Back page As the overused cliché goes, all good things must come to an end, and in the case of Leicester City it will also prove true.
Like Jamie Vardy’s great run of scoring in eleven consecutive Premier League games which came to an end on Saturday, his clubs marvellous run’s ending is also on the horizon.
15 games into the season and Leicester City are top of the league on 32 points, two clear of Arsene Wenger’s injury plagued Arsenal side. Claudio Ranieri’s men have lost just one game this campaign and are deserved of their place at the top of the pile.
The top scorer in the league, Jamie Vardy with 14 goals, plays for them and the joint second highest scorer, Riyad Mahrez on 11 after scoring a hat-trick at Swansea on Saturday also plays for the Foxes so it’s no surprise really given those stats they are where they are.
Ranieri has done a great job in his short spell in charge since taking over in the summer, exceeding all expectations and he has the team playing fluent attacking football to the delight of the fans.
We are now approaching Christmas and while most people expected Leicester City to have fallen off the pace by now they haven’t and some people in the footballing world such as Sir Alex Ferguson are starting to believe they can be title contenders.
Like Jamie Vardy showed in his famous run, confidence is vital. He is not naturally the best striker in England but through his belief he went on a remarkable run much like Leicester.
Losing just one game all season has to breed confidence but is there a reason Leicester City have lost only one game this season? Who exactly have they come up against?
Leicester have played just one of the current top ten Premier League sides away from home this season, that being West Ham who they happened to beat 2-1 in the second game of the season.
At home five of the current top 10 have been at the King Power Stadium, Manchester United and Spurs came away with draws, Leicester saw off Crystal Palace and Watford 1-0 and 2-1 respectively while Arsenal were responsible for their sole defeat this season with an emphatic 5-2 victory.
Yes Leicester have been a joy to watch this season but they are yet to come through a real tough run of fixtures, but those fixtures are just around the corner.
Stamford Bridge, Anfield, The Emirates, the Etihad Stadium, Old Trafford, White Hart Lane. Claudio Ranieri’s side have to visit all these stadiums while Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester City must all play at the King Power Stadium as well.
An ominous group of fixtures.
Those who think the run will go on and come the end of the season they will be near the top may want to re think that in a month’s time as the Christmas period looks to be a tough one.
The next six fixtures for Jamie Vardy and his teammates are Chelsea (H), Everton (A), Liverpool (A), Manchester City (H), Bournemouth (H) and Spurs (A).
Before you know it this Leicester side could be back in mid table with Bournemouth at home the only relatively easy fixture over the Christmas period.
Indeed Leicester have been impressive but coming out of this spell still in the mix would be a huge achievement, one too far for this side one would suspect.
Hmmmm…another speculative, poorly thought out article based on a perception of the Premier League as it was, not as it is.
Factually correct in terms of fixtures. Only time will tell how far we can go. But we are all excited and quietly confident we are better than a lot of these teams and can get some points. Any points against top 4 type teams means they also drop points so can’t get ahead.
He’s right you know. We still have to play the teams in 14th, 9th, 8th & 3rd in our next 4 fixtures. Poorly researched yet again by someone who can’t handle a smaller teams success.
This kind of ‘think piece’ illustrates perfectly the democracy of the internet, whereby anyone can pose as an expert commentator. It also illustrates perfectly how a lack of any editorial oversight means anyone with an ego large enough to think their opinion counts can write something as poor as this. No insight, no meaningful analysis, nothing in fact but a thin re-hash of other writers’ work.
I don’t know why people have to go around predicting Leicester’s demise. You don’t need to beat all the top 6 clubs in order to win the league as Man UTD have proven countless number of times.
We should be praising Leicester. At this moment in time, they’re the most consistent team in the league with attractive football. It’s wonderful to see. No need to talk about who wins the league (or won’t win it) this early in the campaign. Give credit where it’s due.
So the likes of Manchester City with their money and endless riches of players are arguably the biggest club.Maybe Man Utd are bigger. Going by your perception there is possibly one bigger club than city so what is your logic on them losing three games all to “smaller” clubs. A poor article by an apprentice journalist.
This article that says nothing that anyone with a passing acquaintance with the premiership couldn’t have worked out for themselves. Deep down pretty much everyone knows that we might not be here at the end of season but most people (Including neutrals) are happy to enjoy the moment knowing it might not last rather than waste time writing curmudgeonly articles like this that have already been written elsewhere.
What a load of shite
As I was reading this, I thought it must have been written by someone possessing an inferiority complex at the fact their “big club” is being outperformed by us and lo and behold, it’s exactly that, a Liverpool fan!
How much money have you spent to be so ? Our starting XI against Swansea cost £22,300,000 total! I think this shows the value of a quality recruitment team.
As for Leicester, we’ve played six of the top 10, won three, drew two, lost one. I’ll take that. We also beat Newcastle 3-0 and Liverpool lost 2-0. We beat West Brom 3-2 and Arsenal lost 2-1. United lost 2-1 to Swansea and we beat them 3-0. City drew with Villa and lost to Stoke, we beat Villa and drew at Stoke! We beat Palace who beat Liverpool, we beat West Ham who beat Arsenal, Liverpool and City. Everyone is dropping points and we’re beating these teams.
We also possess something that these United and Arsenal teams don’t and that’s the experience of winning a league and we have proven we have the consistency to maintain this until May.
Mate, unless your dream journalism job is for The Sun, sort it out. What bugs me is that your Twitter and your blog makes you out to be a sound guy without demeaning a club. If backpagefootball paid you write an article with this heading, you should’ve declined or at the very least, end by giving credit where it’s due because Leicester have been fantastic. There’s nothing false about Leicester’s position and if you watched any of their games you can see that.
Anyway, my point is you’re not going to be very popular if you’re upsetting football fans.
Obviously written by someone who lives on another planet. You start by saying a tough run of games over Christmas begins with Chelsea and the only relatively easy game is Bournemouth? I’d start watching more of the games rather than base your article purely on a bias against the smaller clubs.
Nobody seems to care where Leicester’s money came from. A little bit of research and people may not be happy with what they learn.
Go on then Andrew, tell us where Leicester got their money from which has shocked you so much?
Back Page Football doesn’t pay anybody or set assignments, it’s a blog for opinions and all posts are voluntary. As is the time and effort of the editorial team.
First off, Andrew Turner… Leicester’s owner is the owner of King Power Duty Free, a very successful duty free import and export business. I’m not quite sure what you’re insinuating or why that’s so bad, but it’s not exactly war crimes is it?
As for the ‘article’ (I use the term loosely), since when did opinion and conjecture replace research and facts? We may not be top at the end of the season but it’s nearly Christmas and we have picked up more points than anyone, have not lost away from home, we have scored more goals than any other team in the league and have barely stuttered. The defeat against Aresenal was not as emphatic as the score line suggests, though you probably didn’t watch the game so wouldn’t know. Did you notice how few we are conceding now? Of course not. Chelsea are right down there. Why are Everton and Bournemouth so daunting? You might as well have saved your time and wrote “Leicester will not stay top because they are not as big as some clubs” , because that is all this lazy article is based on. We have proved ourselves time and time again, with a starting 11 that collectively cost far less than Benteke alone. I’m as surprised as anyone as to how this season has gone, but because of how it’s gone there’s no reason to think we’re incapable of picking up points over the Christmas period. Keep studying mate.. You’ll get there.
I think you will find the average position of the teams Leicester have played is approximately 11th,so only very slightly below average. Most Leicester fans are enjoying the moment whilst knowing winning the league is extremely unlikely as is maybe a Champions League place, although as to the latter, that is a possibility. They have unearthed an absolute gem in Kante who has made Cambiasso seem like a distant memory. I also think that on current form they have the two best players in the premiership in Mahrez & Vardy,and 3 if you count Kante. This journo’s analysis has some good points, but a few bad ones as well, and it is clear is not watching Leicester enough. They are beating teams with ease, getting the odd bit of luck as well,such as Mahrez’s first 2 goals against Swansea,although that said,they could have easily won 6-0. I managed to get 100-1 on winning the league last week,which whilst in all likelihood will not happen, seemed way to good odds toignore given they were top after 13 games.And they have a lot more quality than are being given credit for. Stranger things have happened such as Forest 30 years ago !
Really a small team who have spent a minor amount compared to ALL around them may fall off – wow generous article. Perhaps you should also consider in you research the fact Leicester have only lost twice in the last 25 premier league games hmm definitely still a fluke
Hey Cormac,
Here is my article I said I would share with you about Leicester (on twitter) once I had written it.
Cheers
@liambednarski
http://fpladdicts.com/2015/12/18/the-big-question-leicester-city/