Ndidi, Iheanacho’s Leicester City Promoted To Premier League

Leicester City have been promoted to the Premier League after Leeds United were thumped by Queens Park Rangers.

The 4-0 defeat at Loftus Road means Daniel Farke’s side stay four points behind Championship leaders Leicester with only one game left.

The Foxes remain on track to amass 100 points on their way back to the top flight following their relegation last season.

Leicester can now claim the Championship title on Monday with victory at Preston if third-placed Ipswich fail to beat Hull City on Saturday.

Ipswich can join Leicester in the Premier League next season if they pick up five points from their remaining three matches.

Leicester City were flying in their campaign to return to the Premier League earlier this season but, after a serious loss of form late on, they have recovered to vault over the finishing line.

Tuesday’s 5-0 hammering of Southampton made it back-to-back wins for a side that had looked to be stumbling towards automatic promotion.

In mid-February, the title and rise back to the top flight seemed inevitable – Leicester were 12 points clear at the summit and had a 14-point cushion to third spot.

The Foxes, some said, were aboard the ‘Marescalator’ – an upwardly mobile, smooth-passing, possession-hungry machine operated by their Italian boss Enzo Maresca, who was taking Leicester only one way: straight up.

Four losses and just one win from six matches – including a dramatic defeat by Leeds who were 17 points adrift of Leicester at the start of January – turned it into a four-way battle for a top-two finish – with the Whites, Ipswich and Southampton the other contenders.

For all but two of the 176 days between 23 September and 17 March, Leicester had been top.

They were replaced by Leeds before Ipswich shot ahead of them both, forcing Leicester out of the automatic promotion spots by the end of March.

But just as Leicester faltered, those around them also dropped crucial points, allowing the Foxes a chance to regroup and seal their top-flight return.