Leicester manager Enzo Maresca described the 4-1 win at Blackburn as his side’s “most important” this season.

The Foxes returned to the Championship summit after a hard-fought victory, during which Maresca’s men were given a stern examination from their high-pressing opponents.

Wout Faes headed Leicester into a fourth-minute lead but Blackburn’s pressing yielded rewards five minutes later as they forced a mistake that Sammie Szmodics punished from close range.

Jamie Vardy’s clinical finish restored the lead and the Foxes pulled away from Blackburn late on, as Kelechi Iheanacho’s penalty and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall’s exquisite strike put the gloss on an impressive performance to move Leicester two points clear at the top following a fifth consecutive away league win.

Maresca praised Blackburn’s style of play and his side’s “personality”.

He said: “Probably the most important win today since we started. I was a bit worried because of the opponent.

“They are very good, probably in terms of the way they play, the best team we have played to date.

“A complicated opponent because sometimes the winger is outside, sometimes inside, full back sometimes outside, inside. It’s difficult to have a game plan off the ball, the way you want to press because they move a lot.

“As I said, probably the best win since we started. Probably, off the ball the last half an hour, we were much better.

“The first 10 minutes of the second half, we dropped, then we started again in the way we prepared the game. On the ball, we had some good moments, but probably the goal we conceded, we lost a bit of confidence. We need to learn and keep it going.

“Very happy for the personality we showed.”

Jon Dahl Tomasson felt the result was harsh on Blackburn, but lamented conceding “soft goals”.

He said: “We are extremely disappointed with the result. It doesn’t reflect the game. We knew it was going to be tough against a Premier League side with a lot of good players.

“I think we caused them plenty of problems in the first half, with great football, great movement, rotations. We gave two soft goals away in the first half.

“Second half, we were in the game, on top of the opponent when we got a big chance to score a goal. I think they only had four shots on target.

“Then in the end with the penalty of course, which by the way I think it’s a very soft penalty. You can give it, but you’d give 10 penalties in each game.

“Then the game was over. It is tough with the result. Great effort from the lads but of course gave some unnecessary goals away. We’re learning on the job.”

Leicester manager Enzo Maresca hailed the contribution of veteran striker Jamie Vardy as the Foxes continued their flying start to the season with a 2-0 Carabao Cup victory at Tranmere.

Second-half strikes from Wilfred Ndidi and former England international Vardy proved the difference as the Championship side ran out 2-0 victors against their League Two opponents.

It was a sixth win out of six for Leicester in all competitions this season and saw 36-year-old Vardy open his account for the campaign after returning to the starting line-up.

Maresca said: “I’m happy to continue in this competition and I’m happy for the players, especially the young players who don’t play every week.

“I’ve been really happy with Jamie Vardy because when a striker scores they are always happy for them as well as the team.

“He’s been performing well when he starts and as well when he’s been on the bench and his contribution has been amazing.”

The Foxes enjoyed large amounts of possession in the opening stages of the second-round clash at Prenton Park and had a number of chances to open the scoring with Harry Winks coming the closest after seven minutes.

But the 2016 Premier League champions did not have it all their own way with Rovers growing in confidence and, after defending resolutely for half an hour, created some decent openings through Dan Pike and Josh Hawkes.

The deadlock was finally broken nine minutes after the break when Ndidi’s effort from the right side of the box found its way into the net via both posts, and just four minutes later Vardy put the result beyond doubt with a close-range header from an Ndidi cross.

Further chances fell to the visitors as Rovers pushed forward with Vardy and Ndidi who were both foiled by Joe Murphy, a veteran of the meeting between these two in the final of this competition at Wembley 23-years ago.

Maresca added: “I was not happy at half-time so made some changes and we’ve played six games in around 20 days and we have one more to go before the international break.

“We’ve won six from six now and all the attention now turns to the game on Saturday before the international break when some of the players can conserve their energy.”

Despite the defeat, Tranmere manager Ian Dawes was keen to focus on the positives from the encounter.

He said: “We knew going into the game today that they don’t make many changes, they go really strong and the manager takes the competition seriously.

“We knew we had to get our defensive organisation right and we knew we needed to limit their chances on goal and push up as the game went on.

“We had to stifle the game a little bit, keep possession and then make opportunities ourselves and I thought we did that really well and it all went to plan and they probably scored the first goal when we were on top.

“We’ve got to be positive at the end of it, it still hurts getting beat and we obviously wanted to go through, but you’ve got to look at what they’ve got on the pitch.

“You look at their team and they’ve still got Premier League players in their team and taking things into context we can be nothing but positive and we have to take that into Saturday against Wrexham.”

Head coach Enzo Maresca believes Kasey McAteer could become a key player for Leicester as his brace secured a 2-1 victory at Rotherham.

McAteer netted either side of a leveller from Fred Onyedinma to maintain the Foxes’ 100 per cent record this campaign and leave them out in front at the top of the Sky Bet Championship.

The 21-year-old homegrown talent is establishing himself in the Italian’s side after enjoying loan spells at Forest Green and AFC Wimbledon in the past.

Maresca said: “I was very happy with him, for the two goals but also the way he works off the ball. He helps a lot.

“He is working the right way and he helps us out. I’m happy for him and the academy.

“I really like him, not just because he scored. I like the way he works and he sacrifices. He helps a lot without the ball. He is an important player.

“It was a very good performance. They score many goals from set-pieces, the delivery from Cafu is unbelievable. I think we were very good defensively. We fought in the right way.”

Rotherham thought they had gone ahead when Jordan Hugill touched in Cafu’s corner but referee Simon Hooper ruled the goal out after a long consultation with his assistant.

Leicester did take the lead after 12 minutes through McAteer, who was perfectly positioned to guide in Kelechi Iheanacho’s back-post cross.

Onyedinma levelled for Rotherham early in the second period as he managed to get enough of a touch on Andre Green’s cross to beat Hermansen.

Leicester snatched the three points clinically with seven minutes left to play when McAteer bent home after being found by Callum Doyle’s diagonal pass.

Rotherham manager Matt Taylor said: “We’re in a little bit of pain right now. Bar the first 45 minutes at Stoke we have competed and showed signs of being a really good team, but not picked up the points we deserved.

“We more than matched one of the best teams in the league. They just had a little bit more on the pitch and the bench.

“People spoke about what it was in terms of the levels of the opposition but it’s irrelevant – we have to be where we need to be and that is a front foot team.

“The players put everything into it, I just wish I could help them a little bit more.”

Taylor also explained the disallowed goal.

“I spoke to the officials and it was disallowed for two reasons. A foul on the goalkeeper and offside. Both were marginal,” added Taylor. “If that is a foul then a lot is going to get given from set-pieces.

“What happened in that moment does not excuse the lack of concentration for their goal.

“It was a well-worked goal from their point of view but poor from ourselves. The second goal was a mirror image. We just switched off.

“Little moments have let us down and gone against us.”

Enzo Maresca praised his “improving” Leicester side after they edged out a narrow 1-0 victory at Huddersfield.

Summer signing Stephy Mavididi opened his account for the club midway through the second half for what proved to be the winning goal.

The £6.4million recruit from Montpellier unleashed a venomous strike from an acute angle which squeezed past Lee Nicholls at his near post.

Leicester enjoyed the majority of chances with Dennis Praet missing from a one-on-one position and Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall lively throughout.

But it was Mavididi who was the match winner to secure new boss Maresca a third successive victory in all competitions this season since taking charge of the relegated Foxes.

“One of the things that we need this year is to not get frustrated and to be patient, because the chance will arrive,” Maresca said.

“We had at least five or six clear chances to score and, in the end, we completely deserved to win and have the three points.

“I said to the players that I need to know them and they need to know me.

“We started 40 days ago and I need to give them lots of information, but you can’t give it all in 40 days.

“Even defensively, we’ve already improved a lot against a team that are well-organised and created chances from throw-ins, corners and long balls.

“I’m very pleased with all the team and the effort that they did over the last week with three games and three wins.

“Especially today. It was exactly as I expected in terms of against a well-organised team that defended deep, so it was complicated.

“I’m pleased with Stephy, he scored and gave us three points. He’s working well and was very good against Coventry City last week.

“The reason why we brought him to the club was exactly for that today; good in one-v-ones who scores goals and give assists.”

It was a frustrating afternoon for hosts Huddersfield, who slipped to a third defeat in a row to start the campaign.

Michal Helik spurned a glorious opportunity in the first half to open the scoring when he blazed over from point-blank range.

And his defensive partner Matty Pearson missed an inviting chance to equalise as he headed straight at Jakub Stolarczyk.

“I enjoyed it,” said boss Neil Warnock. “The last thing I wrote on the board was ‘enjoy it’ and I think we did today.

“We covered every blade of grass and couldn’t give anything else; we’re just disappointed to lose to a goal like that because I couldn’t see them scoring.

“I thought their goalie made a couple of good saves in that first half and whenever we could, we tried to create things and we were on the front foot.

“I love having a go at them. They’ve got a good squad and two teams who can get promotion but thankfully we were only playing one!

“I think we’ve got to look after ourselves and we’ve shown today that we can go anywhere and have a really good game.

“Yes, the lads are disappointed but there’s nothing to be ashamed of today. There’s nothing but positives apart from the goal.

“It’s not easy to score goals, you need a bit of luck sometimes and they’ve had a bit today.

“Let’s hope it evens out a little bit. They say it does over a season but I’m not so sure, so we’ve got to make our own luck as well.”

Leicester boss Enzo Maresca was more than satisfied as his side ensured comfortable passage to round two of the Carabao Cup with a 2-0 victory over League One Burton.

Kelechi Iheanacho grabbed his chance in the starting line-up with the opening goal after six minutes before assisting Wilfred Ndidi with Leicester’s second in first-half stoppage-time.

“It had the potential to be difficult for us but we started really well with the first goal,” said Maresca.

“Then it got a bit more complicated as they changed and made it harder for us and we had to find solutions.

“In the end we are very happy because we continue improving with the ideas we are trying to get across and that is important. What we are looking for is very clear, even in the previous game.”

Iheanacho replaced Jamie Vardy in the side for the game and impressed his new manager.

“Kelechi was really good scoring and assisting one and then second half he moved inside a bit more but he was one of many players who were really good tonight,” he added.

Burton boss Dino Maamria was frustrated that his side’s game-plan to frustrate their Championship opponents was blown out of the water by conceding so early.

“Our intention in the first half was to block them in and press them to stop their rhythm and we have ended up doing the complete opposite in those first six minutes conceding that goal,” he said.

“We gave them too much respect and that is not us.

“Second half was a much better performance where we were more compact and we had a couple of good chances to get a goal and it is a shame we didn’t get that goal that we deserved.”

Leicester have appointed former Manchester City and Chelsea goalkeeper Willy Caballero as assistant manager.

He is the fifth addition to new boss Enzo Maresca’s backroom team and will head to the Championship club following an 18-month spell at Southampton.

The 41-year-old Argentine enjoyed a highly-successful playing career.

During his time at City and Chelsea he collected Champions League, Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup winners’ medals.

Caballero links up with the Foxes as they continue preparations for a Championship opener against Coventry on August 6.