Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri was moved to apologise to fans after his side surrendered their 20-game unbeaten home record in the Premier League with defeat to West Brom.

A howler from Danny Drinkwater handed West Brom winger Matt Phillips a 72nd-minute winner after Leicester record signing Islam Slimani cancelled out James Morrison’s opener for West Brom.

And while Ranieri backed Drinkwater to bounce back from his horrendous backpass, he said sorry to supporters after his side lost an unbeaten home league record that stretched back more than a year.

“I am very sorry we lost our unbeaten record at home,” said Ranieri, whose side maintained their unbeaten Champions League record on Wednesday with a goalless draw in Copenhagen.

“But we knew it would be a tough match against West Bromwich.

“It was the same last season in the 2-2 draw.

“The first half was not good. We tried to have a plan but it was difficult to do this.

“The second half was much better but we lost the match.

“To say something is easy, to do it is more difficult. Maybe we had Champions League fatigue, I don’t know.

“Danny has said nothing.

Phillips scored from Drinkwater's mistake (Getty)

“Every player can make mistake. What can you say to him?

“He is one of our best players. It is no problem. He will overcome that, of course.”

Ranieri again left Jamie Vardy on the bench - the second successive league game for which he has omitted last season’s top scorer.

And he admitted he does not currently see Vardy as one of his automatic starters.

“In this moment we play better with Shinji Okazaki,” said the Italian.

“Today, we didn’t, but often we do. I didn’t play Islam Slimani in the Champions League and I wanted to give a rest to ‘Vards’.

Jamie Vardy needs to prove his worth to the side (Getty)

“But it wasn’t right, they didn’t do what I asked so in second half I introduced Vardy to attack the defensive line.”

Phillips, meanwhile, scored his first West Brom goal after being recalled for the suspended James McClean.

Phillips, a summer signing from QPR, had been dropped last weekend.

“The biggest problem with Matt is that self-belief,” said Tony Pulis, who pursued Phillips for more than a year before signing him from QPR in the summer.

“He's got all the tools, he's very quick, he's got two great feet and he's got a good goalscoring record.

“I had a chat with him last week and told him he has to start understanding that he's a good player and he deserves to be where he is.”

West Brom triumphed without Saido Berahino after the striker was sent to France for a four-day fitness camp, from where he posted a pre-match Instagram photograph showing off his muscles with the caption ‘fat boy’.