Real Football Man All of the Football, All of the time
We may have all cried foul at the time but it is looking like an incredibly inspired decision for Leicester to have hired Craig Shakespeare as their manager until at least the end of the season. That is because the man who replaced Claudio Ranieri has managed to win his first four Premier League matches in charge.
That in itself is a first as Shakespeare becomes the first British manager to go on a winning run of that kind after taking a top flight managerial position. His next act will be to see whether or not he can extend that run to five when they play host to basement side Sunderland this evening.
After three successive wins for the defending league champions it was made four on Saturday when The Foxes got the better of Stoke at The King Power Stadium, a win that sees them move up to 13th and more importantly six points clear of the drop zone. What a difference a month makes.
All seems well with the champions now as they found the spark which thrust them to the league title last season, how much of that is done to Shakespeare and how much of that is done to the players just simply not fancying it under Ranieri can still be argued but Leicester fans will not be arguing at the on pitch performances right now.
On the other hand David Moyes will have had a weekend to forget, firstly his side stay bottom of the Premier League after a defeat to Watford at Vicarage Road. A defeat that sees them 8 points from safety albeit with a game in hand over Swansea in 17th.
In addition to that Jermain Defoe picked up a knock in the loss to Watford and is now very much a doubt for the trip to the East Midlands later Tonight. That is going to be a blow for any team to lose their talisman but for Sunderland it is all the worse due to the lack of quality through out the squad.
And just to make matters worse, Moyes has had to make an embarrassing apology yesterday after being caught on film saying that a BBC reporter she might “get a slap”. The former Manchester United and Everton boss will now have to explain his comments to The Football Association.
You get the feeling that Moyes will just want to focus on the game ahead and the larger task which is trying to stave off relegation. But with the points tally that The Black Cats have you can almost say that they are all but down already.
That is because if we take 40 points as the hallowed marker, it’s taken Sunderland 29 games to get half of that and they need to get the other half in just the 9 remaining games. Therefore we are looking at 7 victories from their last remaining 9 fixtures. The great escape just seems too great.
Not only that but they go up against one of if not the form team in the Premier League right now and therefore I cannot see it being a profitable trip to Leicester this evening. The smart money is on a fifth straight Leicester as Sunderland’s misery continues.
