Premier League Preview: Will Leicester City Get the Job Done at Old Trafford?

Oddly, Old Trafford would make an apt venue for the climax of the most remarkable of Premier League seasons. Oscillating as it has on a fortnightly basis between the theatre of the absurd and the theatre of daydreams, on Sunday it could finally realign itself with its original self-styled moniker: The Theatre of Dreams.

Leicester City’s dream, but a dream nonetheless. 

Had the notion of three points on Sunday being enough to secure the Premier League title been mooted over the summer, it would have been deemed fanciful, if not quite fanciful enough to be dismissed as impossible.

Few thought Manchester United genuine contenders, even if Louis Van Gaal’s close season of lavish spending saw the club’s accountant take to signing official cheques with his own tears. Ed Woodward hasn’t moved out of the foetal position since signing off £25 million for Memphis Depay.

As for Leicester, the bookmakers had 5,000 reasons why they wouldn’t win it. Had anyone suggested the Foxes as challengers, it is likely family and friends would have staged an intervention. That’s genuinely the position Leicester have come from. And now they’re more than likely going to win it. Three points on Sunday would get them over the line with two games to spare. 

Did you hear that? Leicester City are going to win the Premier League. This is not a War of the Worlds-style hoax. Leicester expletive City are going to win the Premier League. Do you compute? This is not a drill. Please do not adjust your set. The revolution will be televised (if you subscribe to Sky Sports).

Leicester City are going to win the Premier League. 

As a rule, football supporters as a mass of people are capable of splitting hairs in a manner perhaps only matched by General Woundwort’s despot reign of terror in Watership Down.

Yet even still, never before in the history of English football has a single season prompted the necessity to recalibrate what constitutes success all the way from top to bottom, from the haves to the have-nots.

The Premier League is suffering the biggest identity crisis since a fisherman pulled Jason Bourne from the sea. No wonder he always looks confused: “Leicester City are top, what the flying f…”

Tottenham Hotspur are as steely as they are stylish. Bournemouth have six fewer points than Chelsea and have been in holiday mode since March. West Ham United are fifth. Southampton are bidding for European football for a second successive season. Stoke City are pretty on the eye, but a soft touch.

Watford are toying with the idea of getting rid of a manager who has guided them to 12th in the league and an FA Cup semi-final in his first season. Arsenal and Manchester City trail Leicester by 12 points. Manchester United are 17 points off the pace, Chelsea an eye-watering 29.

Tony Pulis must look in the mirror these days and wonder whether he still exists. Who wants steady and stable, when Leicester have proved spectacular is achievable on a relative shoestring?

What Leicester have done is allow every supporter in the country, and beyond, to dream a little, and that’s going to be a nightmare for all Premier League managers.

In all likelihood it will probably go back to normal next season, but not before a number have paid the price for failing to find a Riyad Mahrez or Jamie Vardy over the summer, or not making that midfielder found in the cupboard Danny Drinkwater.

So Claudio, is this season with @LCFC the greatest adventure you’ve ever been on…?https://t.co/odEjI34Fij

— Premier League (@premierleague) April 28, 2016

It seems deliciously appropriate that a Premier League campaign so odd it could have been scripted by David Lynch could reach its crescendo by crowning Leicester City its champion at the home of English football’s most successful club.

To win a first top-flight championship in a 132-year history by beating the 20-time winners would be poignantly befitting of Leicester’s wholly unique achievement.

Given Manchester United have agreed next season to hand out gum shields with all season tickets to prevent the gnashing of teeth inside Old Trafford, one could reasonably expect their record at home this term to be nothing to write home about.

On the contrary, it’s really rather impressive. Leicester have quite the job on, even if somehow, remarkably, it seems almost anticlimactic.

Whether it’s the fact Leicester have been top for so long—five months and counting—or reverse psychology has come into play, in that repeatedly being told Leicester are doing the impossible has made it seem the exact opposite thank you very much, there is almost a blase attitude prevalent with regards to what may actually unfold.

When Leicester dropped points to West Ham a fortnight ago, and Spurs battered Stoke, many aired the view Claudio Ranieri’s side might struggle to get over the line.

Obviously the mighty Spurs would take maximum returns from their remaining matches (that was never questioned), with many opining Mauricio Pochettino’s side would have won it at a canter had there been ten, as opposed to four games left.

Given Leicester have lost just three league games all season, at that point still held a five-point advantage, and had won their previous five without conceding a goal, to me at least, the Tottenham love-in seemed little more than wishful thinking.

Tottenham failing on the first occasion they had to play a game in the run-in with any genuine pressure, drawing with West Bromwich Albion at home, was washed over with a shrug. Leicester were given the title back as reward for waiting patiently, like a dog with a stick when …

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