Each of us had better things to do than write about how this lamentable Leicester City team won a meaningless match on the tenth anniversary of the club’s greatest achievement.
So instead, please accept this excerpt from The Unbelievables on what we were all watching on this day ten years ago: the Battle of Stamford Bridge.
See you in Bromley.
Wherever we are, we’ve been on tenterhooks for weeks. Months. Years. Will it happen tonight?
The game kicks off and the tension kicks in. Chelsea are up for it but Tottenham look worryingly dangerous on the break, spreading play left and right to their marauding full-backs Danny Rose and Kyle Walker while their four attackers interchange fluidly.
Every time Chelsea go forward, we rise a little from our seats. There’s a chance for Cesc Fàbregas but the Spaniard places his shot just wide of the far post. The atmosphere inside Stamford Bridge is stupendous. The action on the pitch isn’t quite measuring up. Yet. With thirty-three minutes gone, the ball is played behind the Chelsea defence and Harry Kane is through on goal. We remain calm. He must be offside. Kane takes the ball around Blues goalkeeper Asmir Begovic. No flag. Passes it into the empty net.
Still no flag. Celebrates wildly in front of the Tottenham fans packed into the Shed End. Incredibly, still no flag. 1-0 Tottenham.
He had to be offside. Replay. Clearly onside. The nerves have gone now, replaced by dread.
It’s okay. We’re just going to have to do it ourselves. Trust in our players. They’ll be watching this at Jamie Vardy’s house and plotting Everton’s downfall. Who will be the hero? Vardy? Riyad Mahrez? Andy King? Believe in them and their ability to respond.
Tottenham are rampant now, equally threatening in possession and on the counter attack, while the home side’s composure disappears. Mauricio Pochettino’s players are clearly trying to rile the combustible Diego Costa and it’s working.
Another Spurs through ball sends Heung-Min Son clear in the right channel and the ball again ends up in Begovic’s net. Son runs behind the goal to the jubilant Tottenham supporters.
This is gut-wrenching. It isn’t that we don’t trust our players to finish the job in the final two games of the season. The problem is that some of us were convinced it would happen tonight. We were certain Chelsea would put an end to this stress and allow Saturday to become the greatest party the city of Leicester has ever known. But no. Tottenham lead 2-0 at half time.
After Chelsea’s previous game at Bournemouth, Eden Hazard was interviewed on Match of the Day. ‘We don’t want – the fans, the club, the players – Tottenham to win the Premier League,’ Hazard said. ‘We hope for Leicester because they deserve to be champions this season.’
Pedro is substituted and Hazard trots onto the pitch for the second half. Let’s see how much you don’t want Tottenham to win the league, Eden. Let’s see how much you want this to happen for us.
Both the match and the atmosphere become increasingly hostile. Diego Costa, even more than normal, is a red card waiting to happen. Everyone is a red card waiting to happen.
Chelsea win a corner, which Willian delivers into the area. Gary Cahill escapes his marker to control the ball with his first touch and lash it into the net with his second. A roar. A huge roar. At Stamford Bridge. In the Chelsea Potter on the King’s Road. All across Leicester. All across Leicestershire. In a grand house in Melton Mowbray. In a detached bungalow in Grantham. In the Bricklayers Arms in Laxton. From beneath a pile of boxes in Lincoln. From a sofa in Narborough. From behind a sofa in St Albans. Minutes tick by. Time is running out for Chelsea. Time is running out, this evening at least, for Leicester City.
‘We hope for Leicester because they deserve to be champions this season…’
There are 83 minutes on the clock when Eden Hazard collects the ball inside his own half and tricks his way past two opponents. He glides past a third, looking every inch the PFA Footballer of the Year of the previous season, checks back and passes to Diego Costa.
‘We hope for Leicester…’
Costa moves past Toby Alderweireld on the edge of the box and slips a return pass into the path of Hazard.
‘We hope…’
Hazard takes it first time on the instep of his right foot. The angle of the television camera is perfect. The ball starts off heading wide of the post but it’s bending inwards. Hugo Lloris is at full stretch, just as he was when Riyad Mahrez’s shot rocketed past him back in August to equalise at the King Power. It’s bending inwards. We’re off our seats now. It’s bending inwards. Lloris is beaten. We’re on our feet now. It’s in.
And the noise. The most guttural noise. The most unearthly noise. A scream or a shriek or both.
It’s in, and Leicester City are perhaps ten minutes away from the Premier League title.
We hope.
Settle down. Still time for Tottenham to find a winner. Still time for one of the men in white to ruin the party.
The thing is: it’s not happening. It’s pretty clear it’s not happening for Tottenham tonight and it’s not happening for Tottenham this season. They still have the bitter consolation prize of a Champions League place and the chance to finish above Arsenal for the first time in 21 years but there will be no first title since 1961.
It’s not happening because they’ve lost their heads. Plenty said this would happen to us, that the pressure would get to our players and our title bid would go up in smoke. Even when the dark moment came, Jamie Vardy was sent off and two points were dropped against West Ham, this incredible set of players responded: 4-0 to the one-man team.
Some other responses this season: the early-season comebacks – Tottenham, Aston Villa, Stoke, Southampton; losing at Anfield and the defiant goalless draw against Manchester City three days later; the pair of Arsenal defeats and the long unbeaten runs that followed; Leonardo Ulloa’s last-gasp equaliser against the Hammers.
We’ve got bottle. What have you got, Tottenham?
Stamford Bridge hums with anticipation as though Chelsea are about to be crowned champions of England. In fact, they are seconds away from losing that crown and their fans could not look happier. They sing about their former manager Claudio Ranieri. They sing about Leicester.
Deep into injury time, Willian stands over a free kick with a chance to win the game. Instead, he plays the ball out to the left to waste time and a manic laugh escapes: the audacity of it.
Hazard, the man who will never have to buy a drink in Leicester again, has the ball at his feet as Mark Clattenburg blows the final whistle, bringing 90 minutes to an end.
Bringing 132 years to an end.
Leicester City are the champions of England.
The Fosse Way 