Claudio Ranieri insists that leading Leicester City to the most remarkable title triumph in Premier League history would not serve as revenge on the critics who have questioned the Italian throughout his career.
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“Obviously we can not make any mistakes”.
The 64-year-old manager underlined his side’s small-team tag and adhered to the cautious stance he has embraced right from the point underdogs Leicester jumped into the fray as title contenders. Should be a good game, I’m going for a draw. We’re still going to play an open game, we’re still going to attack the opposition.
Palace (16th) have not won in 13 league games and are the only team in the top four English leagues without a league victory this year.
Meanwhile, the Foxes go on face Sunderland (A) and West Ham United (H) before hosting Swansea City at the King Power Stadium, in a run of fixtures that they will feel confident about. “I was so happy I went to the pitch because I recognised it was a very, very hard match to beat them”.
Palace’s Damien Delaney hit the crossbar in stoppage time, but the surprising Foxes held on to take another step toward an unlikely title.
Palace have failed to keep a clean sheet in their last 10 league matches, conceding 23 goals.
“They ask me if I can give them one day more – big bandits”, he said.
“I think they showed in the first half why they are top of the league”, Palace manager Alan Pardew said.
After a stunning first half of the season that prompted talk of securing a place in Europe next season, Palace’s slide means their concern is now with maintaining the eight-point gap that separates them from the bottom three.
“We were a lot better in the second half but there is no disguising that we haven’t win for a long time now”.
“But they’ve done a great job, from the chairman down to the kit man. Good luck to them”.
The Hammers looked set to jump Manchester City into the Champions League qualification places, however an 87th minute penalty given to the Blues by referee Robert Madley was duly converted by Cesc Fabregas to equalise the scores. We have to see the game out. “We know we’re involved in that, but we have enough quality in our dressing room to get out”, he added.
The Australian stopper said: “Initially, it was kind of the way that we were playing”.
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