“It’s ridiculous how well they’re doing and I still can’t really believe what they are doing”.
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That was a 5-2 hammering at the King Power Stadium in September – a result many expected would precipitate a return to the lower regions of the table.
Leicester’s unexpected title challenge has understandably drawn comparisons with their East Midland rival’s achievements when winning the then First Division at the first time of asking following promotion to the top flight.
Although Spurs have been impressive at the back this season, they face one of the world’s finest strikers in Sergio Aguero on Sunday. Two tightly-knit teams punching well above their weight, greater than the sum of their parts, both benefiting from continuity of selection and charismatic managers who know how to get the best out of them. Instead, it sparked a 10-match unbeaten run that was halted by Liverpool in December, after which Leicester have scaled the summit on the back of another seven-game stretch without defeat. So are all these things…
“People want to put pressure on us because at the beginning they said: “OK Leicester sooner or later will drop go down”.
That is going to change, although it will not happen this weekend. Jamie Vardy and N’Golo Kante have dealt out their fair share of bloody noses for Leicester this season, but it is Mahrez who Ranieri describes as the team’s “reference point”. I looked at the comparisons, our cheapest prices are cheaper than anywhere in London.
Not since 1985 have Spurs been this high in the standings this late in the season, as they look to capture a first league title since 1961. “They’re just words, though, not points”.
Particularly goalscorers and players with pace – like Vardy. “That’s human. I think it’s also good for football”.
No other team in English football history has ever made such an enormous improvement from one season to the next. “Take that away and you can stop them”.
For example, the relationship between the right-back and right-midfielder has to be spot on.
Those link-ups are working for Leicester too. The Foxes have attacked marvelously, scoring the most goals in the EPL thus far this season, behind Vardy’s league-leading 18 strikes, Mahrez’s 10 assists and a staunch defense led by Christian Fuchs, Robert Huth and Wes Morgan.
What has helped Leicester develop those sort of partnerships so effectively is having such consistent team selections.
Even including the Foxes, Tottenham has been the most impressive team time and time again this season.
“Everybody was saying to me: ‘Riyad, England is not for you, it is too physical, too strong, ‘” he said. But he won’t let the media know it and that keeps the pressure off the players. “I make a good experience but sometimes you need a bad experience”. Wins for Tottenham and Leicester would set up the potential of a two-horse race between dark-horses, leaving Arsenal and City eight and nine points off the top, respectively, and with just twelve games to go, those are extremely hard margins to close.
It is a Catch-22 situation, and Arsenal are the next team who must decide how to handle it.
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“Time to think can be a disadvantage if you don’t use your thinking in a positive way, and the pressure is on”, Wenger said.
