Leicester City have won the Premier League title after Tottenham Hotspur failed to beat Chelsea on Monday night.
The Foxes become the first club since Nottingham Forest in 1977-78 to win the English top-flight league title for the first time, having only once before — in 1928-29 — finished as runners-up.
After Leicester drew 1-1 with Manchester United at the weekend, Tottenham were left needing to beat the Blues to keep the title race alive, but Claudio Ranieri’s men are now an unassailable seven points clear of their rivals with two games left to play after the 2-2 draw at Stamford Bridge.
Midfielder Riyad Mahrez and striker Jamie Vardy had already picked up the PFA’s Footballer of the Year and Football Writers’ Association awards. It is the first time that two players from the same club have claimed both awards in the same season since Everton’s Neville Southall and Peter Reid in 1985.
Leicester City. Champions of England. pic.twitter.com/WRwfysTn2N
— Leicester City (@LCFC) May 2, 2016
It marks an incredible rise for the club who were facing relegation last season — and spent 140 days from November 2014 to April 2015 at the bottom of the Premier League table — before a run of seven wins in their last nine games under Nigel Pearson kept them up. They eventually finished in 14th place.
Pearson was sacked in the summer and replaced by Ranieri in July, while the club spent less than £30 million on their squad since last summer, with their entire squad costing just £54.4m.
After their troubles last season, Leicester were 5,000-1 to win the title in 2015-16, with the highest cashout being £72,000 settled on a £50 bet in March, according to Ladbrokes.
