Gary Lineker is reserving judgement of Leicester City’s relegation chances until after their upcoming run of fixtures, rather than jump to conclusions straight after defeat to Premier League title hopefuls Arsenal.
The Foxes were almost written off before heading to the capital to take on Arsenal, though as the clock struck the 90 minute mark Steve Cooper found his men on level terms with Mikel Arteta’s. He and his men almost pulled off a daring draw, though fell to two stoppage time goals.
It is a result that leaves them teetering on the edge of the drop zone, kept above only by the number of goals they have scored, albeit after only six matches of the new campaign. And keeping that in mind – as well as a kinder run of fixtures against Bournemouth, Southampton, Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town – Lineker is not getting drawn into this particular discussion just yet.
On The Rest is Football podcast, he said: “You don’t really judge Leicester on the game at Arsenal, the next four fixtures are all against teams that are in similar areas so we will learn a little bit more from that.
“I was talking to my boys today – they’re all Leicester fans apart from one – and they were saying it was so much more fun in the Championship! You start the season thinking our target is to survive and it is actually not as fun as in the Championship when you win a lot of football matches. Success rather than avoiding failure.”
“I still don’t want them to [get relegated],” the Match of the Day presenter added, “but it’s going to be hard.”
Lineker said: “I know he was very much in Gareth [Southgate]’s thoughts for the England squad a couple years ago, he might have made the World Cup squad then just before that he had a really bad injury. Then he did his Achilles, and it’s taken him time.
“In the Championship he wasn’t a regular then towards the end started to find his feet. But he’s such a talented player, looks like he’s got his pace back and that is the key thing, particularly with an Achilles. It’s taken quite a long time but he will always have a moment, and I hope so.
“Fingers crossed he doesn’t get any more bad injuries because he’s a real talent. I like him a lot. He’s a real asset for Leicester.”
Leave a Reply