Leicester City Premier League recap

You know that feeling when you wake from an accidental 3 hour nap and can’t remember what day it is anymore?

Today the Premier League awakens from a 3 month slumber. You could be forgiven for not being immediately up to speed, so we’re providing a quick run down of where we were and what’s to come.

Story so far

It was (mostly) great! Leicester City are 3rd! If we’d all just jumped to this part of the season every single fan would be delighted.

Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City via Getty Images

The grumbles come from the fact that at one stage we looked almost unbeatable, and had fallen off somewhat. The Foxes were struggling for form before thrashing Aston Villa back in March, but what does form really mean now?

If they can pick up quickly and play anything close to their best, we’re almost assured of our European Tour next season, whatever that will look like...

Still to come

The fixtures look pretty good for the Foxes, if anything from this season before now can be trusted for predictions.

We have no games left against the top 4 and don’t even play against top half opposition until Arsenal next month.

The season does end much more harshly though with a run of Sheffield United, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United, currently 7th, 8th and 5th.

The chasing pack

Obviously we want Leicester to win every game, but the duties of a fan don’t end there. We also have to worry about any team that starts looking like a threat.

Chelsea are the closest, 5 points (+ goal difference) behind in 4th. They have a harder time ahead, with fixtures against Liverpool (1st), Manchester City (2nd) and Wolves (6th), that we’ve already played.

Just back from them are Manchester United, Wolves and Sheffield United. 10 points is a big gap with just 9 games to play, but I’d still rather they lose as often as possible.

Manchester City are just 4 points ahead of us, but with a game in hand will be hard to catch. Liverpool have all but officially won the league. I’m happy to see these teams take as many points as they can from our competitors.

Obstacles

The compacted fixture list will be a challenge for the Foxes compared to their table-topping competitors. The squad is much deeper than it has been with capable backups at most positions, but Jamie Vardy in particular can’t be leaned upon as he has been in the past.

Can Iheanacho, Barnes and Perez step up to take some weight off his prolific shoulders?

We’re still in the FA Cup, too. Obviously that’s a good thing and a genuine chance for silverware this season, but it is more fixtures in an already very short period of time.

The biggest issue for Leicester City will be playing without Ricardo Pereira, who damaged his ACL in that win over Villa and will be out for the rest of the season.

James Justin has looked very promising when given opportunities, but Ricardo was probably our player of the season so far. Playing without him will certainly be an adjustment.

Outlook

I mean, who knows, right?

No one’s played in months, empty stadia, weird contract situations and this is the part of the season where the form book usually falls apart anyway.

Honestly anything could happen at this point. Advantage to Leicester City in the Champions League chase because we’ve got the points on the board.

Wouldn’t trade that for anything right now, but ask me again in 3 days time.