Leicester climbed out of the Premier League relegation zone as the post-Craig Shakespeare era began with a 2-1 win at Swansea.
Michael Appleton was in caretaker command after Shakespeare's midweek sacking and Leicester fully merited the three points handed to them by Federico Fernandez's first-half own goal and Shinji Okazaki's fifth of the season just after the interval.
Alfie Mawson reduced the deficit from a 56th-minute corner but Swansea were poor for most of the contest and were indebted to their goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski for keeping them in the contest.
Shakespeare had paid the price for a winless run of six games and just one league victory all season.
But just as they had done following the departure of title-winning manager Claudio Ranieri in February, Leicester responded with a display out of keeping with recent performances.
Sky Bet have pushed Leicester out from 8/1 to 11/1 for relegation after the victory.
Swansea are 11/10 second-favourites for the drop.
Post-match reaction
Caretaker Leicester boss Michael Appleton insists victory at Swansea has not changed his mind on becoming a full-time candidate for the job.
The visitors were full value for their first win in seven games but Appleton said: "One game doesn't make you a Premier League manager and I'm very aware of that.
"But I'm also aware that I'd like to think as an assistant I'm more than capable of doing that role.
"I've done it twice now - I had 15 months at West Brom and here at Leicester - and I'd love an opportunity to continue to do that.
"I signed a three-year deal in the summer to be the assistant manager.
"I walked away from an environment at Oxford in League One which was quite stable, and I thought I was doing the same thing at Leicester.
"Nothing's changed from my point of view, I would love to honour the contract I signed in the summer but those things are out of my control."
Swansea boss Paul Clement could not hide his disappointment after a fourth defeat in five home league games.
Clement's side had beaten Huddersfield 2-0 last weekend but are now only outside the relegation zone by virtue of goal difference.
"I thought last week we took a step forward against Huddersfield," Clement said.
"Forgetting the opponent it was more about how we performed.
"We were able to take what we did on the training field into the game. So that was a forward step, but we've taken a backward step now.
"Our performance in the first half was what caused the damage because we were too open defensively."
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