How Arsenal gave Leicester the impetus to win the Premier League title

[davieG]

By Benjamin NewmanSunday, September 18th, 2016 07:48

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Arsenal & Leicester

This weekend, the Sunday Times have a few extracts from a new book from journalist Jonathan Northcroft called “Fearless”.

The book tells the story of how Leicester beat their famous 5000/1 odds to win the 2015-16 Premier League title.

One of the eye-catching stories centred on Arsenal, and how the Gunners gave Leicester impetus to go on a win the league.

The story unfolded on February 14, 2016, after the Gunners beat the Foxes 2-1 at the Emirates Stadium.

The selfies were too much

During the game itself, Jamie Vardy gave Leicester the lead on the stroke of halftime from the penalty spot.

 

But after the match restarted, Danny Simpson was sent off for two bookable offences, and goals from Theo Walcott and an injury time winner from Danny Welbeck saw the Gunners turn the scoreline.

After the game, Arsenal’s players celebrated on social media, and that provoked Leicester to fight back. As reported in the Sunday Times:

Then came the Arsenal selfies. Pictures were coming through on social media showing a touch of triumphalism in the home dressing room. Arsenal players danced round Danny Welbeck, chanting his name, and then a large bunch of them posed for a photograph. Aaron Ramsey posted it. Sanchez posted it. So did Ozil, who added an emoji of a flexed bicep and “big points.” Leicester’s lads saw it. Their mood changed. They unified again.

“For me the key point was when we lost to Arsenal,” says Huth. “ Everyone was celebrating, they were doing selfies. Even though we were still top. A few of the lads stuck a few [of Arsenal’s] pictures up and it got the blood boiling. It gave us an extra yard in the next few games.”

[Fox92]

Was sat right next to their fans that day it was tense. Of course they gave it the big one when they scored the winner which was devastating. 

[Magictv]

I'm still pissed off about Simpson's red even though we won the league.

[CloudFox]

I'm not surprised by this at all. I never really had a problem with the Gunners until last season. After that match and those shenanigans though, I just wanted to throw it back in their faces...so I can only imagine how the players felt!

 

I reckon this whole story also had a significant influence on the decision of Vardy and Mahrez to stay here too. 

[CosbehFox]

It was certainly the day I knew we had a real chance of winning it. Arsenal threw everything at us in that second half and it took the very last second to get the winner. 

 

The over celebrations, the constant moaning by their players and the triumphism by their fans after the game suggested we had got them desperate. We'd got under their skin. 

[davieG]

22 minutes ago, Fox92 said:

Was sat right next to their fans that day it was tense. Of course they gave it the big one when they scored the winner which was devastating. 

Fans yes, players no at least not in a public showy way.

[Corky]

There is no doubt they thought they'd done it when Welbeck scored. Our fans response was perfect- "We're top of the league". We knew we'd keep going.

[Guest Cujek]

Cocks 

[Richard]

58 minutes ago, Magictv said:

I'm still pissed off about Simpson's red even though we won the league.

So much. If refereeing was in any way consistent arsenal wouldve had 3 sendings off this season 

[Tuna]

Wenger will be demanding a medal!

 

 

[Guest Cujek]

3 minutes ago, Richard said:

So much. If refereeing was in any way consistent arsenal wouldve had 3 sendings off this season 

Referee's are so bad, did you see the ref at Hull v the arse holes yesterday?

 

Took 10 secs to give a blatant pen and wasn't even going to give it at all.

 

Dreadful

 

[Vacamion]

 

This, and Kane's "Lions", gave us a motivational boost, but Leicester City won the league because we were a better team playing the best football, not because anyone pissed off our players.

 

 

[Koke]

Arsenal really are a fragile mentally weak bunch. That result reduced the gap to 2 points. That result should be enough incentive to go on a winning run but instead they went to Old Trafford next game and lost to Man Utd second string side - and they followed that up with a pathetic 2-1 loss at home to Swansea, and they capitulated in a way only Arsenal could.

 

Weak mentality, no spine, no leaders. 

[justfoxes]

And what the fook is Ozil throwing down he thinks he's from the hood or something Tw@ ??

I always thought when I saw those pictures on Twitter etc that they acted like a bunch of limp cocks, but like in the article it shows how far we've come when Arsenal react as if they've won the league after beating our 10 men!

But it was so good to take the pi55 out of Gooners mates with the 10point lead mind the gap jokes at them .

So hoping for another excellent season again especially now we're in the Champions league too,looking forward to see how we do in both competitions 

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS AND IN CLAUDIO WE TRUST !! 

[mozartfox]

I think that Spuds 'you do the maths' Tool Extrordanaire may well have given the players some impetus too.

[JerryLundegaard]

1 hour ago, justfoxes said:

And what the fook is Ozil throwing down he thinks he's from the hood or something Tw@ ??

I always thought when I saw those pictures on Twitter etc that they acted like a bunch of limp cocks, but like in the article it shows how far we've come when Arsenal react as if they've won the league after beating our 10 men!

But it was so good to take the pi55 out of Gooners mates with the 10point lead mind the gap jokes at them .

So hoping for another excellent season again especially now we're in the Champions league too,looking forward to see how we do in both competitions 

ONWARDS AND UPWARDS AND IN CLAUDIO WE TRUST !! 

I've thought ever since that day that he was doing some stupid gang sign, but now I've looked at it again and is he doing like a 2-1 sign? "We beat you 2-1"?

[foxile5]

The man is a grown adult, paid multiple millions of pounds. 

 

Why the **** is he doing childish little hand signals? 

 

**** me. Footballers are just children. 

[PhillippaT]

3 hours ago, Tuna said:

Wenger will be demanding a medal!

 

 

Shall we give him one made out of Belgian chocolate from Bruges?

[MrsJohnMurphy]

Its no coincidence that the only player not in that photo is the only one who has actually won something...Cech

[desertfox2]

Yeah that dodgy sending off and Was giving away the free kick for the winner. That was a tough loss to take.

 

Looked like a bunch of morons posting that and even bigger bunch of twats after we won the league.

[john ridley]

Don't forget the lap of honour  at the end , dimwits.

[Captain...]

When you talk about mental strength our boys had it in spades last season and took every set back as motivation.

 

Arsenal at home, Arsenal away, West Ham scandal, the press writing us off constantly, the mind games, "we're coming for you", little old Leicester getting all the decisions because nobody wants to kill the fairytale. 

 

My favourite was being 2-0 down to Villa and their fans start doing the oles (incidentally Palace fans are oleing their boys 2-0 up against Stoke, hope it doesn't bite them in the arse) we all know what happened in that game. There was a second game, Stoke or Southampton where they started with the oles and we pegged them back.

 

I do wonder how much of it was, as the players said, down to the pressure of nearly getting relegated the previous season. Last season was a breeze, we were top of the league for crying out loud, what pressure? Being top of the table is something to be proud of not worried about.

[Nalis]

Thought it was idiotic of Arsenal at the time and would have been embarrassed if the shoe was on the other foot.

 

Arsenal had the supposed easier run in at the time too and crumbled to teams like Swansea at home whereas we didnt. Its another reason why I love our team, we just don't freeze in the big matches like Swansea at home, Brugge last week, etc. With very few expections, any matches we lost were due to the other team simply playing better than us.

[foxy boxing]

arsenal players were just behaving like premadonnas taking selfies, with arsenal it is all style over substance and everyone knows they have a soft underbelly. if that spurred us on to succees then it was good to rub it in their faces.

[AyewJoking]

that win boosted their ego and gave them the false sense of security that the mighty arsenal would go on to win the league now that the usual suspects had blown it and they had put little leicester in their place.