It was a cool Monday night in Stamford Bridge. Millions of fans all over the world awaited excitedly. Tottenham Hotspur had to win their game or sports fans were going to experience one of the greatest sporting shocks ever. "Eden Hazard! Its tied now! Chelsea 2 Tottenham 2, he won the title last year for Chelsea and now he could have potentially done it for Leicester City!" yelled commentator Martin Tyler. When the full time whistle blew the whole world witnessed a scene that may never be seen again.
It was April of 2015. Leicester City had just lost its ninth game in a row and was on the verge of dropping out of the top division, known as the Barclays Premier League, sitting in dead last place. It was one of the favorites to go down especially since it was one of the teams that had come up from the second division just last year and was considered by many pundits as one of the weaker teams in the league. By the second of May, Leicester had just won its fifth game out of six and secured one of the biggest escapes the Premier League has ever witnessed. By the end of the season Leicester finished in a comfortable 15th place.
In July of 2015, a shocking report came out that Nigel Pearson, then manager of Leicester City had been fired, despite the great escape. The recently fired Greece manager, Claudio Ranieri, who had just been embarrassed by the Faroe Islands,a island who had a population of 50,000 people, with the same Greece team that were in the quarterfinals of the World Cup the year before. Leicester City was labeled as a favorite to drop out of the division and were given 5000-1 odds by bookmakers to win the Premier League. ESPN.
However, the 2015-16 season has started perfectly for Leicester with a 4-2 win against Sunderland. It was a very comfortable game, and, throughout the next few weeks, they were cruising going unbeaten in their next six games sitting pretty at the top of the table. On September 26, 2015, Leicester faced Arsenal in a first vs second battle and Arsenal ended up humiliating Leicester 5-2 and take top spot from them. After the game, Claudio Ranieri said he would expected a response from the team in the next game which the team delivered, moving onto another unbeaten run until December. Finally, people began to believe that there may be a chance that it could happen.
February 6, 2016, Leicester City braced itself against Manchester City. Manchester City had the world's most expensive team costing $292 million and it was facing a Leicester team whose squad costed just $18 million dollars. Leicester City stunned Manchester City, beating them 3-1 in their own backyard and leading the league by five points. The league leaders kept picking up points in March and April, by then their lead was up to 7 points which guaranteed a finish in first or second for this season. The Premier League title race became a two horse race between Leicester and Tottenham Hotspur.
On the first of May 2016, Leicester City played Manchester United. A win or loss the next day would mean that Leicester City would win the title with three games to go. Leicester City managed to pick up a 1-1 draw against Manchester United, meaning the pressure was put on Tottenham to win the next day. Tottenham was playing the defending title holders, Chelsea. It would not be an easy game until Tottenham went 2-0 at halftime. Most fans thought that the party would be delayed until next week until in the 82nd minute when Chelsea got the tying goal. The audience in the London Stadium broke into a roar, and the city of Leichester went wild. When the final whistle blew, history was made: he greatest shock in Premier League history had occurred.
Leicester City proved to the Premier League that money does not win everything,. Rather it is teamwork and focus that can pull off the unexpected wins. The team also proved to the world that anything is possible if you put in your heart as it did, beating 5000-1 odds. Bookmakers lost over $15 million dollars worth of bets and left a story that is almost certainly never to be repeated ever again.
