"Anybody who can do anything in Leicester but make a jumper has got to be a genius."This was Brian Cloughs way of telling the one player in his career he could never quite get the better of, that having learned from the best, he had done well as a manager in his own right.When Martin ONeill left Leicester City in 2000, he must have felt his record of three top-10 Premier League finishes and two League Cup triumphs would likely never be bettered. Certainly not in his lifetime.Claudio Ranieri, with a disbelieving grin and a twinkle in his eye, has other ideas.If he were alive today, in a week in which Leicester have drawn comparisons to Nottingham Forests title-winning side of 1978, Clough might just have been generous enough to lend Ranieri one of his most oft-repeated quotes: "They say Rome wasnt built in a day, but I wasnt on that particular job."Should Leicester City win the Premier League title, it would be a fitting epitaph for a son of the Eternal City. Either that or "Veni, vidi, vici."From 5,000-1 to win the Premier League at the start of the season, Leicester head into Saturday lunchtimes date with Manchester City three points ahead of their hosts at the summit of the table with just 14 games remaining. They are finally starting to convince those who have written their story to date in pencil that it might just save a whole load of time in May if they start to do it in pen.A piece in the Guardian ahead of the game made the observation that the team that has topped the table at the start of February has gone on to win the league in each of the last 11 seasons. Having become the first side to reach 50 points, courtesy of a 2-0 victory over Liverpool on Tuesday, it is the Foxes in pole position.Jamie Vardy's opening goal was of rare outlandish beauty. To even attempt it at 0-0 said much about where both the player and club are at.The ball was applauding itself before it had even reached the back of the net. In a single stunning moment, the very essence of Leicester City's season was captured like a Richard Avedon photograph.With his first goal from outside of the area this term, the Premier League's top goalscorer put in his bid to win the Goal of the Season. If he falls short in that category, he may have to settle for Player of the Year.Ranieri, whose own part in Leicester's campaign has been criminally understated, is happy enough to embrace his side's position as underdog, though. On Thursday, he conceded his view that Manchester City, along with Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, remain the far more likely title winners, per Sky Sports:The others are the favourites, not Leicester. We are still the underdogs.Who will win' The strongest team.Manchester City are built to win the title and fight for the Champions League. I think the Champions League is their main objective, and I hope they can win.Our fans continue to dream, and that is what we want.All sports possess the capacity to be transcendental, but Premier League money has long since rendered obsolete the faculty in many of us, as writers, fans or casual observers, to think beyond the parameters of the commonplace. In the words of the writer and professional pessimist Charles Bukowski: "I wish to believe, but belief is a graveyard."The indomitable rise and rise of Leicester has felt like the first hit of champagne on an empty stomach at a wedding. At once heady, disorientating and gloriously good fun, theres also been a foreboding sense at the back of the mind that the euphoria isnt quite real. It will be over before the bride and groom have had their first dance, or so we thought, and the pain of a champagne hangover is matched perhaps only by one of the Europa League variety.Leicesters meteoric ascent in this sense has been inversely proportional to the naysayers. Its as though each utterance of doubt adds a layer of armour. Such has been the regularity of predictions that foresee bubbles burst, it is rumoured the clubs fox is starting to resemble an armadillo.With each passing victory,Ranieris players have looked more gladiatorial. Given they have won 14 of their 24 league games, it would barely cause a stir were they to take to the field on Saturday sporting loincloths and sandals instead of studs.Manchester City vs. Leicester City, Saturday at 12.45 p.m. GMTThe bookmakers remain unconvinced. There are even fewer romantic bookies than poor ones, so its no surprise many are offering 5-1 for a Leicester victory against Manchester City on Saturday.For a two-horse race, thats fairly generous given Leicester will kick-off at the Etihad Stadium a furlong in front.That's not to mention there's bound to be an odd atmosphere inside the Etihad. The way Manuel Pellegrini has conducted himself while being ousted from his position when still competing for silverwareon four fronts could not have been classier had he announced his impending departure wearing top hat and tails and white gloves.Stoicism is probably easier to pull off when there are not enough hours in the day to stack your pay-off into neat piles. Make no mistake, though, Pellegrini's gentlemanly nature will be missed amid a sea of tiresome touchline machismo. The dilemma City's supporters will have to wrestle with is how to show their appreciation for Pellegrini, having just bought a Pep Guardiola t-shirt from a hawker outside the ground.It's like that moment when you've got over your parents' separation but don't know when the right time is to ask whether this means two lots of presents at Christmas and birthdays.As a rule of thumb, this season's big fixtures have failed to bring out the best in Manchester City. A 3-0 victory over Chelsea in August is markedly less impressive with hindsight, with defeats against Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal seeing a familiar Achilles heel flare for Pellegrini and his players.Leicester have been uproariously good value all campaign, but it would be a little fallacious to have them marked as favourites for Saturday's game.It's hard to back against any side with a fit and in-form Sergio Aguero at its disposal, yet at the same time, if Leicester counter-attack with the venomous quality they showed against Liverpool, the home side's prosaic back line will almost certainly struggle to contain Vardy and Riyad Mahrez's purpose, power and pace.Leicester's position is even more impressive given a consensus was drawn over the festive period that their bubble had burst. When they lost at Liverpool on Boxing Day and proceeded to win just one of their next four league games, previous incredulous but ubiquitous questions about whether they could win the league became rarer than passed Daniel Sturridgefitness tests.That this period saw Ranieris side draw with Manchester City and take three points off Tottenham at White Hart Lane was largely overlooked. Leicester were given a pat on the head, a butchers bone and told to sit in the corner like a good dog while the adults got on with winning the Premier League.All football clubs have more fishermens tales of the ones that got away than Ernest Hemingwayafter a summer spent on a boat in Cuba, yet in this spell, Leicester drew games with Bournemouth and Aston Villa that saw them miss a penalty in each. Had Mahrez not blotted an otherwise immaculate copybook with those spot-kicks, Leicester would be seven points clear of City heading into Saturdays match.The only thing false about their position is they are not further ahead of the chasing pack.No club in any of England's four top leagues, comprising 92 members, has lost fewer league games than Leicester's pair of defeats this season. Manchester City and Arsenal have lost five times each, Manchester United six and Chelsea nine. Draw specialists Tottenham have the next stingiest defeat column with just three losses.To put into context Leicester's achievement, Barcelona (three) and Real Madrid (five) have both lost more times in La Liga, with Paris Saint Germain (zero) and Bayern Munich (one) the only clubs to have lost fewer games in each of Europe's top five leagues. Have a second to take that in. It's pretty remarkable.When you add into the mix Leicester's great escape last season, which saw them win seven of their final nine matches, they have lost just three of their last 35 games. The general view seems to be squeaky-bum time will be their undoing, but would a sudden implosion on the back of such a sustained record not be odder than keeping it going'Unlike all of their rivals, Leicester can concentrate solely on the league. While Manchester City, to varying degrees, have three other competitions to think about, Arsenal and Tottenham are involved in a further two apiece. Leicester, as the cliche goes, can treat each league game like a cup final without having to worry about any actual finals.Tuesday nights win over Liverpool could prove seismic. There's a huge difference between playing better and being better than your opponents. For all Jurgen Klopp's protestations to the contrary, here was an example of the latter. In not a single area of the field were Liverpool superior to their hosts at the King Power Stadium.The Leicester back four in front of a goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichela model of consistency, having stepped from the foreboding shadow of his fatherhas conceded once in the team's last six league matches. Robert Huth and Wes Morgan are gloriously big and ugly and hard. Either side of them, Danny Simpson and in particular the pugnacious Christian Fuchs display a buccaneering sense of adventure.In the first half of the season, midfield anchorN'Golo Kante was universally hailed as the league's most under-the-radar star before that became a tough moniker to carry off given every newspaper/magazine/ website/pub bore had arrived at the same conclusion.It's a title now carried by team-mate and fellow everyman hero Danny Drinkwater. In the Gareth Barry mould, he's quite good at most things, going about his business with quiet efficiency while sounding like a cartoon character thought up by a government think tank charged with stopping kids from guzzling fizzy drinks.Without getting carried away, there's a bit of Forest circa '78 on the wings too.Mahrez adds the magic a la John Robertson, while the workmanlike Marc Albrighton patrols the opposite flank in the style of Martin O'Neill. After showing signs of fatigue over Christmas, it seems Mahrez has found a second wind and was at his beguiling best in midweek. His end product is so incisive (13 league goals and nine assists) it's almost overlooked what a beautiful player he is to watch.Up top,Shinji Okazaki is a shoo-in for a best supporting actor gong, and there's not much more to be said about Vardy.A purported deadline day move for 35-year-old Ronaldinho, per the Independentthat ultimately went nowhere saw Leicester dodge a Faustino Asprilla-shaped bullet.Few people in sport have better articulated what it is to create a team whose whole is so much more than the sum of its individual parts than legendary American football coach Vince Lombardi: "Individual commitment to a group effortthat is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work."To watch Leicester is to watch that quote step from page and realise itself in full working order. From back to front, a band-of-brothers bond is evident.It's hard to write about Leicester and not romanticise, but if a title tilt from a team assembled for 22.9 million can't stir the heart, perhaps it's worth checking whether it's still ticking.Tottenham Hotspur vs. Watford, Saturday at 3 p.m. GMTLiverpool vs. Sunderland, Saturday at 3 p.m. GMTBournemouth vs. Arsenal, Sunday at 1.30 p.m. GMTChelsea vs. Manchester United, Sunday at 4.00 p.m. GMTRead more World Football news on BleacherReport.com
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