Leicester beat Southampton 9-0 in record English top-flight away win

Leicester City recorded the biggest ever English top-flight away win by beating 10-man Southampton 9-0 at a rain-sodden St Mary's to move up to second place in the Premier League on Friday.

The biggest margin of victory on the road previously was eight goals, a joint record held by three clubs including an 8-1 win by Manchester United over Nottingham Forest in 1999.

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The result also equalled Manchester United's record for the largest win ever in the Premier League in a 9-0 win at home against Ipswich Town in 1995.

Jamie Vardy and Ayoze Perez both had hat tricks on the rainy night at Southampton, who saw Ryan Bertrand sent off with a straight red in the 12th minute to set the visitors on their way for the record victory.

In an interesting sidenote, Leicester keeper Kasper Schmeichel's father Peter was in goal for Man United in the match against Ipswich, making them the only two keeper in Premier League history to keep a clean sheet as their teams scored nine goals.

It was the first time since 2014 that two hat tricks had been scored on a single day in the Premier League when Yaya Toure did it for Manchester City and Luis Suarez scored three for Liverpool.

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The nine goals puts Brendan Rodgers' side up to 25 for the season, good for second in Europe's top-five leagues behind the 29 that Man City have scored.

Leading 5-0 at half-time, Rodgers urged his players to keep chasing goals to show they were a "top team."

"We said at half-time, keep your speed in the game and we have to punish them," Rodgers said. "It is tough for Ralph [Hasenhuettl, Southampton manager], but we have to do our job and score as many goals as we can.

"The game is 0-0 at half-time, we said. This is part of our education, we have to come out of the 'boy zone' and play like a man and respect the game. They are very talented and learning to be ruthless.

"We believe in our work, believe we can push over the course of the season. Our mentality is how we work every day. The players want to get better and improve."

Leicester also leapfrogged Man City into second place in the table pending the result of the defending champions' match against Aston Villa on Saturday.

Southampton's heaviest Premier League defeat had been a 7-1 reverse to Liverpool 20 years ago, another unwanted record for their under pressure manager.

"It was an embarrassing performance, the stuff of nightmares and especially playing at home," said Saints' forward Nathan Redmond.

"It just wasn't good enough and one of the poorest performances since I've been at the club and we'll have to debrief that whole game from start to finish tomorrow."

Austrian Hasenhuttl accepted responsibility for the defeat, but questioned his players' desire to compete with Leicester.

"The performance was a disaster, and I have to apologies and take 100% responsibility," he said. "I've never seen a team act like this, there was no fight for anything.

"It was horrible to watch and everyone who stayed to watch is really a fan of this football club. Leicester were in every part of the game better than us."

Hasenhuettl said it was now up to him to rally the players ahead of a League Cup fourth-round trip to holders Manchester City on Tuesday.

"I'm a proud man but the way we played today is not the way I want to see my team play. We must get our heads up and that is my job in the next few days.

"We all must to do everything to pull this back."