It was hard looking at last weekend and not to think of it as being possibly a defining moment in the Premier League season.

League leaders Leicester City dropped two points at home to West Ham United.

In that game Foxes star striker Jamie Vardy saw red after he appeared to dive in the opposition box. That means the England international will miss Leicester’s next fixture. The forwards failure to keep his emotions under control after seeing Jon Moss brandish the red card could see Vardy out for another game as the FA charged him yesterday with improper conduct.

Missing the English striker, even for just one game, will be a huge blow for Foxes boss Claudio Ranieri and his side. Vardy has contributed to his clubs rise to the top by finding the net twenty-two times in the league and he’s also created six assists. He’s the type of striker that defenders hate as he is constantly chasing down lost causes and not giving the opposition a minutes peace.

Earlier in the month Jamie Vardy, along with equally impressive team-mates N’Golo Kante and Riyad Mahrez, was short-listed for the PFA’s Player of the Year award.

So as you can imagine a lot of footballing pundits are now looking on and wondering if Leicester City can keep cool and carry on and win the Premier League title. Many fantasy premier league managers will be worried how the suspension will affect their team.

The pressure on the Foxes was significantly increased last night when closest challengers Tottenham Hotspur dismantled Stoke City in the West Midlands.

No other team in the top five has managed to pick up a win at the Britannia Stadium this season but Spurs managed to blow away their opponents with a lethal display that was acknowledged in the 4-0 scoreline.

It’s fair to say that Tottenham are firing on all cylinders at the moment and are waiting to try and heap even more pressure on to the league leaders.

In Harry Kane they too have a prolific English marksmen as he leads the scoring charts with his twenty-four goals. Dele Alli has impressed everyone with his debut season in England’s top flight. While Danish creative star Christian Eriksen is currently a magician playing under the radar, who is capable of unlocking the meanest of defences.

Talking of mean defences, Spurs have a strong back-four and a world class goalkeeper between the sticks. So they are strong in every department.

So you can see why Tottenham Hotspur fans are starting to really believe that they might just snatch the title away form Leicester City’s clutches in May.

Now we are down to the final four games of the season for both sides and the gap is now down to five points.

That means the Foxes need to drop points in two of their final games of the season and for Tottenham not to slip up but to take advantage with victories of their own.

Leicester’s run in always looked more favourable to the other but now with four games remaining it suddenly doesn’t seem to be quite as easy as first thought.

First up they have Swansea at home on Sunday. That shouldn’t be too bad and if you could hand pick a fixture for Vardy to miss, it would probably be that one. The Swans have had a disappointing season and are in the bottom half of the table with only pride to play for. They’ve also just lost 3-0 to lowly Newcastle Utd. But beware they have picked up big wins over Arsenal and Chelsea in recent months.

After Swansea, Leicester travel to Manchester United. Now United may still be in the hunt for a top four finish so they won’t just lie down to their opponents just to help create a fairytale. Under Louis van Gaal, Man Utd have been unpredictable to say the least. But he has managed to get his players up for some of the bigger games.

In the penultimate game the Foxes host Everton at the King Power Stadium. Again, like Man United, Everton have been extremely erratic. But like United, the Toffees have players in their team capable of damaging Leicester City’s title chances. No team in the Premier League have drawn more games than Everton this term.

Finally City travel to London to take on last seasons champions Chelsea. Now we all know about Chelsea’s problems during this campaign, they’ve been so bad that the board had no option but to sack club legend Jose Mourinho. But veteran gaffer Guus Hiddink has stabilised the club and they look harder to beat (although even the wheels of Hiddink’s bus seems to be coming off). So could the former champions make one last stand?

Then we look at Tottenham’s remaining fixtures and they look slightly better, slightly!

First up is West Brom on Monday night. The Baggies haven’t secured a win in their last four attempts. In fact they’ve lost three of those fixtures. Now I doubt a Tony Pulis side will play in their sunglasses and sandals but it does look as thought a few of the WBA players have at least an eye on their passports. Can they rise to the challenge and keep Kane and co quiet at White Hart Lane? That’s a big ask!

A week later they play Chelsea. The only point I’ll add to the above about Chelsea is that they team might take some pleasure in stopping city rivals Spurs from taking their title.

On Sunday the eighth of May Spurs host Southampton. Again they’ll be facing a harden outfit that are well equipped to shatter their title dreams. It could be quite ironic that Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino’s side slip up against his former employers.

On the final day of the season Tottenham travel up to face Newcastle Utd. That could be the decider and not just the title decider. The Toon’s 3-0 win over Swansea last weekend gave Rafa Benitez men a glimmer of hope that they can get out of trouble and stave off relegation. Can you imagine the atmosphere if Spurs are there to win the championship and Newcastle are still fighting for their Premier League status?

See the reality is that either or even both sides slip up once or twice as the heat on them intensifies. Neither club have been in this position before in the Premier League era. It could be a case of waiting to see who blinks first loses.

Even as the title race hits the last stretch, it’s still tough to call the eventual winners.

It’s easy to write off Leicester City, hell I stated my belief that they’d be relegation fodder at the start of the campaign (how wrong was I?). But throughout this term they have defied the odds and managed to grind out the right results. The squad have stuck together and fought like, well like champions! Plus when called upon their star players have always shown up, which is why the Vardy suspension could be a crucial point.

Then you have Tottenham, the team that have loads of momentum and a squad that seems to be getting stronger by each minute they play together.

The only thing I know is that when its all said and done this season has baffled me no end and the eventual winners will deserve the crown!

Posted on April 19th, 2016 by scott
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