By Samuel A. April 26, 2024
Leicester City have been promoted to the Premier League after Leeds United were thumped by Queens Park Rangers on friday night. The 4-0 defeat at QPR means Leeds are now four points behind Championship leaders Leicester with only one game left. The Foxes are on track to amass 100 points on their way back to the top flight following their relegation last season. Leicester can now claim the Championship title on Monday with victory at Preston if third placed Ipswich fail to beat Hull City on Saturday.
The Foxes were flying in their campaign to return to the Premier League earlier this season but, after a serious loss of form late on in the season, they have recovered to vault over the finishing line. Tuesday’s 5-0 hammering of Southampton made it back to back wins for a side that had looked to be losing focus and their place in automatic promotion spots.
In mid-February, the title and rise back to the top flight seemed inevitable – Leicester were 12 points clear at the summit and had a 14 point cushion to third spot. The Foxes, some said, were aboard the ‘Marescalator’ – an upwardly mobile, smooth-passing, possession-hungry machine operated by their Italian boss Enzo Maresca, who was taking Leicester only one way: straight up, seized up. Four losses and just one win from six matches, including a dramatic defeat by Leeds who were 17 points adrift of Leicester at the start of January, turned it into a four way battle for a top two finish, with Leeds, Ipswich and Southampton the other contenders.
Leicester were replaced by Leeds before Ipswich shot ahead of them both, forcing Leicester out of the automatic promotion spots by the end of March.
But just as Leicester faltered, those around them also dropped crucial points, allowing the Foxes a chance to regroup and seal their top-flight return.
What awaits them in the Premier League, however, remains uncertain.
The club are due to face an independent commission after they were charged by the Premier League for alleged breaches of profit and sustainability rules (PSR) relating to their last three years in the top flight.
Tonight, a triumphant return is celebrated but, if found guilty of financial breaches, they could begin next season with a points penalty.
Just seven years earlier they had won an almost unfathomable Premier League title under Claudio Ranieri, and in 2021 they lifted the FA Cup for the first and only time in their history.
It all started with promotion as Championship title winners in 2013-14, and now the decade has been bookended with another promotion. Jamie Vardy was there 10 years ago as an enormously gifted livewire, and now as a 37-year-old former England striker he has helped fire them back to the top flight with 18 goals in all competitions.
