Leicester City hit new low as they are thrashed FOUR-NIL at home by Oxford in League One – 10 years after they won the Premier League title

Pressure is mounting on Russell Martin after his Leicester City side were thrashed 4-0 by Oxford United in their League One clash at the King Power Stadium.

Despite claiming their first, and so far only, league win of the season four days earlier, the vulnerabilities undermining Martin’s project with the 2016 Premier League champions were brutally exposed by their opponents on Saturday.

The Foxes have slumped to 17th in the third tier, picking up just five points from their opening five league games under former Rangers boss Martin, who signed a three-year contract with the club in June.

After the match, Martin said his players were ‘too soft and naive’.

‘We started terribly,’ he said. ‘It was such a poor goal to concede and then I thought we were really on top in the first half.

‘If we’d scored then, it would have changed the energy. But the start to the second half summed it up.

‘We had five kick-offs and three of them ended up with a chance on our goal, which is crazy. And I think that shows the lack of experience we have on the pitch and in the decision-making at times.

‘So then we’re chasing the game and we keep getting caught in transition against opponents who are really good at that. I brought some experienced guys off, to try and inject some energy. But we were too soft and too naive.

‘That’s frustrating and painful, because we looked the exact opposite of the team we’d been going into this and that was a team ready to be aggressive and fight for each other.’

There were positives Martin could identify, including an early chance for debutant Emil Riis and the sight of Jayden Joseph twice forcing saves.

However, Oxford had already gone ahead by that stage. The officials’ decision to allow Mark Harris’s seventh-minute finish to stand, despite the ball appearing to brush his arm on its way over the line following a poor connection with Mo Missanga’s cross, was questionable.

But the same could be said of the marking that allowed the youngster to deliver the cross and Harris to meet it unopposed.

Aaron Ramsey’s side doubled their lead in the 57th minute when Missanga, scoring his first senior goal, held off Luke Thomas to convert Kai Andrews’ pass.

Three minutes later, Harris completed his brace following another Andrews assist and yet more woeful defending. Leicester’s humiliation was then completed with 13 minutes remaining when Jamie McDonnell lashed home substitute Luka Lynch’s pass after another lapse at the back.

Martin was subjected to chants of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ from both sets of supporters, while many Leicester fans headed for the exits after Oxford scored their third goal in the 60th minute.

Leicester’s board, led by King Power chief executive Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, who was in attendance, was also met with chants of ‘sack the board’ as supporters streamed out of the stadium.

Martin lasted just 123 days as Rangers boss last season, becoming the club’s shortest-reigning manager.

Before his spell north of the border, he led Southampton to promotion to the Premier League via the play-offs, but was sacked the following season after overseeing just one win in 16 top-flight matches.