Riyad Mahrez has looked a shadow of the player who won last season's PFA Player of The Year award, during Leicester City's troubled 2016/17 campaign, which saw the Foxes' sack Claudio Ranieri, the man who just a year ago led them to the most improbable league title victory in English football history.
Despite the Algerian's lack of form this season, he is still continuously linked with move away from the King Power stadium, with Arsenal and Tottenham both credited with an interest in the winger.
Whereas Mahrez finished last season with 18 goals in 39 appearances, this time around the 26-year-old has just 10 goals in 46 matches and has received criticism from several quarters for a perceived lack of effort in games.
The Algerian winger hasn't had much cause to celebrate this season. Image: PA
Prior to today's lunchtime kick-off with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium, Mahrez was filmed by TV cameras walking into City's ground, chatting to striker Islam Slimani.
The pair appeared to be talking about Chelsea's title victory, last night, when Mahrez appeared to say something a little bit surprising.
In response to Slimani saying "Hey, Chelsea are champions", Mahrez is recorded as saying, "They're an incredible club. A real club."
Quite why the pair would randomly just start talking about an event that everyone involved with English football had known about for 12 hours by that point, is anyone's guess. What's even more peculiar is why they would do so within shot of a TV camera.
Of course, Mahrez and Slimani may have been misinterpreted or were simply being sly with their choice of words in order to set tongues wagging in the gossip columns.
Featured Image Credit: SFR Sport
Topics: Riyad Mahrez, Leicester City, Football, Chelsea FC