Matt Maher: Foxes’ victory a win for football and one in the eye for ‘Big Six’
The general delight from neutral observers at Leicester’s win over Chelsea in last weekend’s FA Cup final no doubt left some perplexed.
After all, the result could hardly be classed as a shock.
The Foxes went into the match sitting above Chelsea in the Premier League table, just as they had done for pretty much the whole season before the Blues extracted some revenge in Tuesday night’s league meeting.
Yet there were several factors which made their Wembley win feel like a victory for football.
From the club ending a long wait to lift the trophy after four previous final defeats, to the flipping of the all-too-common narrative that, when it comes to the crunch in the major competitions, one of the Premier League’s big-hitters usually seizes the day, whether it be Chelsea, Manchester United or City.
The European Super League also loomed large. Of the 14 top-flight clubs the so-called big six were happy to leave behind, it was Leicester who easily had the biggest cause for consternation.
For one thing, they have won the Premier League more recently than United, Arsenal and Tottenham. Over the last two seasons they have been right in the thick of the race for a top four place.
Admittedly, there is a chance they might again miss out yet – from the perspective of the breakaway six – the Foxes have displayed an unnerving refusal to know their place, even when some of their best players, Harry Maguire, N’Golo Kante and Ben Chilwell, to name just three, have been tempted away.
Their prospects for the next five years are certainly brighter than Arsenal and quite possibly Tottenham too.
For those aspirational clubs massing in the middle of the table – West Ham, Leeds, Villa and Wolves – the Foxes are unquestionably the model to follow, proof of what can be achieved when you get your recruitment right.
Of course, their success has not been built on a shoestring. Yet that title win of 2016, driven by savvy budget buys such as Kante, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy, has been used as a foundation to establish the club as a serious long-term contender in the top half of the table.
It is the hope it provided to others which made their Wembley win so satisfying for those without a dog in the fight. To those owners who seem so keen to take any jeopardy out of the sport, meanwhile, it must have felt like their worst nightmare played out across the course of 90 minutes.
