Leicester City - What A Story!
What a story for this team! This time last year this team was none other than a ordinary premier league team, even one of the favourites for relegation. It all goes back to the 31st game of their first season in the premier league, sitting rock bottom and needing to win all their remaining seven games to stand a chance of prolonging their spell. Against West Ham it would be no easy game. After an unlucky 4-3 defeat in their last game to Tottenham a victory was needed. Half time in the game at the King Power Stadium and it was all square at 1-1 with goals from Cambiasso for Leicester and Kouyate for West Ham. Dying for a glimmer of a chance, the ball fell straight onto the the foot of Andy King in the centre of the box to hammer it home, securing the win Leicester. A slight chance of a revival. A chance of hope. People could call this the start of the miracle. Still rock bottom, they needed another win at West Brom to keep their chances alive. After being 2-1 down at half-time they managed to turn the game around to 3-2 and keep up the revival. Still bottom going into the game against swansea, another win was needed. Sure enough, they got it! A solid 2-0 win made those in blue start to hope, dream and believe. Top of the relegation zone with Burnley dropping bottom and QPR going to 19th, getting a win could get them out of the drop zone with four games to go. Half Time - 0-0 with the deadlock yet to be broken. Sixty minutes in and who other to win the game than Jamie Vardy. Full Time is 1-0 Leicester and after Sunderlands 1-1 draw with Stoke they are lifted out of the relegation
zone but they are still in the relegation battle. Now four games to go and on level points with Sunderland at the top of the relegation zone and there next game at fellow relegation strugglers Newcastle United. Leicester City's fight for survival went on as they beat the toon
3-0, taking them up to two places above the drop zone but still on level points with Sunderland after their 2-1 win over Southampton. Every game was now a cup final and they could not look down the table. Southampton was next and they brushed them aside just as easily as they did Newcastle with a 2-0 win. Sunderland won at Everton, Newcastle drew with West Brom and Hull lost all three points against already relegated Burnley. This left Leicester in 15th, three places above Hull City at the top of the relegation zone in 18th with Newcastle above them and Sunderland on level points with Leicester. What a game there next was! Sunderland themselves! All they needed was a point and all there hopes and dreams would come true. Something that no-one truly believed would happen or could happen was just a draw away. What happened next? Leicester City suffered the best bore draw in the history of their football club. They were safe from relegation. On the final day they went on to thrash QPR 5-1 who were at the foot of the table. But this was only the start...
After managing to survive, Leicester were preparing for their second season in the premier league. Although, after an incident involving Ben Pearson and three other players on their tour of Asia, Nigel Pearson was sacked for unknown reasons. Days later and they had a new manager in Claudio Ranieri.
Coming of the back of a spell in charge of Greece, the ex-Chelsea and Inter Milan manger was a surprise replacement. In the summer he recruited the likes of N'Golo Kante from Nice, Christian Fuchs, Shinji Okazaki and more. The first game of the season quickly came around against Sunderland. A 4-2 win at the King Power Stadium made sure of their opening day win. An unbeaten run over their next five games put them up to fourth after they beat West Ham and Aston Villa and drew to Bournemouth, Spurs and Stoke. Then a 5-2 defeat to Arsenal drew doubts into fans minds. Sure enough, they bounced back with a 2-1 win against Norwich. Notably, Jamie Vardy scored his fifth goal in a row on a run stretching back to the 1-1 draw with Bournemouth on the fourth game of the season. Six in five for Vardy as he went into the ninth game of the season but he wasn't the only one making the headlines. Riyad Mahrez was making a name for himself with his mind-blowing trickery with assists and goals to go with it.
These two were beginning to come one of the deadliest faces of the premier league. Summer recruit N'Golo Kante also was being recognised for his unstoppable stamina and had the most tackles in the premier league so far.
The next game ended 2-2 against Southampton with Vardy getting on the scoresheet twice more. Again, Leicester won with a 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace and guess who got the only goal? Jamie Vardy of course! Ten games in and Leicester were fifth in the premier League. They went onto win their next game as well with a 3-2 win away at West Brom. Jamie Vardy scoring again. The next game was huge. If he scored again he would equal Ruud Van Nistelrooys record for scoring ten games in a row for Manchester United. In a 3-0 win for Leicester, Vardy scored on the stroke of half-time to equal the record. To break the record and score eleven games in a row he had to do it against the team who had the player of the record he was trying to break. Manchester United. Guess what happened? After 24 minutes Jamie Vardy finished of a superb through ball from Fuchs. He had broke the record! Schweinsteiger later levelled and the game finished 1-1 but that didn't take away the joy of former non-league striker.
They then went on to lose just once in their next eleven and because of wins against Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham they sat five points clear at the top of the table. Their latest win was arguably their most impressive, a 3-1 away win verse Manchester City.
After, was a crucial game at the top of the table. Arsenal VS Leicester. On Danny Welbecks return from almost a year out through injury he scored an injury time winner to seal an Arsenal win. Over their next nine games they went unbeaten and with three games to go the premier league title was finally becoming a reality for Leicester City. They were seven points ahead of Spurs in second and Manchester City and Arsenal were both five points behind Spurs. If they won their next game against Manchester United they would be crowned premier league champions with two games to go. A huge blow for Leicester at Old Trafford came as Anthony Martial opened the scoring in the eight minute to give United the lead. Nine minutes later, though, an unlikely hero in Wes Morgan smashed home a header to give Leicester the equaliser.
No more goals were scored which meant they had to wait until next weekend. That was unless, Tottenham didn't win against a tough opposition in Chelsea.
35 minutes in at stamford bridge and Harry Kane opened the scoring and Son went on to double it ten minutes later. It seemed all over until the next weekend for Leicester. Ten minutes after the break and Cahill gave hope to both Chelsea and Leicester fans. Chelsea kept pushing and pushing and in the 83rd minute Eden Hazard hit the ball first time on the edge of the left hand-side of the box. Time slowed down for everybody watching as it slowly curled right round Hugo Lloris' hand into the right top corner. That was it.
Both Leicester fans and players alike celebrated into the night as they went from probable relegation to a premier league title. One year after winning the league for Chelsea, Hazard went and won it for Leicester.
They won their next game 3-1 against Everton and were the given the traditional champions entrance at the start and lifted the trophy at the end.
It gets better... With winning the title they qualified for the champions league. In their first ever season in the competition they competed in a group with Club Brugge, Porto and Copenhagen. Until the final game they were unbeaten and other than the loss at Porto were a very good force. As a result, they qualified for the Champions League round of 16 which brings us to now. Leicester City - the team who went from probable relegation to premier league champions to the champions league round of 16 in just two and a half years and a team that will be remembered in the history of football forever.