PL Preview: Will Vardy and Mahrez Show Wenger What He Could Have Had at Arsenal?

If the course of a football season can be broken down into a series of sliding doors moments, the 14th February 2016 should have seen Claudio Ranieri let out a yelp upon having his fingers trapped.

Arsenal let him off the hook. They are nothing if not charitable.

Leicester City travelled to the Emirates that day aware victory would propel them eight points clear of Arsenal at the Premier League summit. North London neighbours Tottenham Hotspur were nestled between them in second place, two points shy of the leaders.

Nearly five minutes of added time had elapsed when Arsenal substitute Danny Welbeck, making his first competitive appearance since April the previous year, got his head to a set-piece to secure the home side a 2-1 victory. The gap was closed to just two points.

It bore all the hallmarks of a result that could prove seismic in terms of the title race. It was, but not in the way we all anticipated. It was Arsenal that choked thereafter, not Leicester.

Arsene Wenger’s side would not get any closer to Leicester between Welbeck’s header going in and the season’s conclusion. Ranieri’s team did not lose another game, going 12 unbeaten to secure the title at a canter. Some ten points separated them from runners-up Arsenal in the final reckonings.

Ranieri met the Arsenal result as he had all those that preceded it and all those that would follow: with a smile. The Italian’s disappointment was over by the time his shoulders were back in place after a shrug. In the grand scheme of things, it seemed to affect him about as much as his local deli running out of his favourite type of pizza. 

Last weekend, when Leicester become the first defending champions to lose their opening league match since Arsenal in 1989, Ranieri similarly remained level. For an Italian, his mantra in defeat is very c’est la vie.

It’s a unique situation this season: The champions are under no pressure to retain the title, while last term’s runners-up are under innumerable strain to go one better this time around. Few give them much hope. 

Just 90 minutes into a new Premier League campaign, it seems ludicrous to suggest Saturday’s game between Leicester and Arsenal (King Power Stadium) could be another sliding doors moment. Yet, rightly or wrongly, there’s no doubt pressure is building on Wenger already.

Over the past 12 months, the two teams have seemed both intrinsically linked and polar opposites. One the great overachiever, the other an arch underachiever; the most content supporters in the country, compared to the gloomiest; Ranieri’s stock has never been higher, Wenger’s has never sunk to such swallow depths; one a team revered for its bravery, the other regularly mourned for its cowardice; the lion (with a fully functioning roar) and the tin man.

A more tangible sliding doors incident occurred between the two clubs over the summer. When Wenger made it clear he wanted to add a little needle to the tapestry of his side, Jamie Vardy was stitched in as his new number nine. After years of nice, the Frenchman fancied a little naughty.

Think the end of Grease when Olivia Newton-John’s character Sandy ditches the below the knee skirts and cardigans for a leather cat suit and you’re not far off. Unfortunately for Arsenal, Wenger’s repeated rendition of “You Are the One that I Want” over long summer nights left Vardy cold, as he proved hopelessly devoted to Leicester in signing a lucrative new contract.

When Jamie Vardy turns you down, Gonzalo Higuain goes to Juventus and Riyad Mahrez signs a new contract… pic.twitter.com/ZJYmJLNL9N

— Bleacher Report UK (@br_uk) August 17, 2016

At 29, with only a single outstanding season at the highest level in his locker, Vardy would have been the antithesis of a Wenger signing. Throwing caution to the Wenger Law of Resale Value, his capture would have provided a refreshing dash of hard-nosed pragmatism at a football club that “floats like a butterfly and stings like one too,” to borrow the words of Brian Clough.

Signing players for the future like Rob Holding from Bolton Wanderers is fine, if that is what actually transpires. When they are part of a back four that concedes a goal for every member on the opening day of the season, as Arsenal did to Liverpool last weekend, that’s something else entirely.

As the American writer Philip Roth once said: “The road to hell is paved with works-in-progress.” Arsenal supporters crave the finished …

continue reading in source www.bleacherreport.com