Leicester boss Claudio Ranieri learned from Jurgen Klopp after Greece sacking

Leicester City aims to keep its surprising stranglehold on first place into the new year, but it must overcome a test at Liverpool to prevent opening the door for Arsenal to seize the top spot.

It means that Liverpool are now four games without a win in all competitions and have picked up just one point from matches against Newcastle, West Bromwich Albion and Watford in what is turning out to be a damaging December.

“I would like to be cooler but I am pretty emotional”, he said in his pre-match media conference ahead of the game with Premier League leaders Leicester City on Saturday.

The players are seen partaking in a religious ritual conducted by a Buddhist monk.

Despite the arrival of Klopp, Liverpool is still having an average season and they are now ninth in the standings and have five points fewer than teams who occupy European positions with hopes of winning the title as good as gone.

Photos have surfaced of the players in their dressing before one of their games.

Leicester’s tremendous record in their last 12 games – 10 wins and two draws – overplays expectations from the players themselves.

Out: Jon Flanagan, Joe Gomez, Danny Ings (knee); Daniel Sturridge, Jordan Rossiter, Martin Škrtel (hamstring); James Milner (calf). In doubt: Dejan Lovren (knee); Simon Mignolet (hamstring).

In recent days, though, the Italian’s tone has changed as his team close in on their initial target of 40 points, the watermark tally traditionally required to avoid relegation.

The German praised England’s current team as “really talented”, but said the lack of a winter break in the country would count against them at Euro 2016.

Only one of the last six clubs to lead the Premier League on Christmas Day have failed to claim the trophy and that dubious honour is held by Leicester’s Boxing Day opponents, who were pipped by Manchester City in 2013-14. Divock Origi did not fare any better after coming on as a first half substitute in a display littered with errors, and as they know, Leicester will punish mistakes just as clinically as Watford did, so they must be ironed out quickly.

Leicester have enjoyed a stunning start to life under boss Claudio Ranieri, who has lifted the club to top of the table since replacing Nigel Pearson in the summer. “Why can’t we continue to run, run, run?” “We are like Forrest Gump”.

“That’s not how I think we should work”.

“But in Jurgen, we have to all believe and look forward to a much better and happier 2016”. “In the last 30 minutes Inter Milan scored a goal and won the scudetto [title]”, he remembered.