Premier League Preview: Can West Ham Derail Leicester City's Title Charge?

Well here we are, and who'd have thought it? With last orders not far from being called on the 2015/16 Premier League season, Leicester City's hosting of West Ham United represents a far bigger game than Manchester City's trip to Chelsea. 

Had one made such a prediction in August it would have been presumed the only scenario whereby it would be possible were if Leicester and West Ham were embroiled in a desperate battle to preserve their top-flight status, and one of either Chelsea or Manchester City had already secured the title. Had anyone suggested a hypothesis of what has actually happened this season, last orders would have been withdrawn and a stomach pump proffered.

Cumulatively this season, Leicester (72) and West Ham (52) have accrued 23 points more than the combined efforts of Chelsea (44) and Manchester City (57). That’s a 55-point positive swing from last term. In the words of Larry David, what Claudio Ranieri and Slaven Bilic have achieved in their debut seasons at new clubs has been pretty. pretty, pretty good. He'd probably curb his enthusiasm when delivering a verdict on Chelsea and City's respective campaigns.

Saturday teatime's game between the previous two Premier League title winners is not quite a dead rubber, but it's not the fixture television executives would have given an organ for in previous seasons either. Tenth vs. fourth is hardly worth rushing home for, let alone a kidney.

City in the final Champions League spot still have designs on catching Arsenal at the very least, and in any case four- and five-point advantages over Manchester United and West Ham are not enough to shelve domestic exertions in order to concentrate on European affairs just yet.

It's not quite an organ, but according to the BBC, tickets for Leicester's final home game of the season against Everton on May 7 are being offered at up to £15,000 a pair. Even true romance has a price, it seems. 

The Foxes need three more victories from their remaining five matches to be mathematically certain of the title. Should Leicester win their next two games, at home to West Ham and then Swansea City, they could get over the line with a victory at Manchester United on May 1. If Tottenham Hotspur falter before then, it may all be over even sooner.

I'm not ruling out Leicester's title-winning party at Stamford Bridge on the final day being ruined by Jose Mourinho stepping out of the dressing room shower and declaring in the style of Dallas' Bobby Ewing he's still Chelsea's manager. A tearful Claudio Ranieri dressed as Bobby's wife Pam would be forced to confess that the whole season has just been one long dream.

Leicester City vs. West Ham United, Sunday at 1.30 p.m. BST

Tim Ireland/Associated Press

After an FA Cup quarterfinal replay defeat to Manchester United in midweek, West Ham will travel to the King Power Stadium on Sunday with heavy legs and even heavier hearts. Bilic's rumbustious Hammers were strangely subdued on the night, as if going into the game as equals to their illustrious visitors somehow put the shackles on.

Leicester have shown no such inhibitions. They have lost just three times in 33 league matches, taken 32 points from the previous 39 and go into the weekend on a five-match winning run in which they haven't changed their side or conceded a goal. A win on Sunday would put them 10 points clear of Tottenham, who play Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium on Monday night. Further cause for optimism is the fact they have won their last three matches against West Ham.

If any of the Premier League’s heavyweights were in Leicester's position, the bookies would have paid out by now, with neutrals complaining of another predictable season petering out into nothingness as one of the big boys saunter to the title.

Leicester supporters will have fond memories of the last time West Ham paid them a visit. It was just over a year ago, on April 4, when substitute Andy King scored a late winner to move bottom club Leicester to within four points of safety. It was a victory that set off a run of six wins from their next eight matches to secure the unlikeliest great escape since Steve McQueen was bouncing his baseball against a cell wall. Nigel Pearson was Leicester manager at the time apparently. He should have said. 

All season Ranieri has worn the look of an older gentleman with a beautiful young woman on his arm. Content of course, but the eyes have betrayed a note of caution. As a wise man (or it might have been Dragons’ Den’s Deborah Meaden) once said: "If it looks too good to be true, it’s probably because it’s too good to be true."

After last weekend’s win at Sunderland, which had all of the hallmarks of a title-winning performance, Ranieri let his guard down for the first time this season. A win at Sunderland doesn’t usually reduce a visiting manager to tears. The only people who traditionally leave the Stadium of Light sobbing are home supporters.

Having spent the whole of the campaign preaching a one-game-at-a-time mantra, the affable Italian finally seems ready to accept he's on the cusp of delivering one of the greatest achievements in sporting history.

And that's quite the cross to bear.

"The last five matches will be terrible because nothing is decided yet as far as the title is concerned," said Ranieri, per Reuters. 

"Tottenham are not giving up and we have to stay focused. Our mission is to do the best we can—then if Tottenham overtake us we will compliment them it is the law of sport."

Every week, we all sing from the same hymn sheet: "Win this one, and Leicester really will win it."

Even those that have spent the past few months sat outside Mourinho’s bathroom waiting for the big reveal would probably accept that a victory for Leicester on Sunday would be enough to give the Premier League’s ribbon buyer the nod. The engraver can stay in hibernation for another week.

With a win, Leicester’s players would tuck into their Sunday lunch with the knowledge they have 10- and 16-point leads over Tottenham and Arsenal (who play on Monday, and later on Sunday) respectively, with only 15 and 18 points left to play for. A home game against Swansea that follows is not a sure thing, but as close to one as you would ever get in a title run-in.

On paper, dealing with Andy Carroll should not take either of Robert Huth or Wes Morgan out of their comfort zone. Carroll is the best header of a ball in the Premier League in an attacking sense, but then either of Leicester’s centre-halves could make the same claim defensively. Both can feel at least slightly aggrieved to have not made a PFA Player of the Year shortlist of six, four of which will feature at the King Power on Sunday.

Leicester's Jamie Vardy, Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante, and West Ham’s Dimitri Payet, will each take to the field with an extra spring in their step after this week's announcement.

Any of Leicester's contingent would swap their nomination for three points on Sunday. 

Chelsea vs. Manchester City, Saturday at 5.30 p.m. BST

Jon Super/Associated Press

Even if Chelsea secure a maximum haul from their remaining six matches and finish the campaign on 62 points, it would still represent their lowest tally since 2000/01. Given they have asked the Football Association for special dispensation to play in flips-flops and skins for the rest of the season, a likelier scenario is that they will end up with their worst points return for a couple of decades. Antonio Conte has a busy, busy summer ahead.

With Eden Hazard having not scored a Premier League goal all season and Oscar reportedly being ushered through the exit door, Chelsea could really do with acquiring a world-class No. 10. Someone like Kevin de Bruyne would be ideal, but there’s no way City would be stupid enough to sell such a prodigious talent.

Given the Belgian’s immaculate form since returning from a serious knee injury, scoring home and away against Paris Saint-Germain to help City into the semis of the Champions League, he’d have loved to have come up against Mourinho on his return to Stamford Bridge.

The Portuguese sold De Bruyne to Wolfsburg two years ago with barely a shrug. Chelsea's embarrassment at such an ill-thought-out, short-term decision will only be exacerbated should De Bruyne remind them of what they are missing on Saturday. 

If Chelsea’s season has been plain bad, Manchester City's has been more odd. After the first five matches they were top of the table having not conceded a goal. A record £158 million summer spend seemed money well spent given they were 11 points up on champions Chelsea, who had started their own campaign atrociously.

Ever since then their league form has been enveloped in disappointment. Despite the fact they already have the Capital One Cup in the trophy cabinet and have reached the semi-finals of the Champions League for the first time in their history, the season somehow feels anticlimactic, as if it’s never really got going. Vincent Kompany could lift Europe's most elite piece of silverware in Milan on May 28 to the sound of sighing at the prospect of busy post-match traffic. 

Those City supporters who can recall losing 2-0 to Wycombe Wanderers at Maine Road in April 1999, in what was the equivalent of a League One game, are unlikely to spend the summer refusing to come out of their bedrooms in protest at what they have had to endure over the previous nine months.

After all, it’s hardly dredging the depths of despair when you have a Champions League semi-final date with Real Madrid on the horizon and Pep Guardiola in possession of a one-way ticket to Manchester.

If City can tame Cristiano Ronaldo, and Guardiola likewise do a similar job on Atletico Madrid, they may become acquainted far sooner than anyone could ever have imagined when the announcement of his appointment was made in January.  

Well here we are, and who’d have thought it?  

Norwich vs. Sunderland, Saturday at 12.45 p.m. BST

Tim Ireland/Associated Press

This is not an alien situation for Sunderland to be in. Traditionally the Black Cats leave securing Premier League survival later than a Prime Minister might concede having an interest in Panama that extends beyond a fascination with millinery.

It's nothing new, but then that doesn't make it any easier. Currently they have 27 points from 32 matches. At this point last season, Sunderland had 29 points and the previous campaign they had 25. On each previous occasion they survived. If they lose at Norwich City on Saturday it is hard to see such a run of good fortune extending to a third season.

They may have dug themselves out of holes before, but usually do so via a late run of good form. They are not playing particularly badly at the minute, indeed for the large part against Leicester last weekend they defended well if being limp in attack, but this is a results business and their results have been rank.

Sunderland have scored just 10 goals in their past 11 matches, with a meagre nine points secured in this period. They have drawn four and lost two of their previous six matches.

Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce has been criticised from some quarters for describing Saturday's trip to Carrow Road as being a "must-not lose" game, rather than one of the "must win" variety for his side, per the Evening Chronicle.

It’s hard to disagree with his sentiments. A defeat to Norwich would leave them seven points shy of their hosts with just five matches left to play. Mathematically they wouldn't be dead, but when an Ouija board spells out "no chance" you know the game is probably up.

"It (relegation) wouldn't be mathematically certain with five games to go, but it would be heaping too much pressure on us," said Allardyce, as he looked to alleviate pressure on his side to stay up, by saying if they lose they will be under too much pressure to stay up.

"We’ll try to win, but the most important thing is that we have to make sure we don’t lose because we’ll still have a game in hand."

Historically, Norwich are not a great side for Sunderland either. Allardyce takes his side south in the knowledge they have lost five of their last six trips to Carrow Road.

It will be interesting to see whether Norwich go for the jugular. The Canaries were dire at Crystal Palace in suffering their first defeat in three at the weekend, but had hugely impressed in taking seven points from the previous nine in drawing with Manchester City and beating both West Bromwich Albion and Newcastle United.

Key for Norwich could be whether Timm Klose is available for selection. Even at the £8.5 million Norwich paid Wolfsburg for his services, the Swiss looks to be an absolute snip. The shakiest of back lines has improved beyond all recognition since his arrival, and it was no surprise it was only after he went off on a stretcher at Palace that Norwich conceded. Alex Neil’s side had looked on course for a third clean sheet in four matches prior to his injury.

Whether he is fit to start on Saturday could have a huge bearing on not just the game's outcome, but both clubs' respective seasons.

Stoke City vs. Tottenham Hotspur, Monday at 8 p.m. BST

All Tottenham can do over the weekend is watch, wait and pray.

A trip to Stoke for a night game is perhaps no longer the type of fixture that previously had grizzled professionals refusing to leave the sanctuary of a warm coach upon pulling up outside the Britannia Stadium, but nor is it any less a potential banana skin for Mauricio Pochettino.

What looked to be a hugely promising campaign for Mark Hughes' side has fizzled out a little at the business end of the season, yet the Potters have more than enough quality players to cause problems for any of their Premier League rivals.

Pochettino has failed to mastermind victory over Stoke in three attempts as Tottenham boss. Hughes got the better of him twice last term, while this season the two clubs played out a 2-2 draw in the corresponding fixture at White Hart Lane.

Regardless of how fair Leicester fare against West Ham, Tottenham are acutely aware that Monday night's game is the quintessential "must win" contest.

Don't let Allardyce convince you otherwise. 

Manchester United vs. Aston Villa, Saturday at 3 p.m. BST

Newcastle United vs. Swansea City, Saturday at 3 p.m. BST

Arsenal vs. Crystal Palace, Sunday at 4 p.m. BST