LAGOS, Nigeria (VOICE OF NAIJA)-Leicester is now in danger of being demoted from the top division due to a terrible season after Premier League championship victory seven years ago.
The Foxes, who drew 0-0 with Newcastle on Monday, can only stay up if they defeat West Ham this weekend on the final day of the season and fourth-place Everton loses at home to Bournemouth.
Leicester didn’t get a shot off until stoppage time against Newcastle, thanks to Dean Smith’s safety-first strategy, but they managed to keep their first league-wide clean sheet since November.
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It is a far cry from the euphoric days of 2016, when Claudio Ranieri produced a legendary fairytale victory after Leicester nearly averted relegation the year before.
Despite his extraordinary success, the Italian did not remain long at the King Power Stadium, but Brendan Rodgers’ appointment as manager in 2019 gave the Thai-owned team new life.
Two years in a row, they placed fifth in the Premier League, narrowly missing out on qualifying for the Champions League, and in 2021, they became the first team to win the FA Cup.
Even the previous season, the team finished a comfortable seventh and advanced to the Europa Conference League semifinals.
However, Leicester’s season started to go apart as they allowed a 2-0 lead to slip and drew 2-2 with Brentford in their opening match.
They dropped six straight league games, which set off a horror show. Despite periodic mini-revivals, they have been unable to escape danger.
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Despite having the most goals scored (49) of any team in the bottom half of the standings, Leicester has paid a heavy price for their defensive shortcomings.
After his team’s defensively-focused performance against Newcastle, Smith, who was named interim manager after Rodgers resigned by mutual consent in April, was unrepentant.
“We haven’t kept a clean sheet for too long and the reason we are where we are is because of that in my opinion,” he said.
The former Aston Villa boss added: “If it’s too little, too late, who knows? But we’ve taken it to Sunday now.”
