He’s been one of the stories of the season and many would argue Jamie Vardy had as much right to bring home the PFA Player of the Year award as team-mate Riyad Mahrez.
But the Foxes will be without their man-of-the-moment for one of the biggest games in the history of English football on Sunday as Leicester City travel to Manchester United with the chance to win the title.
Vardy was given an additional one game ban for angrily confronting referee Jonathan Moss following his dismissal for diving against West Ham earlier this month.
Few would argue if you say Leicester are a better team with Vardy, but without him against Swansea City last week they looked utterly flawless. Leonardo Ulloa gave them a completely different dimension and game plan and if you couple that with the non-stop endeavour given by Shinji Okazaki, you’ve got an extremely powerful and distinct forward line-up.
As we know, Riyad Mahrez has been superb all season and the Algerian shows no signs of letting up as the campaign comes to an end. With the Champions League on the horizon, he will know the world will be watching on Sunday and he’ll be wanting to impress the media in what is one of biggest games in Premier League history.
They’ve got the ever reliable Danny Drinkwater, whilst former Birmingham winger Demarai Gray has been extremely impressive when he’s been given the opportunity towards the end of games.
Completing the job is all that remains to end to their season, and doing it in front of the Old Trafford crowd would have a hint of ‘it could have been you’ about it. ManUnited were widely expected to be the ones challenging for the title, but instead it will be Leicester who could grab the crown at the home of the 20-time English champions.
Few would have thought that nine months ago the 5000/1 outsiders could have been crowned champions for the first time in their league history, but all they need to do this weekend is win and the biggest prize in world football is theirs. The last time the Foxes won at Old Trafford was eighteen years ago in 1998, and each of their last six visits have been underwhelming defeats.
But United do have an agenda of their own still to fulfil, with a top-four berth still extremely getable, and seemingly the only thing that will see Louis van Gaal hold on to his job. It’s as big a game for United as it is for Leicester, and there should be no complacency.
Even if Leicester can only draw on Sunday, they could still take the title should Spurs fail to win at Chelsea on Monday. With the odds well and truly in the Foxes’ favour and Tottenham seemingly tripping up at the last hurdle, it could be in the bag with out without Vardy.
He’s been excellent, but Leicester can go on and do this without him.
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