I will stay with Leicester even if everything goes wrong: Ranieri

RIYAD MAHREZ SCORED two penalties as Leicester City won 3-2 at Everton on Saturday to ensure they will be top of the Premier League at Christmas.

Wes Morgan is trying to remain calm regarding Leicester City’s brilliant first half of the Premier League season.

City were well below their sparkling, swashbuckling best at Goodison Park but two penalties from Riyad Mahrez and a goal from Shinji Okazaki secured Leicester’s first victory on the blue side of Merseyside for 30 years.

Tenth-placed Everton host the table-toppers on Saturday, with Martinez optimistic that his team can end the Foxes’ 11-game unbeaten away run in the league.

Leicester, Dec 19 Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has promised the club’s owners that he would not quit even if they are relegated from the English Premier League (EPL). Of course they are title contenders, why shouldn’t they be?

Yet Ranieri wouldn’t discuss Leicester’s title hopes when asked if they could challenge and instead gave a typically cryptic response. “We didn’t know we would be on this amount of points after 17 games so that is wonderful for us”. I’ve seen them decisions given and not given.

The Premier League’s 15-goal leading scorer Jamie Vardy did not add to his tally but had a hand in all three goals before he was replaced late on by Leonard Ulloa. “It is nice to have 38 points, that is very nice and is good”.

“I have managed a lot of top teams and there were a lot of great players”. “That is football. Football is insane”.

Under current boss Claudio Ranieri, Leicester have gone from being hotly tipped to be relegated to, at the very least, candidates to play in Europe next season.

“I changed and put [Leonardo] Ulloa on to keep possession and jump for the set-plays”.

“The performance in a defensive way was very good because Everton moved the ball very fast to try and create some space and if I think how many saves Kasper (Schmeichel) made, there were not too many”.

Whether or not the Italian can inspire his outfit to continue their form into 2016 remains to be seen, but in a week in which they have defeated Chelsea at home and Everton away, they will be forgiven for celebrating their current success.