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LEICESTER CITY SHOCKED FANS AND PUNDITS
The 2015/2016 English Premier League season has come and gone with lots of surprises which has proved human reasoning wrong. Bookmakers, football analysts, pundits, critics and fans would have all have said a big NO to the final result at the beginning of the season.
No one gave Leicester City a chance to emerge as champions, not even fans of Leicester City believed that Leicester City would finish at the top of the table let alone finishing top with 10 points clear off the runners-up. As at October 2015 when Leicester were in top four, a lot of fans of Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal, Manchester City to mention a few strongly believed that Leicester would be there temporarily and likely to drop by December.
Manchester City Manager Manuel Pellegrini likened Leicester to Villarreal in Spain, who did everything possible to win the title but ended up losing it to Barcelona. But the greatest shock in the 2015/2016 season is that “Leicester City are champions of England”.
CHELSEA FINISHING TENTH ON TABLE AND MISSING OUT OF EUROPE
When Chelsea started poorly at begin of season, no one ever believed that the defending champions would eventually finish tenth on table let alone sacking the “Special One” barely seven months after winning the title with the club.
Despite the visible poor start of Chelsea, fans and bookmakers still predicted that Chelsea would still come back to top four, a dream which went on until the defending champions got to the 14th position on the table and practically dangled between 14 and 11 before finally ending the season with 10th position.
Chelsea will stay at home next season and are out of any European tournaments until their situation improves. Another shocker that defiled human reasoning.
ARSENAL FINISHING SECOND ON LAST DAY
Typical Arsenal fans were of course not expecting Arsenal to win the title, but at least they were also expecting Wenger’s Arsenal to finish fourth or third at most. But Arsenal shocked their fans on the last day of season to finish second on table after thrashing Aston Villa 4-0 at Emirate Stadium.
The last time Arsenal finished at that level was in 2005, even though they have always touched first or second position while league is on. It was indeed a surprise. Their finishing second on the premier league table did not just qualify them to Europe, but it will also afford them the opportunity to be seeded in B.
MANCHESTER UNITED FAILED TO FINISH TOP FOUR
This is arguably one shocking and surprising events that proved critics wrong.No one expected United to drop by one position, after United moved from seven to fourth position two seasons ago, only for them to drop from fourth to fifth, denying the Red Devils an opportunity to qualify for the UEFA Champions League.
There are speculations that the Manchester United Boss LVG would be sacked, if he fails to take them to the top four, but the way things are going, no one can tell. United have only the FA Cup to contend for, a trophy which guarantees them a spot in Europa, despite their already qualification for the tournament courtesy of their domestic performance.
TOTTENHAM MAKES TOP FOUR AND SUDDENLY BECOMES A TITLE CONTENDER
Events turned around in December, when Tottenham climbed to the top four as though they were coming there temporarily. Bookmakers saw the Spurs as one of the jokers that came to fill the vacuum in the top four pending when the occupants are ready to take back what belongs to them.
However, it became a different story when Tottenham became the only team trailing Leicester City, and eventually became title contenders, it was so shocking to fans of Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City such that they began to wonder what really has gone wrong.
But they could not hold on to the second position for too long, they had to let go on final day of season.
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