Opera singers, feature films and a doppelgänger – all part of the incredible ride from relegation candidates to bizarre champions in the most famous sporting competition in the world.
Leicester City and their now globally famous talisman, Jamie Vardy, were having one hell of a party.
And it’s been one head-throbbing hangover too. Whatever Rebekah Vardy put in that punch has crippled the club to its knees. The club now sits one point above the relegation zone, and dead-last in the league for form over the past six games (one draw, five losses).
Could the incredible story of Leicester’s rise to glory in England have one last sickening twist in the form of immediate relegation? It’s only happened once before, in 1938, when Manchester City’s title defence finished with a swift booting down to division two.
Even more incredibly, there is still the possibility of Leicester remaining in the Champions League (should they win it) next season while playing in England’s second-tier. Imagine defending your crown as European Champions at the Santiago Bernabeu on a Wednesday before an away trip to newly-promoted Scunthorpe United on the Sunday.
While it wasn’t that hard to predict Leicester would struggle to replicate their dominating form for a second successive season, you’d struggle to find someone who’d call just how far they would fall. The side that suffered only three defeats in their entire previous campaign started the season in a decent manner, probably how you would expect them to.
They were sitting in the lower top half, and looked set to consolidate themselves as a side playing for a European-qualifying spot, rather than Premier League safety.
But their form has deteriorated so much of late, they are now the only side in the top four English leagues to not score a league goal in the new year. They have one more league game in February (home to Liverpool, no less) before it becomes two months without a league goal.
How has a fall of such magnitude been possible? The side bears a very similar resemblance to the team that so consistently performed for all of last season, with the exception N’Golo Kante. The PFA Player of the Year, Riyad Mahrez, remains on the right wing where he embarrassed defenders for fun last season.
Jamie Vardy looks like he’s been replaced by his stalking postman look-a-like Lee Chapman upfront as he fails to hit the mark. The English striker has only five league goals this campaign, and hasn’t had a shot on goal since before Christmas.
Leicester’s back four remain the same; the sturdy central defensive partnership of Wes Morgan and Robert Huth, courted by fullbacks Christian Fuchs and Danny Simpson, stifled opposition attackers last season to concede less than a goal per game over the season. That same back four has leaked seven extra goals this term, from 13 fewer games.
There was never any doubt over the quality of player they had sitting in front of the defence in Kante. Just how good the Frenchman is seems to be illustrated by the decline of his former club and the rapid dominance that Chelsea now hold over the rest of the league.
That being said, it would be rash to put Leicester’s fall from grace down to one missing defensive player, particularly given they’re struggling to put goals in the opposition’s net, just as much as they are keeping it out of their own.
Tactically, opposition teams may be holding more respect for Leicester on the park and are willing to sit back and let them play, to avoid giving them space on the counter attack. Jamie Vardy is no target man, and Claudio Ranieri probably saw the change coming in how teams would play them; hence importing the bigger bodied Islam Slimani.
The Algerian hasn’t been an effective enough alternative though, more often than not reflecting his strike partners form in front of goal.
What we do know, is that Claudio Ranieri has a hell of a job to get his team firing again. Fellow relegation battlers Swansea kicked into gear with a 2-0 win over the Foxes, making crystal clear the threat of relegation no longer being a hypothetical for the champions, but a very possible reality.
It would seem unthinkable for a manager leading his side to the most remarkable of titles to be sacked less than 12 months later. That being said, the Premier League is notorious for managerial movements. If Jose Mourinho can be sacked within a year of a title, Ranieri certainly can too.
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