Sunderland head coach Tony Mowbray was blown away by Leicester City’s quality last night following a 1-0 win for the Foxes against the Black Cats and heaped praise on Enzo Maresca’s men.
Despite being in the UEFA Europa League during the 2021/22 season, the former Premier League champions were relegated from the top-flight in unprecedented fashion, finishing 18th, two points from safety in the end.
Maresca left treble-winners Manchester City in the summer to become the head coach at the King Power Stadium, tasked with overhauling the squad and losing some key players such as James Maddison, Youri Tielemans, Jonny Evans, Harvey Barnes and Caglar Soyuncu, just to name a few.
Nevertheless, Leicester City are flying this season. Last night’s victory over Sunderland put the Foxes eight points clear of second-place Ipswich Town, although Kieran McKenna’s side still have two games in hand.
However, Leicester have now won 12 out of their first 13 games in the Championship this season and the gap between them and third has opened up to 14 points, with the 2021 FA Cup winners already primed for a return to the promised land.
Sunderland boss Mowbray certainly believes so. Speaking in his post-match interview, the ex-Blackburn Rovers manager believes that no team in the Championship can catch Leicester City this season quotes via BBC]:
“How good are they? They are Premier League. I don’t think anyone will catch them. I think Leicester will win the title.
“I don’t know how many Premier League appearances there is in that team, I don’t know what their salary level is for the football club, but what I do know is it has a lot more Premier League experience than we have got, and it’s got a lot more expense attached to its players than we have got.
“I’m only interested in us coming and giving a good account of ourselves and testing ourselves against a Premier League outfit, and they will be a Premier League outfit again next season.”
Writer’s View
Mowbray is right. Leicester City are incredible. Maresca’s side have already given themselves enough of a gap to slip up a few times later in the campaign without it costing them the number one spot.
There is a plethora of youth and experience as well as Premier League quality in the squad, on top of a distinct, attacking style of play. Anything less than promotion now would be a disaster.
