The title slipping away from Leicester City? Don’t you believe it!

Featured Image
Date: 19th April 2016 at 11:40am
Written by:

Well that’s just made it interesting. Leicester’s controversial draw against West Ham on Sunday and Tottenham’s emphatic win over Stoke the following night has reduced the gap between ourselves and Spurs to just five points, and once again the pundits are saying that the title is there for the taking. For Spurs that is.

Now don’t get me wrong, having watched the Stoke vs Spurs game the north London club played some wonderful football, but they are still five points behind us.

Just take that in for a minute. Five points. If it was Manchester City, Arsenal or even Liverpool that were five points ahead at this point people would be saying the title’s won. And apparently, a draw for Leicester against West Ham was fatal for our title challenge, whist the same wasn’t said after Spurs’ draws with Liverpool and Arsenal.

3 April 2016 - Barclays Premier League - Leicester City v Southampton - Jamie Vardy of Leicester City - Photo: Marc Atkins / Offside.

Jamie Vardy could miss at least two games following his red card at the weekend. Photo: Marc Atkins/Offside.

But, should Leicester start to panic? Well, let’s look at the remaining fixtures for both clubs and compare them to the corresponding fixtures from earlier in the season.

Leicester beat Swansea, drew with Manchester United and then beat Everton and Chelsea for a return of 10 points.

Spurs, meanwhile, drew with West Brom and Chelsea, then beat Southampton and Newcastle for a return of eight points.

If these results were repeated, this would give Leicester City 83 points and Tottenham Hotspur 76 points meaning Leicester would win the title by seven points.

Yes, but what about Jamie Vardy’s ban? A second yellow for a dive against West Ham means he will miss the Swansea game at least, pending the outcome of the FA’s improper conduct charge against the England international for his reaction to ref Jon Moss’s decision, and it could be two or even three games he misses.

Again, according to the experts, without Vardy we might as well just give three points to the opposition. But Leicester aren’t, believe it or not, a one-man team. We have 10 other players that make up the side.

So can Leicester live without Jamie Vardy’s goals?

Let’s look at some facts. Between February 27 and March 19, Claudio Ranieri’s side played five games. Of these, we won four and drew one, remaining unbeaten. Six goals were scored in those games and guess how many Vardy scored? None. Not one. We now have only four fixtures remaining this term.

Convinced? Well, let’s have a look then at the corresponding fixtures of our last five games again. We scored nine goals, of which Vardy scored only two.

If you are still not convinced then just look at Leo Ulloa’s face after he scored the penalty that got us the draw against West Ham in the 94th minute.

 
Brought to you by Shoot!

Related articles

11 responses to “The title slipping away from Leicester City? Don’t you believe it!”

  1. Crisandro says:
    19th April 2016 at 1:12 pm

    You mentioned “If it was Liverpool that were five points ahead, people would say it’s won”.

    Liverpool did lose a substantial lead to end up losing the title to Manchester City.

    Just saying. 😉

    (Spurs fan in peace)

    • SP says:
      19th April 2016 at 1:51 pm

      The ‘let’s look at the corresponding fixtures from earlier in the season’ argument has to be one of the most lame in all of football analysis.

      Swansea were literally falling to pieces under Gary Monk.
      Everton have been very poor at Goofison but have one of the best away records in the division.
      United have one of the worst away records but a very good home record. They will probably still have a chance of top four. They have second best defensive record in division.
      Chelsea will be playing their last game with John Terry in front of their own fans.

      Plenty of scope for dropped points in that run in, especially with the Carry situation.

  2. Rocky says:
    19th April 2016 at 1:18 pm

    I am a Spurs fan and let me say I agree totally with this post. I think TV and media have a part to play in hyping up the premier league, and so try to put fear in to teams to make things more theatrical. Leicester, like spurs, play as a team. I’ve watched a number of games from both sides this season and wondered how the man of the match award was decided, because it could have gone to any of the players. Vardy being out will not affect the team, you’ve got the ability of goals from most positions and have the ability to close out games defensively too.

    While winning the league is a dream we all have, I can’t see it going any other way apart from Leicester’s. Can UTD or Chelsea beat you? Not from what I’ve seen of them this season. They are huge names on paper with lacklustre teams in reality. We’ve both had great seasons and so if either club wins it I’ll raise a glass to true football winning over the now soul-less money bought clubs splashing billions around!

  3. Bob says:
    19th April 2016 at 1:27 pm

    You can’t blame the media for wanting to breathe life into the end of the season. Also, I think it’s fair to say that right now, since they went out of the Europa League, Spurs are the better team. Over the season as a whole though, Leicester have been better at winning matches, if not playing the best football. Tactically they have been better too, getting out of the cups early and concentrating on the league. Spurs thought they could play in Europe with mostly the same players as in the league, and messed it up. It’s no coincidence that most of Spurs poorer results, including the loss at home to Leicester, followed midweek fixtures. Imagine beating Anderlecht 4 – 1 and then losing 2 – 1 at home to Newcastle three days later! So Leicester will win and they will have deserved it. Both teams will then have to grapple with how they approach the CL next season and how prepared they are to invest to compete. Finally, great to have a discussion about the top of the table without mentioning oligarchs or oil sheiks.

  4. Brian Huxley says:
    19th April 2016 at 1:43 pm

    To be honest Leicester city are a poor side, think if Leicester win the league it will be a bad thing, for premier league all together I’ve seen Leicester four or five times this year and the most I’ve lasted in any one game is 16 minutes.

  5. Nigel Wood says:
    19th April 2016 at 2:24 pm

    To judge by the barrage of London-based comments on Leicester City – and Jamie Vardy in particular and including Carroll’s ill-advised comments on the late penalty, it’s remarkable how relatively restrained contrary posts (even from Leicester supporters) seem to have been. I am reminded of the victory selfies taken by Arsenal players after their very narrow home win against the Foxes. Well, Tottenham are talking a good game and against a woeful Stoke they played it, too, and it might suit Leicester to be branded cheats and hooligans by those who enjoy a greater opportunity to say what they like. To redress the balance:(a) Ogbonna and Reid wrestled Leicester players relentlessly in the second half and Vardy (until his dismissal) on more an one occasion without penalty at all, (b) Payet stamped on Drinkwater right under the Referee’s Assistant’s nose immediately before Vardy’s dive, and (c) you can’t distinguish a Reid dive from a Vardy dive except to say that one achieved a penalty and one received a yellow card. Oh, and now Bilic is asking for clemency for Carroll for maligning the referee in the heat of the moment whilst presumably Vardy’s “heat of the moment” outburst is of a different order? This is just to offer balance and perspective; Tottenham may, indeed, catch up and win the title, and they will accomplish it doubtless by superb football, but as things now stand, for Dembele, Kane and Sugar, there is apparently free speech and a triumphalist shouting that can’t be anything more than raucous wish-fulfilment. From Leicester players there is, I hope, a dignified silence. But such reticence is not because they may have been caught “bang to rights”, but because from the manager down there is a policy decision not to over-heat the situation. There is a difference. What is clear is that the metropolitan superiority complex is alive and well, and this demonstrates it and hints of referee bias (Friend, Moss)are too – from a relatively undeclared Leicester perspective.

    • Brian Lee says:
      20th April 2016 at 6:58 pm

      Absolutely fantastic reply. Having watched the premier league for years this has been the most exciting I can remember. Both Spurs and Leicester have been a breath of fresh air to the league.
      I do think the humility shown by the Leicester manager and players post match is something most other teams should adopt. Carroll should receive the same ban as Vardy. We all know that the ref display was one of the worst ever seen. what Carroll did public ally was no different to what Vardy did on the pitch.
      For the sake of football I hope the Leicester team win it this year and Spurs win it next year

  6. Terry Venables says:
    19th April 2016 at 6:03 pm

    Don’t you dare blow it! Think about football fans all over the country who would have to put up with gloating Spurs fans when the come to visit. Spurs have the most mouthy and deluded fans in football without actually winning anything. Horrible club with horrible tattoed pikey chas n dave type fans. Come on Leicester. One final effort. The country is willing you on.

  7. Nick says:
    19th April 2016 at 7:33 pm

    It would be a shame if the title was to be decided by a poor refereeing performance . He was bad for both sides and did seem to want to be the centre if attention.
    As the “experts ” always say the table doesn’t lie. The best team will be the team that finishes top come the last kick of the season. I am a Leicester fan and always have been never in my life did I think that I would see my ” little team” be in the position that we are. To be honest if we were not top then I would be cheering Spurs as they have played some amazing football this season and deserve to be chasing the title too.
    May the best team win let’s face it if your a neutral it’s great to watch… As a fan I need a defribulator every time Leicester play!!

  8. Steve Dowsing says:
    19th April 2016 at 8:56 pm

    Do not underestimate Leicester’s one for all and all for one mentality the team will feel agreived by vardys sending off and it will only spur them on to do it for their team mate ..even if ulloa steps in for 2 games and scores in both he will not complain when vardy steps back in ..These players are as one

  9. content says:
    7th September 2016 at 7:40 am

    I just want to mention I am all new to blogging and site-building and seriously enjoyed your web site. Likely I’m want to bookmark your blog . You certainly have incredible stories. With thanks for revealing your web page.