Leicester’s Riyad Mahrez is going nowhere – Claudio Ranieri

“I expect the Reds to return to winning ways in what promises to be a real Christmas cracker”.

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri insists that Riyad Mahrez is happy at the club and is not thinking of a January move.

The Foxes, beaten just once this season, can cement their position as shock title challengers when they travel to Liverpool on Saturday and then host Manchester City on Tuesday.

“We must continue to play and work hard”.

“They play almost flawless counter attacking football, very quick”.

In what will probably go down as one of the more unusual comparisons to be made by a manager when trying to pay a compliment to his team, Claudio Ranieri has likened Leicester City to Forrest Gump due to their stamina levels and his players’ ability to “run, run, run”.

Liverpool will still be without seven players through injury as Dejan Lovren, Martin Skrtel, Joe Gomez, Danny Ings, James Milner, Daniel Sturridge and Jon Flanagan remain sidelined.

“We have to avoid starts like we have had too often this season”, Klopp said.

1,000/1 to be top at Christmas Leicester City have accomplished that, from cellar dwellars to Champions League hopefuls and title contenders, it certainly has been an incredible twelve months for Leicester City and their fans.

“We then lost to Arsenal and people thought ‘is that it, is that them finished now?’ and we’ve bounced back and now we’re 10 unbeaten again, so we’ve got resilience and quality in depth which we can call upon when needed”.

The Foxes spent last Christmas at the bottom of the Premier League but will be top this time around after an awesome start.

“I spoke to the two guys, we continue together, we can improve”. Now, they must enjoy it. They must play free, without pressure.

A stunning run of form sees Leicester top of the log in the first half of the season. It is stupid if we have pressure. Why? But the 64-year-old is happy to be written off, claiming that Arsenal are the team to beat.

Only two players have been involved in more goals than Riyad Mahrez (20) in the top five European leagues so far in 2015-16 – Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (22) and Zlatan Ibrahimovic (21).

‘Every ball for us is the last ball.