Last season’s meeting between Chelsea and Leicester City at the King Power Stadium was significant for all sorts of reasons. Some were fairly obvious at the time, but many would have seemed so far-fetched that they would never have been considered.

Jose Mourinho’s sacking was almost inevitable after Chelsea’s defeat, whilst Leicester winning the title was pretty much still a perceived impossibility, even in December.

Some consequences are tangible, others symbolic - the champions losing to the champions-in-waiting, whilst Claudio Ranieri grabbed his chance to lift at Leicester the title he couldn’t win at Chelsea.

This weekend, both Blues meet again in Leicester - this time both with Italian managers - in a game that affords us a chance to make sense of what’s happened and what’s yet to come.

Last December, it was Jose Mourinho in charge of Chelsea, the champions of England. A team who, only a few months previously, were tipped to win everything under the sun with their special manager back in his spiritual home. The word on everyone’s lips that summer was ‘dynasty’ given how relentless Chelsea were in their march to the title: Mourinho looked to have his side primed like hungry dogs, but no one saw the demise coming.

Their downfall was miraculous, so perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised by their resurgence, then. After all, this is almost exactly the same team who won the title, seemingly without ever getting out of second gear.

Looking back, very much with the benefit of hindsight, the equivalent fixture last season is probably where things started to get real. Leicester’s 2-1 victory put the Foxes back on top of the table and Chelsea just one point above the relegation zone. Three days later Mourinho was sacked. Chelsea’s crisis was confirmed, and Leicester went into the Christmas period as serious title contenders: their game against Manchester City on December 29th (which ended 0-0) was billed as a huge battle in the title war.

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This year, we’ve been shown that Chelsea aren’t as bad a side as they showed that season. But Leicester are more of an enigma. Has the magic gone, or are Leicester just not as good as we thought they were? No one predicted they’d retain the title, but relegation candidates? Only the most callous cynics would have suggested such a thing at the start of the season.

The roles have been reversed this weekend, it’s Chelsea who top the table, and Leicester just above the drop. Above it by a fairly comfortable six points, though they may be.

Chelsea come into this season’s game knocking on the door of champions whilst Leicester, like a cartoon character desperately holding off a baying mob, stand with their backs to the relegation door, just about managing to keep the tide from breaking in as the door threatens to collapse off its hinges.

Antonio Conte’s side are, strangely enough, in a roughly similar position to Leicester last season. A once in a lifetime moment like Leicester, the 5000-1 donkey, winning the league is somehow the blueprint for Chelsea - champions of England in four of the last 12 years - to follow.

They are league leaders who, unlike most of their rivals, are without the distraction of European football. They play a fairly rigid, yet effective, system, and a group of players we all know will play most weeks without too much rotation.

There are major differences, of course. The size of club and expectation, the players who have done it all before - recently, in fact - a relentless taskmaster of a coach (even if a personable and dedicated one) who is unlikely to sanction pizza after clean sheets and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle themed trips to Copenhagen during FA Cup week. Whereas Leicester had nothing to lose, Chelsea do. If Leicester collapsed, fourth place would still have been an unmitigated success: it would still have been a fairytale. If Chelsea collapse and finish fourth, well that would be one for the bottle bank.

The roles have been reversed, and this weekend’s meeting between the last two champions will go some way to defining who this season’s champion is to be. The King Power meeting between the two last season was a significant realignment of the world order, as far as the Premier League was concerned, whilst the Stamford Bridge meeting was a passing of the baton. On the 2015/16 Premier League map, that fixture would have crossed swords beside it to indicate a major battle.

This season, the Stamford Bridge meeting was where the power was wrested back. This weekend, one or both of Liverpool and Manchester United are set to drop points, whilst Manchester City face a tough trip to Everton. Perhaps, then, this season’s meeting at the King Power between Leicester and Chelsea will prove to be a passing of the baton in itself.

Just as Leicester’s victory over Chelsea proved their worthiness of the crown, Chelsea’s first victory over Leicester was a start. But crossing swords with the champions on their home turf and coming away with the victory would mark another significant battle and help to decide the destination of the title.

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