Ranieri: It will be hard to break down United´s defence

While Vardy’s heroics perfectly encompass Leicester’s inspiring achievements this season, there’s another member of the squad who personifies the club’s unexpected success.

Surprise front-runners Leicester City will be hoping history does not repeat itself when Manchester United provide the opposition in an unlikely top-of-the-table Premier League clash at the King Power Stadium on Saturday. Well, that’s exactly how big this weekend’s game has turned out to be. The visitors may not have deserved the full points, but their organised defence commanded by Sebastian Coates on centre-back and Costel Pantilimon on goal, managed to keep a clean sheet with both players justly making the cut.

If Vardy does break van Nistelrooy’s record it will continue a remarkable rise for a player who was in non-league football with Fleetwood only a few years ago and last season scored just five goals for Leicester. “Him, Riyad Mahrez, and everybody”, Ranieri said.

“For the quality that they have, they should be at the top of the league”.

United manager Louis van Gaal has recently been criticised, with former Red Devils coach Rene Meulensteen following ex-midfielder Paul Scholes in bemoaning the side’s style of play. Romelu Lukaku scored a brace, and Ross Barkley grabbed a double of his own to pummel Remi Garde’s men to a tenth defeat of the league season which sees them rock bottom in the league standings.

Once again, the Arsenal game wasn’t the only game that occurred this weekend as nine other Premier League games were played. Manchester United have also returned to good form and are starting to find their rhythm after a fairly slow start, though they were lucky to escape with three points on Saturday at Vicarage Road.

The Belgian can be backed at 9/2 (BetVictor) to break the deadlock against a Cherries side who have only won one of their six games at home. The first season saw him as a distributor, setting up his teammates and helping Leicester climb out of relegation by going on an incredible run during the last quarter of the Premier League season. And for once most of the spotlight will be on a Leicester player rather than a United one. Playing three of last season’s top four between now and the New Year, many people feel that the Foxes will struggle to maintain a top four spot, whilst the players are taking one game at a time.

Unlike Hull, the Tangerines went down at the first attempt, but by the end of December 2010, they had made a very encouraging start to their first season in the Premier League.

Jamie Vardy is scoring freely for the rampaging Foxes, and they deserve the acclaim and attention they now are receiving. A 13 game winless run between game weeks 6-18 yielded just two points from a possible 39.