11/23/24
May 01, 2016
Leicester City One Step Closer to Immortality: Leicester City drew 1-1 at Man United Sunday, bringing the Foxes to the brink of the Premier League championship. Tottenham must beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Monday to keep their hopes alive, something Spurs hasn't done in 24 straight matches. Bookmakers offered 5,000-to-1 odds before the season on Leicester City winning the title, which will cost them $14 million if it happens. One of the people who made that bet is the actor Tom Hanks, who bet £100 pounds and stands to win £500,000 ($730,000).
Watch the Tom Hanks video. Pretty sure he was joking about putting money on Leicester.
posted by holden at 09:23 AM on May 02, 2016
It's nice to visit your mother. But Claudio will be far removed from the celebration of a lifetime if it happens today. The timing of his trip is a surprise.
A lot of British press has spread that Hanks claim around without calling it a joke, but I can't find a story that confirms it isn't.
This NBC News headline has been on its front page since last night: "Leicester City's Title Dreams Will Have to Wait Another Week." It's not true. If Tottenham fails to win today it's over.
posted by rcade at 10:24 AM on May 02, 2016
I kind of hope Chelsea wins so that Leicester can clinch it while they're on the field.
posted by tron7 at 02:17 PM on May 02, 2016
I hope whoever it was that kidnapped Eden Hazard for seven months wasn't a Spurs fan. If so, they let him out a week too early.
Spurs did win the yellow card battle 9-3 though. And probably should have won that 11-3 with two red cards. They completely lost control as the championship slipped away.
The fight around the tunnel after the final whistle was a nice touch too.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 05:05 PM on May 02, 2016
As a fan of a lower-division English club (Ipswich), Leicester's Premiership win is the kind of dream that you thought died when the Premiership started in 1992. In a country where fans understand their lot in life and are seemingly satisfied with it, Leicester's success is all the more outrageous when you consider they did it with a relatively small squad and a relatively low spend.
And kudos to the culture of English football that "winning the league" is considered the pinnacle of achievement -- more significant than the FA Cup or other elimination-style tournaments. With the league and cup competitions running concurrently and culminating at the same time, Leicester don't have to trot out the weak line that "this is all well and good but what we really want to win is the Cup/Playoffs". They have shown they are the best team over the course of 10 months, playing everyone else home and away -- no fluke, no luck, just success richly deserved
posted by geneparmesan at 05:36 PM on May 02, 2016
As a fan of a lower-division English club (Ipswich)
There are dozens of us!
I'm also delighted for Leicester for that reason and because it means we've still won the title more recently than Spurs.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 05:39 PM on May 02, 2016
posted by grum@work at 07:13 PM on May 02, 2016
I'm also delighted for Leicester for that reason and because it means we've still won the title more recently than Spurs.
Yeah, so have we. But my emotions are tempered with some latent East Midlands rivalry, which won't go away.
Still, I haven't seen a team work as hard as a unit since the Everton teams of the mid-80s. They aren't afraid to get their knees dirty, and aren't afraid of supposedly "better" teams.
posted by owlhouse at 11:00 PM on May 02, 2016
The fight around the tunnel after the final whistle was a nice touch too.
Aw, I was like Ranieri ... I had a doctor's appointment so I didn't see the match! Guess I'll have to stumble upon some videos.
posted by jjzucal at 02:10 AM on May 03, 2016
If you're looking for the nastiness, I would suggest watching the entire match over. There was quite a bit of it. I couldn't believe that game made it to the full 90 with 22 players still on the pitch.
posted by Ricardo at 12:06 PM on May 03, 2016
Aw, I was like Ranieri ... I had a doctor's appointment so I didn't see the match! Guess I'll have to stumble upon some videos.
Dembele will probably get a retroactive suspension, (to join Dele Alli from last week), and Eric Dier should almost certainly have gone for his late tackle that was very worthy of a second yellow card.
Chelsea fans were singing "Leicester! Champions!" and the Spurs players lost control. Pochettino had to run onto the field twice to pull his players out of confrontations, Guus Hiddink got shoved to the ground after the match and there was the usual handbags-at-dawn style fight around the tunnel area immediately after the final whistle.
It was great.
posted by Mr Bismarck at 12:24 PM on May 03, 2016
The Guardian's Fiver column discusses Leicester's "ragbag assortment of cast-offs, journeymen and bargain basement buys" as well as Danny Rose's "apology" after the Spurs' match.
posted by jjzucal at 07:31 PM on May 03, 2016
As expected, there's also a charge of violent conduct against Dembele for his attempted eye-gouge on Diego Costa
posted by Mr Bismarck at 08:49 PM on May 04, 2016
Yet, it Tottenham fail to win, Claudio Ranieri may be the last to know his side's the Premier League champion. Nice to know he still has his priorities in order.