Football

Leicester City – not so small after all

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Leicester City’s unlikely title charge hit new heights last weekend with a 3-0 win over Swansea and a disastrous weekend for the EPL’s big guns helping them leap back to the top of the table.

Despite many predicting that Claudio Ranieri’s men would eventually hit the wall, Leicester have defied the odds to sit two points clear of second-placed Arsenal and three ahead of the two big Manchester clubs. And a deeper look into their raw statistics suggests that this side could indeed be the real deal.

Leicester City has collected 32 points from their 15 games this season but looking further back to the previous season shows a total of 50 points collected from their past 22 EPL outings – a tally that puts them ahead of all of their title rivals. It suggests that their form has been too good for too long to be considered a “flash in the pan.”

Similarly, statistics collected on all players across the top leagues in Europe – the EPL, La Liga, Ligue 1, Serie A and Bundesliga – have Leicester stars Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez ranked among the 10 best players this season with Mahrez (who scored all three goals against Swansea) ranked second behind only Barcelona star Neymar!

While this once small club continues its stunning rise, their cause was aided last weekend by the performances of England’s big guns with Manchester City falling 2-0 at home to Stoke, Liverpool crashing 2-0 at Newcastle, Chelsea losing again 1-0 to Bournemouth and both Manchester United and Tottenham being held to draws.

Only Arsenal was able to collect all three points in a 3-1 win over Sunderland, but more importantly the weekend’s results proved that nothing can be taken for granted this season. With that in mind, perhaps Leicester City are a genuine title chance after all!