Last year, Leicester City scripted one of the most unpredicatable campaigns in the history of sport by winning the English Premier League. Nobody in their right minds would have given them a chance (the odds were 5000/1) but Claudio Ranieri’s men kept fighting and kept believing in their abilities. People thought they would trip and fall after leading the table for the majority of the season, but the downward slide never came and they defeated high spending teams like Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City to emerge as champions of English football.

At the start of this season, you wouldn’t have expected them to retain their title, but you wouldn’t have expected them to collapse so badly either. One thing that they’ve been missing this season is contributions from Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez who had scored 24 and 17 goals respectively last season. This season though, their game is lacking the bite and Leicester City is bleeding dry because of it.

Such is the state of affairs that their own goalkeeper, Peter Schmeichel went on record saying that they need to pull up their socks or risk relegation. A week after that comment, Leicester City still lost.

Some fans are asking for the manager to be sacked, but the club has shown its support to the man who masterminded an improbable victory. We don’t know the reasons for such a sharp downfall – are the players blaming each other, are they just tired after giving it their all last season, does the tag of champions make other teams play better against them or have they simply been complacent.

We hope for their sake, Leicester City manage to avoid relegation this season. Or else, their story will be remembered for all the wrong reasons. They etched themselves in history for the right reasons last season, and they will etch themselves for embarrassing reasons this season if they don’t manage to find the magic formula that made them champions.

Image courtesy: Leicester City FC’s Facebook page