CLAUDIO RANIERI CONFIDENT LEADERS LEICESTER WILL NOT FREEZE
LEICESTER CITY can see the summit now and Claudio Ranieri is talking l i ke a manager starting to believe he can conquer English football’s e quivalent of Mount Everest.
‘It’s like a climber,’ said the Italian after a stunning victory at Manchester City established the 5000-1 outsiders as favourites for the Premier League title for the first time.
‘You have to look up. If you look down, you go: “Oh my God, look where we are!”.
‘That’s important because it’s the first time in the players’ lives that they are doing something special.’
Special? The word hardly does justice to Leicester’s efforts so far this season.
They are 13 games away from beating the Premier League’s elite to the title, and what would go down as an incredible feat.
Arsenal are next at the Emirates on Sunday and the challenge for Ranieri now i s keeping the pressure off his players as each match takes greater significance.
It was one he addressed less than an hour after two goals from the inspirational Robert Huth a nd o ne from t he sensational Riyad Mahrez had given Leicester a deserved victory at the Etihad.
Ranieri insists his players are under less pressure now than they were at the bottom of the table fighting for Premier League survival this time last year when they forged the amazing spirit that has carried them to the top of the pile.
On the contrary, he believes that Leicester’s title rivals City, Arsenal and Tottenham are feeling the heat as they face losing out to a team built on a fraction of their budgets.
‘For Leicester, the pressure was at the beginning of the season when we started out because our goal was to maintain our position in the Premier League,’ said Ranieri.
‘But now the pressure is on the other teams who have spent a lot of money to win the Premier League and the Champions League.
‘Of course they’re nervous but it doesn’t matter to me.
‘It’s not my problem. We are enjoying it. Last season was a big, big pressure for the players because if you don’t survive and go down it’s difficult to come back. That is helping the spirit now.
‘Now they can remember the pressure they faced last season, they can smell how it was and stay calm this time.’
Meanwhile, Pablo Zabaleta admits the City players are fearing for their futures at the club as Pep Guardiola prepares to take over from Manuel Pellegrini in the summer.
City are hoping that the early announcement of Guardiola’s appointment does not derail their season, with Pellegrini’s team chasing trophies on all four fronts.
But Zabaleta is among the old guard who will be most under threat from the inevitable changes when the Spaniard arrives from Bayern Munich.
The Argentine defender said: ‘We need to deal with it. The club decided to announce this now after so many rumours, and we really understand this.
‘We’ll see at the end of the season with the new manager coming in. We suspect changes, it’s normal. But now is not the right time to talk about the future.’
Pellegrini revealed that Spanish playmaker David Silva is a major doubt for the clash with secondplaced Tottenham next weekend due to a persistent ankle problem, leaving him with only 13 fit senior outfield players.
The City boss acknowledged that a pile-up of fixtures and injuries for his club gives Leicester a distinct advantage in the dramatic title race.
He added: ‘We must win against Tottenham. In the way we are playing the season, in every competition, every game is like a final.’