Leicester City were the scourge of bookmakers across the world in 2015/16 when they defied odds of 5,000/1 to beat Arsenal, Tottenham and Man City to the Premiership title. They have since been written off as one-season wonders as they have failed to come close to hitting such heights.
Last season they battled relegation for the majority of the campaign and only beat the drop after sacking title-winning manager Claudio Ranieri. It was a similar story at the beginning of this season, but they have been thoroughly rejuvenated since replacing Craig Shakespeare with Claude Puel. A run of four consecutive wins has catapulted them up to eighth in the table, and they look a great bet to make it five in a row when they host Crystal Palace on Saturday.
The Foxes’ last victory was a symbolic one. Puel did well at Southampton last season, guiding them to the EFL Cup final and an eighth-place finish, but he was ruthlessly axed in the summer. He returned to St Mary’s on Saturday with a point to prove, and he proved it emphatically. Leicester played Southampton off the park and ended up winning 4-1. They tore through the Saints’ backline time after time and the winning margin could have been greater. Leicester fans gleefully taunted the Southampton hierarchy throughout, and Puel returned to the Midlands triumphant.
Back in October, we said Leicester had the players to turn their season around and that they looked a good bet at 8/1 to finish seventh this season (Premiership betting without the Big Six). Now they are just 6/5 with Ladbrokes and Coral to win it w/o Big Six. They just needed the right manager to unlock their potential. In Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy, Demarai Gray and Mark Albrighton, Leicester have an outrageously talented attack, full of pace, trickery, invention and dynamism. In Wes Morgan, Harry Maguire, Wilfred Ndidi and Kasper Schmeichel, they have an extremely strong spine. With the talent in this squad, they should be nailed on to finish in the top seven.
Crystal Palace also needed the right manager to unlock their potential, and have greatly improved since bringing in Roy Hodgson. He has made them very difficult to play against and the Eagles have not lost in six games. That has seen them climb up to 18th in the table and they are now just 8/15 to stay up. However, they have not faced a side as good as Leicester for a long while. Palace are still slow and cumbersome at the back and they will struggle to cope with the pace of Vardy and Gray and the trickery of Mahrez at the King Power on Saturday.
BMR’s green-listed bookmakers are offering odds of 10/11 on Leicester to win this game and that looks a really good bet. This is a peculiar time of year as the schedule is packed, players are tired and managers start tinkering with their teams, so you get a few dodgy results. But Leicester keep winning and it might be worth riding that train for a while. The Foxes made a lot of people a lot of money in 2015/16, not just on the outrights, but because they were constantly underestimated in match betting throughout the campaign. They could be in line to become the punters’ darlings once again as Puel has them back to their brilliant best. The 6/5 on Leicester w/o Big Six still looks a really good bet. The only team that looks like challenging them is Everton – Burnley will surely fall away eventually, and Southampton have won just four games all season – and Leicester have a far better starting 11 than the Toffees.
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