It seems like a lot longer than four years since a Leicester side featuring Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante and managed by Claudio Ranieri swept to the Premier League title and became 5,000-1 winners.
Massive outside bets at the start of the 2015/16 season, Leicester City came into what would be the most successful season of their 111-year history at the time amid massive changes. Due to a scandal involving his son, Nigel Pearson, who had guided the club to an improbable escape from relegation in the previous season, left the club.
In Pearson’s place came Claudio Ranieri, also known as ‘The Tinkerman’ during his time in football management. That reputation, however, was to change dramatically in just a single season.
Many new faces came in during a summer of growth, with players like N’Golo Kante (£5.6m), Robert Huth (£3m) and Shinji Okazaki (£7m) all signing during a busy pre-season. Friendlies mostly yielded easy victories, but a 3-2 comeback win against Birmingham City when Leicester went into the half-time break 2-0 down hinted at the resolve that was already building in the squad.
As the Premier League kicked off, Leicester were 5,000/1 to win the Premier League, but a strong start with wins against Sunderland (4-2) and West Ham United (2-1) put Leicester towards the top of the league. Of the next five games, however, the Foxes would only win one, with frustrating draws against teams such as Stoke and Bournemouth followed by a resounding 5-2 home defeat to Arsenal.
Alexis Sanchez scored a hat-trick in the game, prompting many to claim that Leicester’s defence was simply too open for them to stick around at the top of the table.
In the first quarter of the Premier League season, both teams scored in every one of Leicester’s games, but over the rest of the year, Ranieri worked change into his side. The next ten games saw The Foxes go on an unbeaten run that included visits to the King Power from teams such as Manchester United and Chelsea. On the road, Leicester were vibrant and attacking, with Jamie Vardy and Rihad Mahrez running into the channels at will.
At home, Leicester, perhaps reminded of frailties by that Arsenal defeat, tightened up, relying on N’Golo Kante and Danny Drinkwater to break up play and release the ‘spring’ attack of players such as Vardy, Albrighton and Mahrez.
Leicester’s 2-1 win at home to Chelsea during this period was typical of their ability to ghost behind defences and keep it tight at the back when broken upon.
During the Christmas period, people were starting to talk of Leicester winning the league, but The Foxes went three games without scoring any sort of goal. A 1-0 defeat at Anfield was followed by stalemates at home to both Manchester City and Bournemouth. Rather than precipitate a collapse, however, it led to Ranieri changing how his side played.
In the first half of the season, Leicester’s open attack had yielded a lot of goals – at both ends. Teams figured out how to play against that method, however, thanks in part to the victories against Leicester provided by Arsenal and Liverpool.
In the second half of the season, The Foxes changed tack. In the last 19 games of the season, they scored just 31 goals, but would only concede 11, the meanest defence in the Premier League by some distance.
A vital 1-0 win at White Hart Lane set the pattern, Leicester soaking up pressure before scoring through Robert Huth in the 83rd minute and snatching victory. It was a tactical masterstroke by an Italian manager who had finally found the starting XI he could rely on.
Three wins in a row between January 23rd and February 6th gave Leicester a springboard for the incredible success that would arrive by the season’s end. A 3-0 thrashing of Stoke City was followed by a 2-0 home win over Liverpool that proved the doubters wrong and featured one of the goals of the season scored by Leicester’s top scorer that season, Jamie Vardy.
Vardy scored both in that game, but The Foxes didn’t always rely on their mercurial number nine. Leicester’s next game looked even tougher, but a 3-1 win at the Etihad Stadium saw them beat Manchester City and confirm everyone’s belief that the Foxes were genuine challengers. Robert Huth scored twice, with Rihad Mahrez’s strike after N’Golo Kante’s surging run one of the memories of that year. Many called it the defining game of Leicester’s title-winning season.
A defeat in the next game, a 2-1 loss at Arsenal where Danny Welbeck scored a 95th-minute winner, might have been damaging to another team, but Leicester had found a new resolve and would win five of their next six games by a 1-0 scoreline, taking all three points in the same manner against Norwich, Watford, Newcastle United, Crystal Palace and Southampton.
As the field of challengers narrowed to include only Tottenham Hotspur, and when they drew 2-2 at Stamford Bridge against Chelsea, Leicester were pronounced champions, leading to Jamie Vardy – literally – having a party.
There are many factors that led to Leicester winning the title in that famous season, including the various transitional stages of other clubs. Mourinho’s Chelsea fell apart in the title-defending season, finishing 10th, one of the worst title defences of all-time. Teams such as Liverpool, Manchester City and Manchester United were all in early transitional phases of rebuilding their squads. Tottenham and Arsenal simply weren’t good enough.
In the end, however, with 81 points, ten points more than their nearest rivals, Leicester did it. In other seasons, 81 points would not be enough to finish as runners-up, but in that crazy 2015/16 year, Leicester upset the odds and won the league playing brilliant football and working out that if Plan A ever failed, having a Plan B that was arguably even better would clear the path to glory.
