Leicester success ‘refreshing’ for modern game – Martinez

Romelu Lukaku will be looking to score for the eighth game in a row when Everton welcome Premier League leaders Leicester to Goodison Park on Saturday.

Former England striker Gary Lineker, probably Leicester’s most well-known alumnus, summed up the disdain when he tweeted: “Claudio Ranieri?”.

Leicester are two points clear at the top of the table after Monday’s 2-1 victory over Chelsea and are 12 points clear of 10th-placed Everton. Leicester City are big underdogs and I don’t think that is correct.

And such is the belief under manager Claudio Ranieri that Leicester are not anticipating a defeat in the near future. The visitors also possess fine form on the road, unbeaten in 11 away league games, winning seven of them. “We really need that sort of game to test ourselves and see how far we can progress”.

Had they won all three matches, Everton would be fourth in the Premier League, but instead they are 10th heading into the weekend fixtures.

It’s an incredible achievement by these two players, and they’re making an absolute mockery of Liverpool’s attacking midfielders, who have failed miserably to score/create goals consistently over the last few years.

Ross Barkley has been one of the most productive and the most consistent player in the Premier League this season.

He succeeded two coaches with significant achievements who had played a very different game.

And Ranieri was even more bullish when asked about Leicester’s hopes of hanging on to the star duo during the January transfer window, insisting that he had told them “you are going nowhere”. Talking to the assembled media after watching his team ascend to the peak of English football, the popular Italian implied that he “expected this kind of match because Chelsea have so many champions”.

Ever so occasionally we see mid-to-lower-table clubs string together an early-season run before dropping off prior to the business end of proceedings. “But why would you want to leave this club at the moment?”, Albrighton added.

“They have scored a lot of goals and a team that can do that the way they are doing has a chance to be successful”.

A late decision will be made about whether the midfielder can be included, while defender John Stones suffered no ill-effects from the knocks to his ankle and knee he picked up before and during the draw at Norwich.

Owner Roman Abramovich continues to hold regular conversations with chairman Bruce Buck, directors Marina Granovskaia and Eugene Tenenbaum as well as Chelsea’s technical director Michael Emenalo over the best course of action to arrest the team’s alarming slump in form.