in their previous six outings.

Sean Dyche’s impact, which earned two wins from his opening three games, has waned and just one further victory since has left the Toffees staring into the abyss.

If there were any nerves, the visitors hid them well and only Daniel Iversen’s fabulous save denied Iwobi an opener following Abdoulaye Doucoure’s driving run.

Maddison’s tame shot was gathered by Pickford in a rare Leicester attack before the Toffees grabbed a deserved 15th-minute lead.

It was a gift from the hosts, though, as Timothy Castagne’s moment of madness saw him unnecessarily barge Calvert-Lewin over in the box.

The striker kept his composure from the spot to score just his second goal of an injury-ravaged season.

Leicester boss Dean Smith had criticised the schedule which, starting against Everton, will see the Foxes play four Monday night games – after all their rivals.

But defeats for Leeds and Nottingham Forest had given them the platform to escape the bottom three, one they were in danger of losing until levelling out of the blue after 22 minutes.

Maddison’s free-kick was only half-cleared and Wout Faes nodded back Harvey Barnes’ cross for Soyuncu to turn in from 10 yards – his first goal for the Foxes since October 2021.

It changed the direction of the game as Leicester found their rhythm to go ahead after 33 minutes.

As much as the Foxes had found theirs, Everton had lost any composure and Iwobi’s poor pass was intercepted by Youri Tielemans for Maddison to find Vardy.

The striker dashed clear of Michael Keane to round Pickford and score. It is the first time in a year he has scored in successive games.

It sparked a madcap finish to the half and only Iversen’s fine stop from Dwight McNeil kept the hosts ahead.

Leicester survived again when Calvert-Lewin could only direct McNeil’s ball at Iversen from two yards – with Soyuncu’s touch on the cross denying the striker a simple tap-in.

Leicester immediately broke and Vardy bamboozled Keane only to chip onto the bar from eight yards.

The Toffees then lost their skipper when Coleman was carried off with a serious injury after Boubakary Soumare’s strong but innocuous challenge.

It almost got worse when Keane handled Barnes’ cross in the box but Pickford stood up to save Maddison’s poor penalty. The notes for Maddison’s penalty technique on the goalkeeper’s water bottle said ‘stay’.

It was a lifeline Everton grabbed as they levelled nine minutes after the re-start.

Iversen had already saved from Calvert-Lewin but he was powerless to stop Iwobi from drilling in after Faes had touched on McNeil’s delivery.

Parity restored, the game continued at a relentless pace with James Tarkowski blocking Vardy’s goal-bound header.

A frantic finish then saw Iversen turn Doucoure’s drive wide to preserve a result neither side really wanted.

Warren Gatland has revealed Wyn Jones’ shock omission from his preliminary World Cup training squad was down to Wales seeking greater front-row mobility.

Jones has gone from British and Irish Test Lion to Wales outcast in under two years, with Gatland suggesting that the Scarlets prop is a victim of the changing nature of international rugby.

The 31-year-old Jones – who started the Lions’ Test decider against South Africa in August 2021 – failed to make Gatland’s preliminary 54-man squad, with Cardiff’s uncapped Corey Domachowski among the preferred options at loosehead.

“There is no doubt he has had some injuries,” Wales head coach Gatland said of the 48-times capped Jones.

“Leading up to 2021 he was in outstanding form and playing well, we are just looking for some competition and a little bit more mobility in that position.

“We are looking for guys winning collisions and having that work-rate around the field we think is important at this level.

“There is no doubt the game has changed. The number of scrums is nowhere near as many as they used to be so you need to have a front five, particularly front rowers, that can scrummage but can get around the park.

“They have got to contribute a huge amount in terms of their mobility.

“That’s a big part we need to improve and was an area that when we reflected back and reviewed the Six Nations was probably our biggest work on in terms of moving forward.”

Seven-cap England tighthead prop Henry Thomas, who plays for France’s Top 14 champions Montpellier, was the surprise inclusion in a squad to be cut to 33 ahead of the World Cup in September.

Thomas, who has played for Sale and Bath in the Gallagher Premiership, was last capped by England in 2014 and has served World Rugby’s stand down period of three years to represent another country.

Fellow forwards Cory Hill, currently playing in Japan, and Will Rowlands were named in a squad featuring 10 uncapped players.

Rowlands is two appearances short of meeting Wales’ 25-cap criteria for those playing outside the country, something which does not affect Thomas as he is currently under contract at Montpellier.

The second-row forward is leaving Dragons for Paris-based Racing 92 next season, but Wales have three Tests before the World Cup in August. Rowlands’ registration will remain in Wales during the summer.

Exeter-bound centre Joe Hawkins, who has won five caps since making his debut in November, is ineligible, however, following his move from Ospreys.

Wales’ World Cup pool consists of Australia, Fiji, Georgia and Portugal, and Gatland expects improved fitness levels after a disappointing Six Nations campaign that brought only one win against Italy.

He said: “We were reasonable but not anywhere near as good as we were in the past. That’s something we pride ourselves on in terms of playing for 80 minutes and not going away.

“You’ve seen that in the past and it’s something I’ll definitely be focusing on.”