David Moyes hailed his players after they defeated the champions, but admitted now isn’t the time to get carried away.
Sunderland produced an energetic display and were unfortunate to not go into the break with the lead after missing a number of guilt-edge chances.
Jan Kirchhoff was called upon at the break as Moyes was forced into making a double switch with Seb Larsson also coming on to replace Steven Pienaar and Jason Denayer in the centre of the park.
And it was Kirchhoff who, was playing his first Premier League minutes since October, met Larsson’s corner with his head and it deflected off a helpless Robert Huth and into the net on 64 minutes.
Patrick van Aanholt was then denied a penalty after he was felled by Danny Simpson but Jermain Defoe dealt a sucker punch shortly after as he capitalised on Duncan Watmore’s shot as it rebounded off Huth with 77 minutes played.
However, just three minutes later Leicester struck back through Shinji Okazaki to set up a grandstand finish, and from there is was pretty much one way traffic as the Foxes peppered Sunderland's goal only to be denied by the inspired Jordan Pickford.
Speaking post-match, Moyes admitted he was pleased by his side's form but insisted there’s plenty more to come.
“Today’s performance merited the win,” he said. “Despite winning against Hull last time we were at home we gave away a few good opportunities, but I thought we were much more solid at the back and looked much better on the attack.
“We’ve got three wins out of four now and we need to keep the momentum going now.
“I was scratching my head at half time wondering how we were going into the break at 0-0. We had caused Leicester lots of problems down the left hand side but we kept our cool and remained patient for the moment to come; we were very much in control.
“There were a couple of decisions that didn’t go for us today and could have cost us, thankfully they didn’t.”
He continued: “The other thing was the injury to Duncan Watmore, it looked a bad one and we’re going to have to assess it.
“We’ve not scored from a set piece this season so I was pleased to see Jan get to the ball for our first goal.
“It was as much about the delivery and getting the ball in the right position and we know Seb is good at that.
“We’re not going to get carried away, we’re rebuilding at the moment and hopefully the winning feeling will become more regular for us.”
