Eric Dier reveals ‘unfair’ Premier League title race decision which gave Tottenham ‘a sucker punch every week’
ERIC DIER has revealed the “unfair” title race decision which gave Tottenham “a sucker punch every week” against Leicester.
The Foxes soared to Premier League victory in the 2015/16 season as stars like Jamie Vardy and N’Golo Kante gave their all for Claudio Ranieri.
Nobody was expecting Leicester to even stay up that term after they narrowly avoided relegation the year before.
But their miracle achievement was almost undone by a relentless Tottenham side guided by Mauricio Pochettino.
The Londoners almost went top of the league in March 2016 before drawing with Arsenal.
And their efforts were finally undone with a famous 2-2 draw at Chelsea in a furious game dubbed the ‘Battle of the Bridge’.
However, Dier believes Tottenham’s title hopes were constantly made harder by the fact that they almost always played second to Leicester each weekend.
The 30-year-old defender told Gary Neville on the Overlap that he and his Spurs teammates would watch in dismay as the Foxes bagged victory after victory in earlier kick-offs.
It meant Tottenham would have to win their game just to stay in touch.
And Dier believes there are parallels to be drawn with the current Bundesliga title race.
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Bayer Leverkusen are just one win away from becoming champions after a glorious unbeaten campaign.
But Dier feels his Bayern Munich side have never had the chance to put the pressure on due to the fixture scheduling.
Lamenting the “unfair sucker punch”, Dier said: “Obviously you never want to rule out winning the league, but the defeat against Borussia Dortmund was a bit of a sucker punch.
“I’ve been in that situation before with Tottenham when Leicester were going for the title.
“I felt it was really unfair at the time because they seemed to play before us every single week, and it was never like we can win first and put the pressure on them.
“Every weekend was a bit of a sucker punch because they would win their game, so we were never able to gain any momentum.”
Eric Dier was speaking on The Overlap, brought to you by Sky Bet
Eric Dier's career stats
Those numbers in full:
- Sporting Lisbon, 2012-2014: 31 games, 1 goal
- Tottenham, 2014-2024: 365 games, 13 goals
- Bayern Munich, 2024: 11 games, 0 goals
- England, 2015-2022: 49 games, 3 goals