Jess Lee
After relegation from the Premier League last season, Leicester City aims to bounce back with automatic promotion from the Championship.
A four-way battle between Ipswich, Leicester, Leeds and Southampton will see a tight finish to the season. Each team is set to end on over 90 points. No side has managed this number of points and has not been promoted before.
Leicester remained top most of the season, yet a recent stutter in form sees a four-point gap to second place.
WHO IS LEICESTER CITY?
Founded in 1884 as Leicester Fosse FC, the ‘Foxes’ – named after their association with the county’s fox hunting – have made waves in English Football.
A 140-year history has seen the side decorated in silverware, collecting League cups, FA Cups and a Premier League trophy.
2016 saw captain Wes Morgan’s side crowned champions of the English League after a dominating season.
Their success continued in 2021 when Leicester beat Chelsea 1-0 to secure the FA Cup. They paraded the trophy back home in front of 8000 fans.
Leicester City. Champions of England. pic.twitter.com/WRwfysTn2N
— Leicester City (@LCFC) May 2, 2016
However, the Foxes were relegated from the top-flight division last year after winning just nine out of 38 League Games. Despite a 2-1 win against West Ham on the final day of the season, they could not avoid the drop.
Everton had secured three points at Bournemouth to keep themselves ahead.
The summer transfer window saw 16 players depart from the club, including fan-favourites James Maddison to Tottenham and Harvey Barnes to Champions League-chasing Newcastle.
A rebuild was needed as they faced a new challenge in the Championship, appointing treble-winning Manchester City coach, Enzo Maresca, on a three-year deal as manager.
FOXES FREAK OUT WITH POOR FORM
Southampton piled on the pressure after winning 3-0 against Preston at St. Mary’s mid-week.
To keep their title hopes alive, the Foxes must stay ahead, having claimed just seven points from their last six matches.
A combination of missed chances and poor finishing in front of goal has called for a switch-up in the starting XI.
Striker Patson Daka has gone two months without a goal for Leicester. Yet, manager Enzo Maresca remains faithful to his player: “The only way to show Pats my trust and confidence is to give him minutes. [At Plymouth] I showed him again. He missed chances. But we need all of our players until the end to reach our target.”
After being questioned about the possible start of Kelechi Iheanacho or Tom Cannon, Maresca commented: “We need to review and analyse the situation.”
INJURY STRUGGLES
https://twitter.com/FosseHub/status/1768638039260020970
Recent injury blows, including to top scorer Jamie Vardy, have forced Leicester to start alternative players.
Maresca opted to rely on players’ match fitness and physicality to compensate for the lack of player availability as the season fizzles out.
The coaching staff remained doubtful about Ricardo Pereira’s availability for Saturday’s game against West Brom, expressing concern about the right-back’s stamina following a month-long injury. Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall was also in question after falling ill in the lead-up to the game.
However, none of the three players were officially ruled out of participating.
SEEING OUT THE SEASON
Dewsbury-Hall addressed the media earlier in the week about the Foxes’ remaining fixtures: “It’s still in our hands. We know if we win all four, we’re up. At the start of the season, if you would have told us that, I think we would have taken it.
“It’s a scary thought because there are some top teams in this league that might not go up. For the neutral, it must be exciting. For me, I wish it was more comfortable.”
Leicester will play three of the four remaining fixtures at home in the King Power Stadium. This includes title-rival, Southampton, on the 23rd of April.
If Leicester loses, the likelihood of automatic promotion diminishes, despite sitting top of the Championship since October.
British sports analytics company, Opta, still favours The Foxes to win, predicting a 62 per cent chance of them taking the title.
However, if they are pipped to the post, there is an 84 per cent chance of promotion via second place or the play-offs.
FINAL DAY FIASCOS
Leicester will face Blackburn Rovers on the 4th of May, marking their last game of the season.
The promotion battle will come down to the wire and be decided once all fixtures have been played.
Other Title Challenger’s final games:
- Ipswich v Huddersfield @12:30 BST
- Leeds v Southampton @12:30 BST
PLAY-OFFS
The EFL confirmed in March that the play-offs will start on the third of May, ending at Wembley on Sunday 26th May.
Each semi-final will have two legs, followed by the final in London.
The Championship play-off final is dubbed ‘the richest game in football’ as it allows newly promoted teams to splash the cash on fresh players and improve stadiums.
All is to play for in the last month of the 2023/24 season, until the final day.
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Featured image courtesy of JPAG via Flickr. No changes were made to this image. Image license found here.
