The fan said he told his son to hang in there with Leicester City. Now they have guaranteed the Christmas No 1 spot, the smash hit few saw coming.
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Shinji Okazaki celebrates scoring the third goal for Leicester with Jamie Vardy (right) and Marcin Wasilewski (centre).
Yesterday’s performance in front of the shocked Everton home crowd will go a long way towards silencing the doubters. The outstanding Algerian has managed that before January.
Aston Villa remain five points adrift at the bottom despite picking up a 1-1 draw in a rain-soaked match at Newcastle, who are 17th, one place above the bottom three. They have defied every expectation and footballing logic. But no clean sheet (means) no pizza. Theirs is based on action-packed attacking. Claudio Ranieri’s men held on to cap an astonishing turnaround.
That is an outcome Leicester could only have dreamed about this time a year ago when Ranieri’s predecessor Nigel Pearson was overseeing a calamitous early part of the campaign. They have 38 now. So I think it is time for us to take them seriously and accept that Leicester are title contenders.
They have captured the imagination of the footballing world with their fairy-tale run to the summit of the world’s most competitive league.
They have in-form, inspired players. Today was a hard match, Everton are a good team and they move the ball so quickly.
And Mahrez is the coolest of penalty-takers. In the second we were much better.
This is clearly something the bookmakers didn’t think was possible at the start of the season – along with the rest of the world – and they gave some insane odds for just this to happen. Speedy striker Vardy then set up Okazaki to increase the visitors lead on 69 minutes as Everton struggled to contain their opponent’s pace on the break.
Despite conceding two goals from penalties, Martinez refused to blame referee Jonathan Webb for the loss. He was rewarded for bringing in Okazaki. Mahrez sent the goalkeeper the wrong way with a confident strike into the other side of the goal to his first penalty.
Five of the last six Christmas Day leaders have won the Premier League and this was the kind of result that Mourinho craved in his title-winning pomp at Chelsea, a hard-fought away win on a cold, wet day in the north-west that will reverberate throughout England. Romelu Lukaku struck his ninth goal in eight games. Barkley’s first shot was saved by Kasper Schmeichel’s foot and his second effort was headed off the line but Lukaku fired the rebound into the far corner to make it 1-1.
Everton, meanwhile, lost for the first time in seven league games.
He is making history.
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The team who lead the Premiership on Christmas Day must never be taken lightly.
