So can Leicester City really do it? Can a club who started the season as 5,000-1 outsiders actually win the Premier league? Of course they can. They are favourites now. If you look at their fixtures in the run-in now compared to the others in the title race, you would have to say that it is in their hands. They have quite a few of the big away trips out of the way, they will only be playing Saturday to Saturday now, while Manchester City, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur are all still competing in at least two other competitions.
They won seven out of their last nine matches then and, for me, it all coincided with Robert Huth arriving at the club. He has been an inspired signing and they have just looked so strong once he came in. Yes, Vardy and Mahrez have been fantastic but I think Huth brought something different to the club. He has been in a Premier League title winning squad before back at Chelsea in 2005. He has authority. He organises others and, as we saw on Saturday, is also a big threat from set-pieces.
The other centre-back, Wes Morgan, is fantastic as well. He was a player who spent too long in the Championship and, like Vardy, is an example of the quality that sometimes gets overlooked lower down the divisions. Vardy doesn’t stop and their work-rate, as a team, is just fantastic. They run, close down, and stifle the opposition as well as playing themselves.
It is impossible not to be pleased for Claudio Ranieri. He is a real nice guy and, after he’d had a bit of a disaster with the Greek national team, his appointment came totally out of the blue. You did think, ‘How has he got that job?’ But he has been clever in knowing when not to change too much. It is basically the same group of players who have continued the fantastic ending to last season.
The left-back, Christian Fuchs, has come in and been outstanding but he has not messed around with it too much. That in itself also shows the great job that was done by Nigel Pearson. People forget quickly but he got them promoted and the run to stay up last season was amazing. Arsenal’s win at Bournemouth sets up next Sunday perfectly. They have not been at all consistent but they will be right back in there now if they can beat Leicester at the Emirates.
- Telegraph