The lunchtime win lifts Leicester to 11th and above Derby, who slip to 13th ahead of the weekend’s remaining games.
The first league meeting of these regional rivals for almost 12 years pulled into sharp focus the wildly different fortunes they have had since 2014.
This is a season in which Leicester City celebrates the 10-year anniversary of their Premier League title win.
The FA Cup was collected, Champions League football was played and the Charity Shield added to the trophy cabinet before two relegations from the Premier League in three seasons landed the Foxes where they are today – mid-table in the Championship and playing catch-up on the teams in the play-off spots.
They started the day below Derby, a club that endured 282 days in administration and relegation to League One in the same season that Leicester reached the Europa Conference League semi-final in 2022.
With Leicester’s points haul coming with the caveat that there remains the threat of a points deduction for alleged spending breaches, the win that now has them in the top half of the table reflects a complicated reality.
And with Cifuentes seemingly clinging to his job after back-to-back defeats by Southampton and Sheffield United, the opening goal from De Cordova-Reid was a timely – and much-needed – reminder of what sort of patiently-crafted, incisive football the Spaniard wants from his team.
The second from Skipp was chaotic, with the midfielder finding himself perfectly placed to guide home his first-ever Foxes goal after Derby failed to deal with a James corner skimmed into the penalty area.
The Wales international James last week said that anyone who thinks Leicester could be relegated to League One this season is “out of their mind”.
And as if to prove a point, he popped up with a deserved third for the Foxes before the break.
Even before James’ goal, the visitors had the ball in the net again with Jordan Ayew’s headed finish questionably ruled out for offside.
The closest Derby came to a first-half response was a fierce Ward effort that somehow stayed out after crashing off the underside of the crossbar.
Ward’s 63rd-minute set-piece set up Langas for a goal that gave Derby hope of a fightback, but Jakub Stolarczyk’s fine save to deny Curtis Nelson late on, and an earlier Jannik Vestergaard clearance from Andi Weimann’s goalbound shot ensured a much-needed three points for Leicester.