One red card, couple of points dropped and suddenly Leicester’s bid to win this season’s Premier League has come under severe question marks. I would call it naivety more than anything else, as most of those doubts have emerged following Tottenham’s brilliance in recent weeks.
While I must admit Spurs have been Premier League’s best side this season, Leicester still have a 5-point lead at the top. With 4 games remaining, current leaders are still the favorites to go on and win the title.
As for their 2-2 draw against West Ham, it came down because of a sub-standard refereeing decision from Jon Moss. Jamie Vardy could not have avoided Ogbonna’s tackle and ended up getting tripped inside the box, which was then deemed as a dive.
While we have seen media criticize Vardy’s acts and reflect on how his red card could bring an end to Leicester’s title march, we are ignoring the fact that until his unjust sending off, Foxes were leading against a formidable West Ham side.
As a team, Leicester have proved their mettle time and time again this season against quality oppositions. They may have given away their lead against West Ham after going down to 10-men, but they kept going right till the end to earn a vital point to boost their title push.
Leicester’s remaining games will see them go against Swansea, Everton and Chelsea whom they had beaten earlier in the season. While they played a 1-1 draw against Manchester United, who will be their fourth opponent in this title run-in.
Claudio Ranieri will be confident of seeing his team play to the usual standards which will see them capable of winning at least 2 of their remaining 4 matches, which will be enough to see them crowned as the new Premier League Champions.
Their draw against West Ham has been blown out of proportion as the stats say that Leicester have managed to win 9, draw 2 and lose just 1 of their last 12 league games. During that run, Foxes got the better of Manchester City and Liverpool.
Vardy’s absence may make Leicester’s task a tad bit tougher against Swansea but their desire to go on and win the title is far greater than Tottenham as they know this will be their one and only chance at glory.
Rumours suggest that likes of Mahrez, Vardy and Kante may be sold this summer so this feat may never be replicated from Ranieri’s side. It makes it imperative for them to push for that winning goal right till the last minute in each of the remaining 4 matches.
Leicester’s title push may not be as pretty as Tottenham scoring 3-4 goals past their opponents. But in the end we all would live to tell a fairy tale which saw a team barely avoid relegation a year ago and then coming back to clinch the 2015/16 Premier League title.