Premier League title brings string of firsts for Leicester City and Ranieri

In what was a dramatic finish to the 2015-16 Premier League season, Leicester City were confirmed champions on Monday night, after Tottenham Hotspur failed to win against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Leicester’s league win has been hailed as “the biggest upset in football” or indeed, all of sport, and for a fair reason.

Last year, the East Midlands club barely avoided relegation from the Premier League, having spent most of the season in the bottom three. Heading into the 2015-16 season, bookmakers were offering odds of 5000 to 1, same as the possibility of the fabled ‘Loch Ness’ monster being discovered for real.

But they did it, largely thanks to the individual brilliance of Algerian footballer Riyad Mahrez, striker Jamie Vardy and the collective resilience of the midfield and defence, led by Danny Drinkwater and Wes Morgan, respectively. On Sunday, they managed a 1-1 draw against Manchester United at Old Trafford, which meant that Spurs had to beat Chelsea to take the title race to the weekend.

Here are some of the most interesting facts about Leicester City’s “fairytale” league win:

1) Leicester City, since they were founded 132 years ago (1884) as Leicester Fosse FC, have won the league for the first time in their history. They previously won the second division (now renamed the Championship) seven times and the third division (League One) once, in 2008-09. Their previous best in the top-flight of English league football came in 1928-29, when Leicester finished second.

2) Leicester’s win also means that Claudio Ranieri won his first major league title of his managerial career. He previously finished second with Chelsea, Juventus, Roma and Monaco, having won league titles in lower divisions of France (Ligue 2) and Italy (Cagliari and Fiorentina).

3) Leicester City are the first “first-time” champions since Nottingham Forest won the league in 1978.

4) Leicester City used fewer players than any other team en route to the Premier League title.

5) Leicester City manager Ranieri became the eighth different manager to win the Premier League title. Others include Sir Alex Ferguson (Manchester United), Kenny Dalglish (Blackburn), Arsene Wenger (Arsenal), Jose Mourinho (Chelsea), Carlo Ancelotti (Chelsea), Roberto Mancini (Manchester City) and Manuel Pellegrini (Manchester City).

6) On Monday night, Ranieri set another record by winning the Premier League in just 294 days, which is the shortest time between being appointed manager and winning the league. The other records are by Mourinho (Chelsea, 332 days in 2004/05), Ancelotti (Chelsea, 342 days, 2009/10), Wenger (Arsenal, 579 days in 1997/98) and Mourinho (Chelsea, 699 days, 2014/15)

7) Mahrez and Morgan became the first players from Algeria and Jamaica, respectively, to win the Premier League.

8) Leicester goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer became the first player in Premier League history to win back-to-back titles with two different clubs. Schwarzer won the league as Chelsea’s reserve goalkeeper last year.

9) Monday was also Leicester’s 100th successive night at the top of the table.

10) Leicester (48) needed to play more seasons than Derby County (46) in the top-flight of English football to win the title.