He could be forgiven for bearing a grudge against Arsenal, because it was the invincibles season of 2003-04 that denied Claudio Ranieri a Premier League title in his fourth season as manager of Chelsea. He did lead them to their best ever points total and lowest ever goals conceded that season but Abramovich had just taken over the club and so Ranieri was shown the door while Jose Mourinho only had to tweak the Italian´s team with the help of some mega money transfers.
Arsene Wenger referred to how well Ranieri had done back then when he was talking before Arsenal travelled to face Ranieri´s new side Leicester City and it is clear that the two managers have a lot of respect for each other. Perhaps that is why the so-called tinkerman has been happy to talk up our chances of winning the Premier League title again this season, in an interview reported by Metro.
He was obviously very impressed with the performance of the Gunners at the King Power stadium, where goals from Alexis Sanchez, Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud highlighted the strength in depth that Wenger has in his side. And unlike many managers, Ranieri did not try to say that his team had been below par but admitted that they had simply come across a very good team in Arsenal.
The Leicester boss said, “We didn’t make mistakes, it was just big quality from them.
“I can say this for definite – I think they are built to win the title. You also need a little luck but their players and the whole squad is very good.”
So with that little bit of luck on the injury front and with the officials and the run of the ball, could this finally be our season again? Obviously we will have to play better in the EPL than in Europe, but the way things are looking, we might not have those irritating European games to worry about for long.