Premier League Hangover: Leicester City Host the Mother of All Parties

The pause was lovely. It’s not uncommon for a captain to steal a private moment on taking receipt of silverware before holding it aloft, and Wes Morgan was no different.

Tilting his head skywards with eyes clenched shut, it was as though he was caught in the peripheral space between sleep and consciousness, trying to prolong an extra few seconds enveloped in a dream he was afraid he may never be able to return to.

He needn’t have worried. Leicester City are no longer dreaming; Leicester City are the Premier League champions. It’s inscribed on the trophy, inked in the history books. The greatest underdog story ever told. Alongside Morgan stood Claudio Ranieri proud and dewy-eyed, just like everybody else inside, and outside, the King Power Stadium.

The moment #LCFC lifted the Premier League title, as filmed by @FuchsOfficial #SomeFuchsGiven pic.twitter.com/DwChBLoAgw

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) May 7, 2016

The first new champions of England since Nottingham Forest won it some 38 years ago in 1978 were irrepressible on the day, vanquishing Everton in a 3-1 scoreline grossly flattering to the sorry visitors.

The Foxes could win the title by the second-biggest points margin in English football history. If they can extend the 10-point advantage they currently hold at the summit by three points, they would match Everton’s dominance of the 1984/85 campaign. The Toffees won it then by 13 points, with Manchester United holding the record on 18 points in 1999/2000. Yet still some people dispute whether Leicester have been this season’s best team. 

Leicester’s deputy chairman, Aiyawatt Srivaddhanaprabha, has boldly claimed the club’s 14-year-old stadium may no longer be big enough. A punchy observation that could be put down to too much champagne and too little sleep; on the day, though, it looked a fair assessment of where Leicester may be heading. They won’t be priced at 5,000/1 for the UEFA Champions League.

Next stop, Europe. ✈️ #LCFC pic.twitter.com/JTsMDwpn0e

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) May 8, 2016

By their very nature, processions can feel a bit like, well, processions really. When Liverpool and Manchester United used to dominate each season after next in their respective heydays, days like Saturday must have felt like fetching a plastic Christmas tree down from the loft. Stick on a bit of Queen, soak the gaffer in champagne, get the kids on the pitch, and repeat on a loop.

Not this one. This was a celebration without precedence, and the better for it.

Here was a victory party as imagined by Willy Wonka, brilliantly bizarre. When Leicester were awarded a second penalty, and the crowd bellowed for Kasper Schmeichel to take it, I half expected Shinji Okazaki to get his customary hook so an Umpa Lumpa could step from the substitutes’ bench to take it.

One couple dressed as pizza slices, a shirtless guy with more tattoos than an average-sized parlour rang a bell continuously, groups of Italian day-trippers soaked it all in without a ticket and not needing one to join the party, while others enjoyed a fairground that had sprung up next to a roundabout. All against a backdrop of free beer and pizza, elaborate fireworks, and a reservoir of tears. Even the heavens shed one, opened as they did over 90 minutes in which Leicester played with not just the conviction of champions, but with glorious elan.

It was as though they still needed a win to secure the title. N’Golo Kante’s third lung worked just as hard, Morgan and Co. blocked every ball, Jamie Vardy put in enough sprints to suggest he can remember his non-league days all too well, while Okazaki is still in the stadium now pressing the groundsman despite being threatened with a rake.

N’Golo Kante #Fact https://t.co/h0VxNJeHGR

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) May 7, 2016

Legendary Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli had at his request got the proceedings underway 20 minutes before kick-off with an ethereal rendition of Nessun Dorma, No One Shall Sleep. The bald chap caught on camera having overdone it to the extent he kipped through it may disagree, otherwise it was a wonderfully apt choice for a city that hasn’t put its glass down since Monday night.

It was like Italia ’90 all over, except this time the guys you wanted to win were shedding tears of joy instead of those of the sorrowful variety.

Ranieri assisted Bocelli, who had lost his sight as a boy, onto the field. Without wishing to be gauche, gently guiding individuals who could have lost their way without a little help has been what Ranieri has done so shrewdly all season. He’s shown belief in talent that could have lain hidden in less adroit hands, and given it a platform to flourish.

That just happened. pic.twitter.com/lrfGy2qX4k

— Leicester City (@LCFC) May 7, 2016

“We are champions because of you,” Ranieri announced. “Thank you so much. I love you.”

It’s safe to say his feelings were reciprocated. There is not a sculptor in Leicester who won’t have drawn preparatory sketches.

In fairness, Everton could not have been more obliging guests. Had their players got off the team coach upon arrival at the King Power Stadium carrying vol-au-vents and a cheese board, few would have raised an eyebrow.

Often in games like these where the match itself is a mere precursor to the main event, the coronation, those to be fitted for a crown often fail to show up. Here, Leicester feasted on Everton like kings with gluttonous appetites. They tossed the Toffees aside like Henry VIII might have done with a finished ham hock, or wife.

Claudio Ranieri celebrated @LCFC’s #BPL title win in style… ????https://t.co/5w63b26RYj

— Premier League (@premierleague) May 9, 2016

A dead-rubber perhaps, but given Roberto Martinez is the proverbial dead man walking, he will have been desperate for his players to show the outside world, and those inside Everton’s boardroom, they are still playing for him. They emphatically did not.

The spirit they demonstrated throughout was so …

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