Leicester win the Premier League: Title-winners are worthy champions and don't let anyone tell you otherwise

The demise of the Premier League's established giants should not take anything away from the deserving Premier League champions

Wes Morgan celebrates scoring the equaliser for Leicester against Manchester United (Getty)

When Tiger Woods first disappeared off the golfing radar back in 2009, it was suggested at the time that all those major championships won during his absence from the game should be accompanied by an asterisk.

Tiger was so far ahead of the field that, clearly, anything won without him competing would not carry the same kudos until normal service was resumed and he was back to claim his rightful place at the summit of the game, so the asterisk would be a handy reminder of the diminished value of the achievement.

It never happened, of course. Every tournament won with Tiger licking his wounds elsewhere was just as hard-earned as any before, during or after his period of dominance and life went on.

But the fact remained that, for a while at least, every major champion was forced to deal with the ‘what if Tiger had been around’ question.

Leicester City have already been similarly patronised on their journey to the most remarkable league championship success in English football history, an achievement confirmed with Tottenham’s failure to claim victory against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Monday evening.

Claudio Ranieri’s team have profited from a perfect storm – a freak set of circumstances that has seen Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal all either endure their worst season in recent years or repeatedly fail to grasp the opportunity in front of them.

In any other season, one of the big beasts would have strolled to the title and Leicester would have been a footnote of history, like third-placed Norwich City in 1992-93 or Kevin Keegan’s Newcastle United’s three years later.

That is the theory anyway, one put forward by many within the game as well as those who have never kicked a ball professionally.

Yet the reality is anything but and there will be no need for an asterisk to accompany Leicester’s title triumph.

Leicester never looked back, just forwards, and they only saw the finish line

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Ranieri and his players have dominated the season, overcome every hurdle and challenge in their path and will now deservedly claim the Premier League trophy and their place among the top seeds in next season’s Champions League.

Let’s look at the facts.

Leicester have suffered just three league defeats all season – twice against Arsenal and against Liverpool at Anfield – and have beaten Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool and Manchester City.

They have been in the top two ever since late-November and have not been shifted from top spot since claiming a 1-0 victory against Spurs at White Hart Lane on 13 January.

So much for the pressures and strains of leading from the front and insomnia-inducing inclination to look over their shoulder at the chasing pack.

Leicester never looked back, just forwards, and they only saw the finish line.

Newcastle cracked in 1996, Liverpool stumbled and fell in 2014 and even Sir Alex Ferguson’s United, so accustomed to getting the job done, threw away an eight-point lead with six games to go in 2012 to hand the title to City.

So Leicester’s mental strength should not be dismissed on the basis that they were never sufficiently challenged.

The challenge was there, every week, but they dealt with it and ground out the results and kept the clean sheets – five in succession during March and April which hammered out the message that Ranieri’s men would not falter.

But within the team success, there have also been the individual achievements.

The mercurial Riyad Mahrez being voted as PFA Player of the Year by his peers after seventeen goals in 35 league games and Jamie Vardy, on Monday crowned the Football Writers’ Footballer of the Year, erasing Ruud van Nistelrooy from the record books by scoring in eleven consecutive league games during the first half of this season.

Ranieri’s flair players and match-winners have stood up to the plate and delivered but so have those who initially went under the radar and are now rightly receiving credit.

Kasper Schmeichel has proven as important to Leicester as his father was to United (Getty) (2016 Getty Images)

In goal, Kasper Schmeichel has proven to be as important to Leicester as his father Peter was to United in the early-1990s.

The central defensive axis of Wes Morgan and Robert Huth has given Leicester solidity and reliability, while Danny Drinkwater and N’Golo Kante have provided tenacity and more in front of them in midfield.

Marc Albrighton and Danny Simpson, cast aside by supposedly more-glamorous Premier League clubs, have enjoyed the season of their lives, while Shinji Okazaki and Leonardo Ulloa have quietly delivered performances and goals at crucial moments.

Nobody has fallen short and while Leicester may lack the style, grace and adventure of previous title winners such as Arsenal’s Invincibles or United’s Treble winners, they have ended the campaign as worthy champions and could yet win the title by a healthy margin.

Vardy scored in 11 consecutive Premier League games to break Van Nistlerooy's record (Getty) (Getty Images)

Ranieri will relish his players being afforded a guard of honour at Stamford Bridge on the final day of the season – he may even receive an acknowledgement from Roman Abramovich, the man who sacked him as Chelsea manager in 2004 – but the Italian is too gracious to milk that particular moment.

As for the rest, the so-called superpowers who have been left trailing in Leicester’s wake, perhaps they are the ones who should end the 2015-16 with the asterisk alongside their name.

It can offer a permanent reminder of how the title can be won, without money, but with smart recruitment, astute management and a group of players hungry enough to drag themselves over the line.

Too many of the established clubs have forgotten those basics, but Leicester ticked every box and they are as worthy as champions before them.