Remember Cinderella champs Leicester City? They're fighting relegation now
The champs could be out of the Premier League come next season
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2 min read
It's quite hard to fathom how a team, less than a year removed from winning the Premier League, could be in such a precarious situation. But that's where Leicester City finds itself in February in the Premier League.
The Foxes took the soccer world by storm with arguably the most improbable title run in European soccer history last year. Now, just one point above the relegation zone, if they don't start getting results in the league, they could find themselves playing in the second division (The Championship) next season.
Why such a drop?
Soccer's Cinderella has fallen on some tough times, but really of no fault of their own. Because the team won the prestigious Premier League, it qualified for the UEFA Champions League, which has meant six more matches already and two to come in the Round of 16 against Sevilla.
Having won the league last year, the focus this year has been the UCL for the club's first ever campaign in the competition, which saw the team dominate a weak Group G to finish first and advance.
With a lack of depth to compete in both competitions, focusing on delivering in UCL has seen the team stumble in the Premier League. What was a high-scoring squad is averaging just a goal per game after averaging almost two goals per game last season.
Jamie Vardy had 24 goals last season. This season, Leicester has 24 goals as an entire team.
After losing just three league matches last season, Leicester lost its 13th at home to Manchester United, 3-0, on Sunday with 14 games still to play.
Depth and focusing on UCL has hurt this team's league campaign.
Current situation
Leicester sits in 16th place. For those unaware with promotion and relegation, the bottom three go down (18th, 19th and 20th). Hull City sits at 18th just one point behind Leicester.
A year after winning the Premier League, Leicester City is fighting to avoid relegation. pic.twitter.com/i9isVtl48A
— Roger Gonzalez (@RGonzalezCBS) February 5, 2017
The reality is, the Foxes are in danger. A poor run of form has seen Leicester win one of its last eight in the league and just five of 24 matches.
After winning 60 percent of its matches to win the league last season, Leicester has won just 20 percent of matches this season.
The only good news is, Leicester isn't alone in the relegation battle. There are six clubs (Middlesbrough, Leicester, Swansea, Hull, Crystal Palace and Sunderland) that are all fighting to stay up. The competition is going to be fierce, and the battle to stay up may go down to Matchday 38 -- the final day of the season. The fact that there are at least six teams in a similar situation means Leicester will have numerous chances to separate themselves from those other contenders when playing them, with plenty of them coming up.
Leicester plays Swansea next week and Hull City in three weeks.
FT: Leicester City 0-3 Manchester United.#LeiMnupic.twitter.com/vKw1kiBmtS
— Leicester City (@LCFC) February 5, 2017
Staring relegation straight in the eyes
Last year Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri said 40 points was the goal to save the team from relegation. And they went on to earn 81 to win it all. Forty is a safe spot, and Claudio is right. You secure that many points and you feel good about your chances of staying up. Even 38 points is probably enough.
However, this season, the Foxes are on pace for 33. No team has ever recorded 33 points in the history of the Premier League and survived relegation.
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