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Tuesday 3 May 2016

Fairy tale Leicester City are Champions: Facts & figures behind Premier League title win

Hello Dassyb blog readers and football fans. The remarkable and impossible has happenef. Leicester city are EPL champions.  From 5,000-1 outsiders to champions with two matches to spare - the Leicester City story is surely the most remarkable in Premier League history.
Here, we take a look at how they defied the odds in a transformation that took them from relegation favourites to title winners.


What a difference a year makes

4-3 defeat at Tottenham on 21 March 2015 was Leicester's seventh Premier League game without a victory and left them seven points from safety with nine games remaining.
A late Andy King winner in a 2-1 victory over West Ham kickstarted their revival - and they have not looked back since.
2014-15: DLDWWLDLLLLDLLLLLLWDWLLLLDLDLWWWWLWWDW
2015-16: WWDDWDLWDWWWWDWWWLDDWDWWWLWDWWWWWDWD--


How did they do it?

At the start of this season the Foxes picked up where they left off in May, a 4-2 opening-day win over Sunderland taking them to the top of the table.
They stayed there for two weeks before consecutive draws against Tottenham and Bournemouth saw them slip to third. That was supposed to be the start of their slide down the table, but it never happened.
In fact, Leicester did not drop below sixth place all season and, after moving to the top again on 11 January courtesy of a 1-0 win at title rivals Tottenham, they would not relinquish that position for the rest of the season.
Their form would enable them to clinch the title with two games to spare. But even if they win their remaining matches, they will have won the title with fewer points than any of the previous five winners.
2011-12 Man City, 89 points
2012-13 Man Utd, 89 points
2013-14 Man City, 86 points
2014-15 Chelsea, 87 points
2015-16 Leicester 77 points
Their success, of course, has owed much to striker Jamie Vardy and PFA Player of the Year Riyad Mahrez, who proved themselves a deadly combination, particularly when it comes to scoring goals.
Goals scored
Jamie Vardy: 22
Riyad Mahrez: 17
Leonardo Ulloa: 6
Shinji Okazaki: 5
Top assists
Riyad Mahrez: 11
Danny Drinkwater: 7
Jamie Vardy: 6
Marc Albrighton: 6
Top appearances
Marc Albrighton: 36
Wes Morgan: 36
Kasper Schmeichel: 36
Ngolo Kante: 35
Riyad Mahrez: 35
Jamie Vardy: 34


It also helped that manager Claudio Ranieri - previously nicknamed "the Tinkerman" for his methods during his time at Chelsea - regularly named the same starting XI. In fact, Leicester used fewer players than any other team.
Manchester United: 33 players used
Liverpool: 33
Newcastle United:30
Everton: 30
Crystal Palace: 29
Aston Villa: 28
Bournemouth: 28
Norwich City: 28
Sunderland: 28
West Ham United: 28
Stoke City: 27
Chelsea: 26
Southampton: 26
Swansea City: 26
West Bromwich Albion: 26
Arsenal: 25
Manchester City: 25
Watford: 25
Tottenham Hotspur: 24
Leicester City: 23

Can money buy success? Not any more

It is 21 years since any team other than Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City or Manchester United won the top-flight title.
And in an era of ever-increasing television revenue, where the latest deal is worth £5.136bn, it was considered unthinkable that any team could break the dominance of the traditional elite clubs.
Yet Leicester have defied financial logic.
Cost of squad
Man City £415m
Man Utd £395m
Chelsea £280m
Liverpool £260m
Arsenal £231m
Tottenham £159m
Newcastle £145m
Southampton £139m
Everton £112m
Sunderland£ 112m
West Ham £106m
Aston Villa £93m
Stoke £73m
Crystal Palace £72m
Leicester £63m
West Brom £62m
Swansea £56m
Watford £53m
Norwich £55m
Bournemouth £43m
Source: CIES Football Observatory and BBC Sport


Give them a pay rise!

The most recent published figures for Premier League wages come from the 2015 Annual Review of Football Finance, published by Deloitte's Sports Business Group. They relate to the 2013-14 season, when Leicester (as well as Watford and Bournemouth) were Championship clubs, but the figures below give a sense of the huge disparity in budgets between Leicester and the Premier League's biggest payers.
Man Utd £220m
Man City £205m
Chelsea £191m
Arsenal £166m
Liverpool £144m
Tottenham £105m
Newcastle £78m
Sunderland £70m
Aston Villa £69m
Everton £69m
West Brom £65m
West Ham £64m
Swansea £63m
Southampton £63m
Stoke £61m
Norwich £54m
Palace £46m
Leicester £36m
Bournemouth £17m
Watford £12m
Leicester's wage bill has since risen from £36m to £57m, but that it is still only around a quarter of Manchester United's from two seasons ago.

Joining Europe's elite

If logic dictates that Leicester should have had little chance competing with the Premier League's biggest clubs, what hope do they have when they face the best Europe has to offer in next season's Champions League?
The Foxes' statistics are a world away from those of two teams who have already clinched two of Europe's major titles, Juventus and Paris St-Germain, and another on the brink of securing theirs, Bayern Munich.
Leicester
Goals: 64
Passes: 12586
Points: 77
Champions: 1 time
Cost of squad: £82m
Record signing: Andrej Kramric: £9m
Bayern
Goals: 75
Passes: 23671
Points: 82
Champions: 25 times
Cost of squad: £337m
Record signing: Javi Martinez: £32m
PSG
Goals: 93
Passes: 25049
Points: 89
Champions: 6 times
Cost of squad: £525m
Record signing: Edinson Cavani £55m
Juventus
Goals: 69
Passes: 18627
Points: 88
Champions: 32 times
Cost of squad: £301m
Record signing: Gianluigi Buffon: £32.6m

Most recent first-time league winners

In winning the Premier League, Leicester became the first first-time winners of England's top-flight title since Nottingham Forest achieved the feat under Brian Clough in 1978.
Europe's other major leagues have all had more recent first-time winners, though it is 25 years since a previously title-less team enjoyed success in Italy.
France - Montpellier, 2012
Germany - Wolfsburg, 2001
Italy - Sampdoria, 1991
Scotland - Dundee United, 1983
Spain - Deportivo La Coruna, 2000

Source: bbc.com/sports/football

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