It was this weekend last year when the dream started to take hold. “So if you’re just joining us #lcfc are leading 3-0 and Robert Huth is on a hat-trick” was the wonderful tweet that Leicester City posted from their account during a victory at Manchester City that convinced Claudio Ranieri and his players, as much as the watching football world, that something incredible was happening.
Twelve months on and the fairytale has turned into a nightmare. Leicester, make no mistake, are in real danger of becoming the first top-flight champions to be relegated since Manchester City in 1938. A fourth successive Premier League defeat leaves them two points off the bottom of the table before a potentially make-or-break trip to Swansea next Sunday that could shape their own survival prospects as well as Claudio Ranieri’s future.
As unthinkable as it would have been at the end of last season to speculate on Ranieri not seeing out the following campaign it has now got to the stage where the question is being asked. There was unrest behind the scenes among players and staff about the way Ranieri was handling a crisis before Manchester United inflicted an emphatic 3-0 home defeat that brutally exposed Leicester’s brittle confidence.
To add to the sense of foreboding enveloping the King Power Stadium, results elsewhere this weekend mean there is no longer any breathing space at the bottom. Whereas several of the clubs in the survival scrap are showing signs of life Leicester look rudderless. They have still not scored a league goal this year, the defence is a shambles and Ranieri, as sad as it sounds in the context of his miraculous achievement last season, appears powerless to turn things around. Arms folded on the edge of his technical area, the Italian cut a lonely figure throughout.
By the time Ranieri got back into the dressing room after politely shaking José Mourinho’s hand and disappearing down the tunnel before any of the players had left the pitch, the bookmakers were sending out emails flagging up that the man recently named as Fifa coach of the year had replaced Aitor Karanka as the favourite to be the next Premier League manager sacked. The key question is whether Leicester’s owners will stick or twist.
It is perhaps worth bearing in mind that Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, Leicester’s chairman, and Aiyawatt, his son and the vice-chairman, stood by Nigel Pearson during the 2014-15 season, when the club spent 140 days anchored to the bottom of the table. Yet it is also true that expectations have changed a little since those days. At the start of this season, on the back of being crowned champions and investing the best part of £60m in new players, Aiyawatt talked about making signings that “show how ambitious we are and that we’re ready to fight for more success”.
Leicester, in fairness, are still in the FA Cup and they face Sevilla in a Champions League last-16 tie this month, but right now everything is clouded by what is happening in the Premier League. It is not just the results but the performances.
Kasper Schmeichel described the final 50 minutes against United as “unacceptable” and admitted all the warning signs are there now. “It is time for each one of us – from the top to the bottom of this club – to be counted,” Leicester’s goalkeeper said. “If we don’t, we will be relegated.”
Although Ranieri will be the man who ultimately carries the can as the manager, not all the blame can be laid at his door. The players are also culpable and it is staggering just how unrecognisable so many of them are from last season, with the loss of form running right through the team.
Riyad Mahrez, the PFA player of the year, has not scored from open play in the Premier League since last April. Jamie Vardy has only five goals to his name this season. Danny Drinkwater looks lost without N’Golo Kanté by his side. Then we get to the defence, which was an accident waiting to happen every time Manchester United attacked.
Christian Fuchs, who was so dependable at left-back last season, endured another torrid afternoon. As for Wes Morgan and Robert Huth, it is starting to feel like a trick of the mind that they were cornerstones of a Premier League title success.
Maybe Gary Lineker hit the nail on the head with the message he posted on social media just after Zlatan Ibrahimovic swept the ball through Morgan’s legs for United’s second, only 88 seconds after Henrikh Mkhitaryan had skipped past Huth to score the first. “Huth and Morgan without Kanté in front of them are like Huth and Morgan,” Lineker wrote.
Somehow Ranieri must now try to pick the players up for a fourth-round FA Cup replay at home against Derby on Wednesday night in a game that Leicester could do without. After that all roads point to Swansea, where Ranieri and his players desperately need to summon the spirit of last season.
