Leicester City spent five of these nine seasons outside the Premier League and four in it, from 2014/15 to 2017/18. In the middle of those four sits the season nothing can move. Take Manchester City out of 2015/16 and Leicester are champions by ten points, exactly as they were for real.
Around it, the table barely stirs. In 2014/15 and 2017/18 Leicester lost both games to City, so no points come off, and they take the free place, City’s own, and nothing more: 13th instead of 14th, then 8th instead of 9th. In 2016/17 the points they took off City cancel the free place and one place more.
In all Leicester took 7 points off City in eight league games: two wins, a draw and five defeats. Four of those points came in the title season.
2015/16
Still by ten
A season earlier Leicester had spent much of the campaign bottom and finished 14th. This time they went top for the last time on 23 January, and on 10 April, with five games left, they had 72 points to Tottenham’s 65. City were fourth on 57.
Two of their results come off. On 6 February Leicester won 3–1 at the Etihad, in front of its biggest crowd of the season, days after Manuel Pellegrini announced he would leave City. Huth scored after three minutes and again on the hour; Mahrez scored early in the second half. The 0–0 at home on 29 December goes too. 81 becomes 77.
It changes nothing at the top, because the chasers lose at least as much. Arsenal also lose a win and a draw against City, four points; Spurs lose six. For real Leicester finished ten clear of Arsenal, 81 to 71. Without City they are still ten clear.