Premier League Hangover: Leicester Party Postponed as All Eyes Turn to Tottenham

To Stamford Bridge.

It’s a measure of where we are currently at that Leicester City’s failure to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford, to secure the three points they needed to wrap up the Premier League title with a couple of matches to spare, seemed a bit of a damp squib.

We’re getting picky about how and where Leicester are going to win it. What a glorious off-kilter season. That the final line of one of the most improbable stories in football history could now be written at the King Power Stadium seems a fitting finale to the most human and idiosyncratic of tales.

Given Manchester United’s home record (11 wins, five draws, and two defeats) is bettered only by Leicester, a 1-1 draw at English football’s most successful club is hardly cause for Lesley Gore-style “It’s My Party And I’ll Cry If I Want To” histrionics. Especially considering the point it gleaned means the Foxes now need just two more from as many remaining matches (Everton at home, and Chelsea away) to be certain of a first title in a 132-year history.

In any case, it would have seemed grossly impertinent to start the party on Sunday as the newly crowned Football Writers’ Player of the Year Jamie Vardy sat on the naughty step. Had Vardy been available on Sunday, they may well have had the cutting edge to get the job done on the day. A 20-minute spell at the start of the second half when they repeatedly hit United on the counter-attack was crying out for the searing pace of their 22-goal top scorer.

Leonardo Ulloa put in another valiant shift in his absence, and while his aerial prowess unsettled United’s defence all afternoon he never quite looked like troubling them with his feet.

Of course, Leicester could win it without even playing. Derby County’s players found out they had won the league in 1972 while holidaying in Mallorca. Leicester’s have said they will watch Tottenham’s game at Chelsea as a group, like a band of expectant fathers reassuring one another while pacing the corridors of a congested labour ward. Expect cigars and champagne should Chelsea do them a favour.

Spurs cannot afford any slip-up from the three remaining matches. To ensure their title aspirations stave off a flat line and a high-pitched beep for another game at least, only a win in west London on Monday night will suffice.

Breaking: Jamie Vardy has been named the Football Writers’ Association Footballer of the Year ???????? pic.twitter.com/yQlFSPVq2U

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) May 2, 2016

It will be no easy task given Chelsea hate Spurs so much even Eden Hazard is threatening to end his season-long sabbatical to make an appearance. He’ll probably take to the field in flip-flops brandishing a pina colada, but with the transfer window set to be prised ajar, the Belgian will have all the motivation he needs.

Leicester’s players left the field on Sunday to a rapturous and generous reception from all four sides of the ground. On a weekend in which people old enough to drive cars held up homemade placards to hound a man of an eligible age for a free bus pass, it was reassuring to see a group of football supporters act with such magnanimous civility.

Leicester’s success has provided the perfect antidote to the self-entitlement so often proffered by the elite. Arsenal supporters talk of a title drought as if they are lamenting a lack of a basic human right. The sound you can hear emitting from my keyboard as I type is the world’s smallest violin being played.

The last time an opponent had been afforded a gesture of such lofty reverence at Old Trafford was back in 2003, when Real Madrid striker Ronaldo brutalised United’s back four with a hat-trick befitting of a museum and its own security guard. That’s the company Leicester keeps these days. They may have enjoyed just 30 per cent possession, but this was no smash-and-grab job on their travels. You don’t get standing ovations for being plucky alone.

I’m all for Leicester winning the League but this is too much..a BLUE battered sausage! [Pic: PA] #backingtheblues pic.twitter.com/034lHmnASN

— Charlotte Hodges (@CharHodges88) April 29, 2016

Heads were held high, as well they might, yet there was a sense of quiet frustration over a job left half- done. The coronation was to be delayed. There was to be no knees-up in The Rovers on Manchester’s famous cobbles. Poor Betty had whipped up a special “Huth Hotpot” as well.

In Leicester, everything was set too. The champagne was on ice, bunting draped, sausages battered blue to resemble reconstituted Smurf meat and the town hall aglow in the same hue. Richard III (his statue, not remains) was adorned in a club scarf, while one coffee shop made it literally possible to drink in Vardy’s success.

The Vardy-cino, courtesy of @brutweets_uk (photo via @oliverbrown_tel) ☕️ pic.twitter.com/1W1WuNSqDG

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) April 30, 2016

It would be melodramatic to describe events at Old Trafford as being akin to a surprise party where the recipient doesn’t show up; it was more a surprise party where the guest of honour retires to a bedroom after five minutes complaining of a headache. Everyone still had a drink, albeit unsure how much consumption is sociably acceptable in the circumstances.

According to the Telegraph, the unlikeliest title challenge in perhaps not just the history of the Premier League, but English football since its inception as a league format in 1888, has attracted unprecedented global interest. The report states in recent weeks documentary crews have pitched up from as far afield as Japan, America, Canada, The Netherlands, Sweden, France, Ghana, Russia, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, China, Spain, Norway, South Korea, Brazil and Greece.

For the first quarter-of-an-hour Leicester’s marketing department must have hoped at least one shanked clearance was propelled high enough to interfere with satellite signals, to send distorted pictures back to new-found, far-flung fans.

Leicester City go global—on homepage of @nytimes ahead of this weekend’s ‘Championship Game’ #LCFC [ht @iambJohnC] pic.twitter.com/QeDrdcIsD7

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) April 29, 2016

With United …

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