Leicester City’s Surprise achievement in winning their maiden English Premier League crown last season stand as reason to believe anything is now possible in the Premier League.
But for Hull defender, Michael Dawson, it is the foxes’ relegation survival in the previous campaign that will inspire the Tigers for 2017.
Before Leicester first began to upset odds to win the Premier League under Claudio Ranieri last term, they had produced an impressive run to escape relegation to the Championships.
Seven wins from the last nine of the 2014/2015 season saw Nigel Pearson’s side pull themselves out of the foot of the Premier League table and eventually survived at a canter. As a result, it was Hull, then led by Steve Bruce who joined Burnley and QPR in dropping to the second tier.
Leicester City are still one of only three clubs – and the most recent – to have been bottom of the Premier League at Christmas and escaped relegation, and Dawson is refusing to give up hope of the Tigers following suit.
Dawson said: “I look at Leicester a couple of year ago, they give us hope. We were nine points clear and could have gone 12 with another win. Instead, we drew and stayed at nine. Leicester went on to stay up and we went down.”
Although Crystal Palace, who recently sacked Alan Pardew, remain on the same points (16) with the Tigers, a poor run so far has seen City in danger of falling off the pace at the foot of the division. Despite beating Bournemouth a forth night ago, a lot of chances were spurned in a galling 2-0 defeat to Chelsea last time out. Dawson accepts that has to change.
Burnley, Leicester, Middlesbrough and Swansea have all made their way out of trouble with wins in recent weeks, leaving City sandwiched between Crystal Palace and Sunderland in the bottom three.