“Leicester City are worthy title contenders,” said City Manager Manuel Pellegrini after Leicester defeated Manchester City 3-1 on February 6. What Pellegrini confirmed was an uprising doubt in the minds of every EPL followers all over the world.
A team which qualified into the premier league just two years back and for the whole last year fought their way through relegation zone; to see the team at the top of the league table with only 10 matches in hand, is a sight nobody anticipated at the start of the season.
From nearly the start of December last year, football pundits kept pondering over the fact whether the Leicester uprising was just a fluke or whether they were a real title contenders. Most of these people more or less agreed it to be a positive uprising. Their performance was somewhat similar to what Southampton delivered last year. But what Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City did was simply outstanding. Three months later, they are still standing at the top of the table and proving all the critics wrong, defeating Liverpool (2-0), City (3-1) on consecutive match days and proving their mettle as well as keeping themselves in contention.
Jamie Vardy, an up surging striker, who was sold off by Sheffield when he was 16, now stands a record holder in scoring consecutive goals in 11 games, standing at the top of the EPL top scorer list. Jamie Vardy’s electric pace and elementary finish is one of the main reasons why Leicester are able to bring themselves up to this level.
Another star player of the lot is the one and the only Riyadh Mahrez who grabbed spotlight last year and has proved all his critics wrong by maintaining his consistency all throughout the season. Riyadh Mahrez was bought from Le havre for a three-and-a-half-year contract. For any person who uses Fantasy Football as a manager simulation for their pass time would know well enough how valuable Riyad Mahrez is in their team. Mahrez now has 13 goals and 9 assists and is still the most valuable player in EPL over the likes of Wayne Rooney, Mesut Ozil, Eden Hazard, Cesc Fabregas etc. His dribbling and vision has been the backbone behind Leicester’s success in the Premier league.
It would be really unfair not to mention the two other important parts of the team. The first being the exuberant Leicester fans, who have been tremendously supportive even when they have conceded goals. And obviously the other being the technical genius Claudio Ranieri whose audacity to keep a 4-4-2 formation and using long balls to go forward has been a remarkable revelation.
It really won’t be a surprise to see Leicester being in top three or even winning the league, but the greatest question would be what they would do with the money in the following transfer season? Will they be able to carry this form to the next season? Will they be able to reach a considerable position in the Champions league?
