Vardy helps Van Nistelrooy to first win with Leicester as Guehi defies the FA with religious message

It was a fine first win for Ruud van Nistelrooy, and perhaps one final defeat for Julen Lopetegui.

Leicester marked Van Nistelrooy’s first match in charge of the team by surging to a 3-1 win over Lopetegui's West Ham in the Premier League on Tuesday.

Van Nistelrooy, the former Manchester United striker, is back in English soccer this time as a manager, with Leicester taking something of a gamble on the Dutchman after his brief and impressive spell as interim coach at United this season following Erik ten Hag's departure.

He faces the tough task of keeping Leicester, one of the top candidates for relegation, in the top division. For that to happen, he’s likely to need goals from Jamie Vardy — and the 37-year-old former England international delivered immediately.

Nine years after breaking Van Nistelrooy’s record for scoring in consecutive games, Vardy scored the first goal of the Dutchman’s tenure at Leicester by beating the offside trap and slotting home a finish with less than two minutes gone.

Morocco midfielder Bilal El Khannouss supplied the pass for Vardy’s goal and scored himself with a low shot in the 61st minute to make it 2-0. Patson Daka added a third for Leicester in the 90th minute, before a stoppage-time consolation by West Ham substitute Niclas Füllkrug.

“We are very happy with the new manager," El Khannouss said of Van Nistelrooy. “He arrived two days ago, and there’s a new dynamic in the group.”

Van Nistelrooy praised the “spirit and energy” in his team.

“The foundation for us going forward is everyone working their socks off, fighting for every inch and defending together,” he said. “We can look further then, and they did that in an unbelievable way.”

This dismal result for West Ham came three days after its 5-2 thrashing at home by Arsenal, which piled more pressure of Lopetegui early in the former Spain and Real Madrid coach's first season with the London club.

West Ham's disgruntled traveling fans chanted "You’re getting sacked in the morning” toward Lopetegui during the second half — even if his team dominated large parts of the game but only had one goal to show from 31 shots on goal.

“We're very frustrated but in the same way I can say nothing about the players — they fight until the end,” Lopetegui said. "It’s not easy to explain football some days.”

West Ham has lost seven of its 14 games so far and is in 14th place in the 20-team league, one spot above Leicester.

Crystal Palace won for just the second time in the league this season, beating relegation rival Ipswich 1-0 to pull clear of the bottom three.

Jean-Philippe Mateta scored the goal in the 59th minute. Palace’s only other league victory was against Tottenham in October.

While Ipswich stayed in next-to-last place, Palace moved three points above the relegation zone.

Much of the focus ahead of the game was on the teams’ captains, Sam Morsy of Ipswich and Marc Guehi of Palace, during another round when the Premier League was celebrating LGBTQ+ inclusion in its campaign to promote equality and diversity.

For the second straight game, Morsy chose against wearing a rainbow armband issued to the captain of each of the 20 teams in the league. He has made the decision “due to his religious beliefs,” Ipswich says.

Guehi did wear the rainbow armband but defied Football Association rules by writing a religious message on the item. The message read “Jesus loves you” — using a heart sign instead of the word “loves.” During the match against Newcastle on Saturday, Guehi wrote “I love Jesus” — and was later contacted by the FA for acting in contravention of its regulations.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Ipswich Town's Sam Morsy wearing a standard captain's armband during the England Premier League soccer match between Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace at Portman Road, Ipswich, England, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Zac Goodwin/PA via AP)

Crystal Palace's Marc Guehi wears the Rainbow Laces captain's armband which has the words 'Jesus Heart You' on during the England Premier League soccer match between Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace at Portman Road, Ipswich, England, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Zac Goodwin/PA via AP)

Crystal Palace's Marc Guehi wearing the Rainbow Laces captain's armband which has the words 'Jesus Heart You' on during the England Premier League soccer match between Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace at Portman Road, Ipswich, England, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Zac Goodwin/PA via AP)

Crystal Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta, second right, celebrates with teammates after scoring the opening goal during the England Premier League soccer match between Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace at Portman Road, Ipswich, England, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Zac Goodwin/PA via AP)

Crystal Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the England Premier League soccer match between Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace at Portman Road, Ipswich, England, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Zac Goodwin/PA via AP)

Crystal Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta, right, challenges with Ipswich Town's Jacob Greaves to score the opening goal during the England Premier League soccer match between Ipswich Town and Crystal Palace at Portman Road, Ipswich, England, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Zac Goodwin/PA via AP)

Leicester City manager Ruud van Nistelrooy watches during the Premier League soccer match against West Ham United at the King Power Stadium, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024, Leicester, England. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)

Leicester City manager Ruud van Nistelrooy, right, waits with West Ham United's Jarrod Bowen on a VAR check after Leicester City's Jamie Vardy scores their side's first goal of the game during a Premier League soccer match at the King Power Stadium, Tuesday Dec. 3, 2024, Leicester, England. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)

Leicester City's Jamie Vardy celebrates after scoring the opening goal during the English Premier League soccer match between Leicester City and West Ham United at the King Power Stadium in Leicester, England, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2024. (Mike Egerton/PA via AP)

The commencement of the holiday season often means the lengthening of to-do lists.

There are lights to hang, cards to mail, cookies to bake and, of course, gifts to buy. Gift exchanges, whether they’re among friends, family or co-workers, can be a fun way to get in the holiday spirit. But can also be another stressor during a busy time of year.

Secret Santa exchanges — where participants are assigned a gift recipient and tasked with finding them a perfect present within a price limit — sometimes mean that those in friend groups are paired with “frenemies,” someone inevitably draws themselves, or colleagues who are virtually strangers are matched up.

Those possible pitfalls inspired Peter Imburg to create Elfster, a free online Secret Santa organizer, after he saw the time and effort it took to coordinate the logistics of a gift exchange with his family over 20 years ago.

More top-down organization, he says, helps things run more smoothly.

Elfster, for instance, creates pairings, asks for wish lists, offers gift suggestions at different price points and sends reminders, among other features meant to make the organizational hurdles of a gift exchange less daunting.

“The organizer is like the hero. They make it all happen," Imburg said, adding that his site aims "to make it a lot easier for the organizer to do that with a minimal amount of effort.”

Cameron Rogers, a New Jersey-based social media content creator and podcast host on wellness and motherhood, understands the stress that gift exchanges can bring up.

“Having to give generic gifts to people I’m not necessarily close with is extremely difficult,” Rogers said. “I can pick a good gift for my husband or my kids or my mom, but for people who I don’t know the ins and outs of their lives, I think it’s hard to pick something that you know they’re actually going to enjoy.”

She recently shared a guide to Secret Santa gifts under $50 on her social media channels, emphasizing how challenging it can be to find something within a set price range that will be well-received.

Gifts with a specific purpose — kitchen gadgets, home items or winter gear — and gifts that have a personalized aspect like a monogram are good go-to options for anyone feeling lost after receiving their Secret Santa assignment, she said.

Imburg said the “gift gurus” at Elfster also have suggestions, especially for recipients who aren’t offering any clues as to what they’d like. In a similar vein as Rogers, the Elfster team offered ideas for some practical gifts, like water bottles, blankets and massage guns. Other no-nonsense home and kitchen items, like food storage containers, charging stations and more are featured on the site’s “Top Trending Gift Ideas for 2024” list.

Gift cards, although they are not particularly glamorous, are an essentially foolproof option, Rogers said, and they won’t leave your recipient wondering where they’ll find room on their shelf for another mug or book.

“I don’t want to give someone something solely to check a box,” Rogers said. “I want them to enjoy it, instead of being like, ‘What do I do with this now?’”

Some gift-givers find that Secret Santa (and its many counterparts like White Elephant and Yankee Swap) actually cuts down on stress and spending, as it's often done in place of giving individual presents to each member of a group.

Nicole Troiano of Cranston, Rhode Island, finds them to be a fun way to handle holidays with large groups — even if co-workers may need to ask around to get specifics on their assigned person.

“It’s fun to do it that way and think about something that would be good for that person,” she said. “And then, when they open it, they’re like, ‘Oh my God!’”

By the weekend after Thanksgiving, Troiano had already purchased and wrapped her gift for the exchange she’s taking part in this year. After her swap, a lucky participant will be the new owner of a cutting board, two bottles of wine wearing bottle-size ugly sweaters, and gourmet chocolates.

FILE - Presents appear at the War Childhood Museum in Sarajevo, Bosnia on Dec. 17, 2022. (AP Photo/Armin Durgut, File)

FILE - A shopper carries a Christmas-themed bag in London on Dec. 2, 2020. (AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali, File)

(AP Illustration/Peter Hamlin)