Drinkwater cancels out Fabregas penalty

Not so much action but celebration, introspection and speculation in equal healthy measure. The celebration belonged to Leicester, of course, as they rescued a deserved point through Danny Drinkwater’s long-range strike which cancelled out Cesc Fabregas’ penalty and stopped them picking up just their fourth defeat of the season. 

But it was about what had come before, the visiting fans in the Shed End were rightly in fine voice throughout, celebrating their amazing title triumph. “Champione, champione” was never far from their lips.

The introspection belonged to Chelsea. Such was the utter decimation of the cub in the early part of the campaign, they did well to recover to a mid-table finish and owed that to the calming influence of Guus Hiddink who sailed the club back into calmer waters following the violent early-season lurching under Jose Mourinho. But the mood dipped again at the Bridge following Leicester’s equaliser.

The speculation surrounded John Terry and the new contract offer he is chewing over that involves him taking on a “different role” at the club. It was another Terry love-in at the Bridge - the 26th minute marking a prolonged show of support for the captain, reciprocated by the defender, sat on the Chelsea bench serving his suspension.

On a sun-soaked afternoon this end-of-season, sing-along allowed the outgoing champions to pay their respects to the new Premier League winners and the end-of-term, holiday’s-a-coming feel was very much in the air. Claudio Ranieri, formerly of Chelsea, and his players were given a guard of honour at the start and the home fans’ applause of Leicester’s incredible achievement was warm and heartfelt. Both sets of fans stood to applaud Leicester during the first half.

What a difference in atmosphere both on the pitch and off compared to the previous encounter at this ground. The last visitors were Spurs on that bitter evening that ended Tottenham’s title hopes and gave Chelsea a modicum of joy to cling to.