Football
PA Sport 8y

Claudio Ranieri ready to take 'risks' with Leicester to win Premier League

Foxes Boss Claudio Ranieri is ready to risk dropping points to keep Leicester's title bid alive.

City's late 1-0 win over Norwich on Saturday kept them top of the Premier League after Ranieri's tinkering. The Italian scarified right-back Daniel Amartey for striker Leonardo Ulloa with 12 minutes left and the former Brighton man won it 10 minutes later.

Tottenham's 2-1 win over Swansea on Sunday cut the gap at the top to two points and Ranieri said he will always be willing to gamble if it means they can maintain their charge.

"Yes. I took a lot of risks. I said: 'In or out -- it's not important now.' One point is nothing -- we have to win," he said.

"You can lose but it's only one point less than a draw. Yes, we took the risk but the manager is hired for this reason, to take a risk."

But, despite staying top, Ranieri was not willing to talk too much about Leicester's title chances.

He added: "I understand everyone asks will we win the title? I don't know. Let me now get past the next four matches, then I might say something more! I can't tell you too much for another month."

The goal was just Ulloa's third of the season with the forward having started only five league games and he admitted the pressure is now on Leicester, ahead of Tuesday's visit of West Brom.

Ulloa added: :Every game is difficult for us. People think it's easy for Leicester. It's not. Every game is never easy. It's important to stay focus and to give 100 percent because against Norwich it was so difficult and against West Brom it will be the same.

"It's different when you play against big teams but we knew this would be difficult and was more difficult than Arsenal because the pressure is on us, not for them."

Norwich are above the drop zone on goal difference and captain Russell Martin insisted they can survive ahead of Tuesday's visit of Chelsea and Saturday's trip to drop rivals Swansea.

"We've got 11 games left, none of them are going to be easy, that's for sure," he said. "These two are extremely tough. We've got plenty of teams in and around us in the next few weeks.

"But Tuesday is a game at home against a Chelsea team that have been indifferent this season in their form, so we'll go and have a go and attack it, like we did against Leicester."

^ Back to Top ^