Leicester City
In recent weeks, it’s seemed that the four automatic promotion contenders have watched on as Sheffield United, Burnley and Luton Town have struggled since returning to the Premier League and thought: ‘Balls to that, we’ll stay in the Championship.’
Intent on one-upping each other with promotion setbacks coming with increasing regularity, Leicester City, Ipswich Town, Leeds United and Southampton have been stumbling towards the finish line.
The top four have formed a mini-league this season as they have comfortably been stronger than the rest in the Championship but all have shown signs of bottling it as they have slipped up against inferior opposition.
As good as Ipswich, Leeds and Southampton have *mostly* been, Leicester are this season’s outstanding team in the Championship.
The Foxes have built a brilliant squad for this level, albeit via breaking profit and sustainability rules. For a while, they looked primed to win the title by amassing a points tally that’s comfortably into three figures.
But the rigours of the Championship are enough to test even the best of teams and Leicester, who had been a winning machine in the early months of the season, had got into the habit of losing and were suddenly at risk of missing out on automatic promotion after being 12 points clear at the top in February.
Luckily for Leicester, the sides around them have hardly been firing themselves so the damage caused by their recent slump has been limited and Enzo Maresca’s side got back on track in the early kick-off on Saturday.
At a time of the season when results are more important than performances, Leicester survived some nervy moments to beat fifth-placed West Brom 2-1 at the King Power Stadium to return to the top of the table.
