Ranieri stands on the precipice of one of the greatest sporting achievements ever, with Leicester top of the Premier League pile by seven points with five games to play.
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“That’s normal. It’s like a fairytale and they deserve all the credit they are getting”.
Their fans have already won a “victory” of sorts after a social media campaign forced officials to pull Leicester-based referee Kevin Friend from their match amid concerns he might be perceived to favour Stoke because of the Foxes’ position. I don’t know who. “But it comes back to the manager – how does he cope with that?”
The Sky Bet customer placed the highly ambitious bet when the Foxes were an fantastic 5000/1 and now with just five games to go Claudio Ranieri’s side are placed at odds of 1/5 with bookies.
At the other end of the table, Norwich will relegate basement club Aston Villa before the Birmingham side face Manchester United on Saturday if they avoid defeat in the early kick-off match against fellow strugglers Sunderland. They play really good football when they’re on it.
Leicester have no fresh injury concerns, going into the game.
“It’s massive that we are keeping a winning habit going”.
When Leicester won the League Cup in 1997, the local newspaper organized a statue to commemorate the occasion.
Now the Hammers are out of the cup, they must concentrate on the league: “We have to come together, raise our level, stop conceding and try to win these six games”, he says.
“I can’t see it”, he replied when asked if Leicester could at last suffer a blip.
But, with Champions League qualification secured by last weekend’s win at Sunderland, Albrighton acknowledges the focus is now firmly on lifting the Premier League trophy, even if he finds it nearly unthinkable that they could complete such a feat.
The Hammers have lost just four of their last 16 Premier League away games (W6 D6 L4).
“It goes through the whole spine of the time”. There is no doubt because I’ve been with these players all season, seeing them closely.
“Toby (Alderweireld) and I have been playing together for such a long time and with the full-backs, Hugo (Lloris), Eric (Dier) just in front, Mousa (Dembele) as well it’s like a warm bath!”
‘So, he was there, but then we got some players in the same positions and it would have simply been too many players for the same position’. But when it’s time to get serious, he’ll get serious. One, you could probably find one to bring in, but you need to keep that core structure safe. The next thing is the Champions League.
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The Gunners do have a game in hand on their arch-rivals Spurs and are determined to maintain their record of never finishing below them in the 20 seasons Wenger has been in charge.
