Sport
FALL FROM GRACE
Leicester stunned the world of football of last season by winning the Premier League title, but is the fairytale turning into a nightmare for the club this season?
The Foxes are staring at the stark prospect of suffering the ignominy of going from champions to chumps in just 12 months as they battle to avoid relegation in what so far has been the worst title defence in Premier League history.
Leicester, who lost just three league games en route to a shock title success last term, have suffered seven defeats this season and are two points above the drop zone.
The team right now look unrecognisable from the side that secured arguably the greatest sporting success story of all time when they lifted the Premier League title just seven months ago.
Leicester played with a freedom and confidence on their way to their extraordinary title success, but just now the whole squad seem bereft of confidence and Claudio Ranieri’s decision to field an under-strength side against Porto spectacularly backfired as confidence took another hit after a 5-0 humbling to raise question marks over the Italian.
The Porto loss was the worst defeat by an English side in European Cup history and the club’s worst in any competition for six years and the timing could not have been any worse in what has been a stuttering season domestically at least.
Putting everything into context maybe we should not be overly surprised by Leicester’s struggles as before a ball was even kicked last season the Foxes were tipped to be in a relegation battle, but they confounded their critics to pull off the biggest upset in English football.
As a result expectation levels have been raised at the club, but maybe things have levelled themselves out now and Leicester now find themselves where everyone expected them to be last season in a relegation dogfight.
Matters have not been helped by the loss of form of some of their star performers of last season with Jamie Vardy, who scored 24 goals last season, having not found the net for 16 games in all competitions for the Foxes.
The departure of N’Golo Kante to Chelsea has been sorely felt too with the Frenchman’s drive in midfield missed and his influence can be seen in the success of Chelsea this season.
Leicester’s away form is also a major concern as they have taken only one point from a possible 21 on the road in the Premier League this season and if it wasn’t for their form at the King Power Stadium they would be entrenched in the bottom three.
They have lost six out of seven away games, with their only draw coming at Tottenham compared to last season when they won 11 of their 19 away games, losing only two.
The Foxes spent around £70million on new players in the summer, but none of the new arrivals have really been able to stand up and cover for the disappointing form of some of last season’s stars.
Ranieri has also started to live up to his old nickname ‘The Tinkerman’ as the Italian has made twice the number of line-up changes this season compared to this stage of 2015-16. In the whole of last season, Ranieri made 33 changes, the fewest in the top flight.
The Champions League adventure has been a great success reaching the knockout stages with ease, but the Premier League should be Leicester’s priority as relegation would be a disaster for the ambitious Midlands outfit.
Leicester need to remember nobody is too good to go down and that includes the reigning champions.
Not since Manchester City in 1938 have the champions been relegated the following season, but if Leicester do not find that old winning formula soon they could join that unwanted list.
Leicester made history last season and they do not want to tarnish their achievement by creating history for all the wrong reasons this term.
