After last weekend’s round of Premier League fixtures, one
question remains on everybody’s lips: ‘will Leicester City have been relegated come
the end of the season?’
The Foxes could become the first defending champions of
England to be relegated from the top flight since 1938, when Manchester City dropped
into the second tier just a year after securing the title.
Despite the rarity of this occurrence, its possibility has
become an increasingly likely reality for Leicester after they lost their
fifth consecutive Premier League game on Sunday – a 2-0 defeat away to Swansea.
The result leaves the champions sitting precariously in 17th
position, with just one place and one point separating them from the relegation
zone.
Throughout the previous week, even before Sunday’s loss,
discussion amongst journalists, and pundits alike, was rife regarding the cause
of Leicester’s rather dramatic fall from grace. A multitude of factors have
been cited as a cause of this, including Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez’s
struggle for form, as well as the sale of N’Golo Kante to Chelsea in the summer
for a fee of around £30 million.
Struggling for form: Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez
Ultimately, several factors have been deemed accountable for
Leicester’s current plight, and whilst there is undoubtedly a stark contrast
between this season and last for the Midlands club, the extent to which this is a surprise is up for debate.
Let us not forget that this is only the club’s third season
back in the Premier League following their promotion from the Championship in
2014, and that for much of their first season back in 'the big time' they sat
rock bottom of the table, with only a miraculous run of games ensuring their
safety.
Not only this, but such a dip in form is not exactly a
distant memory for Premier League fans. Just last season we saw the reigning champions
Chelsea drop as low as 17th place in the table, despite retaining a
squad that was considerably stronger than Leicester’s is now. This squad included the
likes of PFA Player of the Year Eden Hazard, 20-goal Diego Costa, Cesc Fabregas
(18 assists), and Thibaut Courtois, who secured an impressive 12 clean sheets.
If that Chelsea team could suffer such a dip in form, then
surely it can’t be so shocking to see Leicester, a side who sat bottom of the
Premier League just two seasons ago, suffer a relatively similar slump?
Before the current season had even begun, many speculated as
to what impact the added commitment of Champions League football would have on the
title winners, with some suggesting that the extra games would take a heavy toll
on the squad.
Statistics now show that the fixtures have indeed had an
impact, with Leicester not picking up a single win in Premier League games that
have preceded a Group G match in the Champions League – losing five and drawing
just one.
As many journalists and fans have already suggested, last season’s
title winning campaign was a one-off, a fluke, something that will never be repeated again.
If we therefore take this exceptional year out of the
equation, and consider that it was only the season before last that the Foxes
were involved a relegation battle, it really should come as no great surprise that the club find themselves in a similar situation this time around. Add in the loss of N’Golo
Kante, as well as the added commitment of Champions League football, to the
equation, and Leicester’s current league position becomes ever less surprising.
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