LEICESTER, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 8: Bobby De Cordova-Reid of Leicester City during the Premier League match between Leicester City and Brighton & Hove Albion at King Power Stadium on December 8, 2024 in Leicester, United Kingdom. (Photo by Plumb Images/Leicester City FC via Getty Images)
Cole Palmer steps up to take a penalty against Leicester City. He has scored all 12 of his Premier League spot kicks up to this moment.
Palmer strikes the ball low to Mads Hermansen’s left and Hermansen dives full length to keep it out. The scores remain goalless.
Hermansen’s team-mates leap all over him in jubilation.
Leicester City are six points from safety with ten games remaining after this visit to Stamford Bridge. In any other season, in any other circumstance, this should feel like a massive moment. A chance for redemption.
For a split second, though, I feel nothing.
Then I conjure some hollow, artificial celebration of Hermansen’s achievement. My thought process is that there has been so little to celebrate recently and so little prospect of celebration in the near future that I should make the most of it.
This is what Leicester City have reduced me to. For someone who has travelled all over this country and several others following this club in the past, it’s a bit of a shock.
I think back to my description of how I experience supporting Leicester, from the FA Cup final:
