Leicester City missed out on a chance to go top of the table as they had to settle for a goalless draw against title contenders Manchester City.
At the halfway point of the season, the title doesn’t seem to have any sure fire favorites with Chelsea down in the bottom half of the table and the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City showing signs of inconsistency on one or two occasions.
Claudio Ranieri’s men wore their hearts on their sleeves once again as they played out a goalless draw with Manchester City.
The game was far from everything but a drab affair as chances were coming thick and fast for both sides but honestly, it was not to be anyone’s day.
Today’s result keeps Leicester’s bleak title ambitions alive as their hyper-jump to Premier League stardom is set to go on a while longer.
But for the Citizens, their title challenge is slowly losing pace, and it won’t be long before speculation of Pep Guardiola’s imminent arrival resumes.
Both sides will rue the chances missed today, but Manchester City more than Leicester – Leicester City seems to have hit a rocky path recently, and they’ll know that this draw is a result that they can build on.
This Premier League season has been dubbed bonkers by many, which is an understatement considering how many changes we’ve seen in both halves of the table this season.
Claudio Ranieri remains astonished by Leicester’s current league position as only Arsenal stands between the Foxes and the top spot at the moment, but given the unbalanced nature of the League this season a lot could change in the coming weeks with the likes of Spurs mounting a possible title challenge.
Ranieri has insisted on many occasions that Leicester are not under any pressure. “Every match is difficult for us,” he said. “This league is very crazy! Nobody wants to win the league. It’s very strange. We’re the basement, and the other teams are a villa with a swimming pool. It’s not easy for us, but we want to fight with everybody.
“It’s a miracle what we’re doing. I’d love this to continue, but it’s not easy. I’d like my players to continue to fight. It’s fantastic. I can only say well done to our players, and our fans are unbelievable, they support us and they push us.”
Leicester expressed themselves a bit more in the final quarter of the game as they amped up the pace at which they got the ball up the pitch.
Leicester reverted to their usual 4-4-2 formation in the closing stages of the game as they tried to knick something. Quite expectedly, Riyad Mahrez dazzled the City defenders with skill on the ball, and he created a couple of excellent chances for Leicester although it was a case of the finish not being as good as the pass on this occasion.
Vardy’s best Chance of the game came towards the end of the first half where he got himself in a good position for a trademark Jamie Vardy strike, but he hit the ball with too much power sending it into the stands.
Surely this performance shows that Leicester have begun to understand the complexity of their Premier League position – they are now referred to as genuine title contenders and the draw against City proves they know how to get a result when it matters.
It remains to be seen if Leicester can go all the way in may, but if they do win the Premier League it will cap off what is sure to be the most unpredictable season in history and amongst other things, it would be Claudio Ranieri’s first League title.
