Claudio Ranieri has promised Leicester City fans that his players will fight for the cause when the going gets tough.

So far the Italian has enjoyed a perfect start to life as Foxes manager having seen his side win 2-1 at West Ham on Saturday to add to their opening-day victory over Sunderland.

Shinji Okazaki opened the scoring with his first goal for Leicester following his summer move from Mainz before Riyad Mahrez doubled the visitors’ lead before the break.

Dimitri Payet pulled one back for the Hammers, who were much improved after the break but Leicester hung on for the points as West Ham goalkeeper Adrian was sent off in stoppage time to round off a miserable first home league game in charge for Slaven Bilic.

The effort shown by his players during a difficult second half left an impression on Ranieri and the former Chelsea boss insists that mentality will remain.

“I love when the players give everything. That makes me very happy,” he said.

“Of course, when you get the result it’s much better but when you give everything, you can have everything.

“The support from our fans is great for us too. We want to play well for them and we want to fight for them so hopefully they can be happy in every match. We may win, draw or lose, but we will fight in every match.”

Having seen West Ham open their season with a win over Arsenal, Ranieri knew what to expect from Bilic’s side as they looked to start their final campaign at Upton Park in style but praised his players for how they coped with the situation.

“I want to say that my players were very concentrated on this match,” he added.

“I told them that this is West Ham’s first match at home after winning at Arsenal and they’ll want to show their best performance. We prepared well.”