Can Leicester continue on the path to Premier League glory?

Beating Germany was fun but for most English football fans last weekend's international break was an unwanted interlude in what's been the most gripping Premier League season ever.

Now the Three Lions are forgotten and everyone is talking about Foxes instead as the nation's attention returns to Leicester City, and their quest for sporting immortality.

The side who, 12 months ago, were in serious danger of relegation from the Premier League, are now sitting pretty at the top of the table, five points clear of Tottenham, the only team who can realistically catch them between now and 15 May.

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In that time Leicester have seven matches to maintain their grip on the title and cause arguably the greatest upset in the history of English football.

At the star of the season the odds of Leicester winning the title were 5,000-1, but as the BBC has reported that was good enough for one fan, Leigh Herbert, to back his team with a fiver.

Since then the odds have dropped from 1,500-1 in October, to 500-1 in November, to 66-1 in December and 7-1 in February, the month when most people started to really believe Leicester could pull off the impossible.

While the experts and bookies awaited the inevitable Leicester slump, it has been Arsenal and Manchester City who have both slipped out of the title race, unable to handle the pressure.

Now only Tottenham remain but their destiny is out of their hands and they must hope Leicester trip up at least twice in their remaining seven games, while their form stays solid.

On Sunday Leicester host Southampton while Tottenham travel to Liverpool tomorrow. Should Spurs lose and Leicester win, the Foxes will have one hand on the Premier League trophy with neither club having much of an advantage in the end of season run-in.

Both must play Manchester United and Chelsea while Spurs also travel to Stoke, who have lost just one of their last six league matches.

No one knows the pressure of a title race better than Sir Alex Ferguson, and the former Manchester United manager told Sky Sports that he believes Leicester will hold their nerve in the home straight.

"You would think their inexperience would count, but Leicester have unbelievable energy and togetherness that suggests they're going to see it through," explained Ferguson, who guided United to 13 league titles during his 26 years at Old Trafford. "For instance, they've won their last few games 1-0. I had a season at United where we had eight 1-0 victories and that won us the league.

Those 1-0s are really important because it points out to me that they are a unit, they're not going to lose."

Declaring that Leicester "deserve to win" the title, Ferguson lavished praise on the man responsible for bringing them to the brink of their first top-flight championship success.

"I don't see any nerves and that's down to the manager, he's brought a calming influence. It's fantastic, they are a breath of fresh air and it's great for the game."

Ferguson encountered Claudio Ranieri when the latter was in charge of Chelsea between 2000 and 2004, and the former Manchester United boss said it is because of the Italian that Leicester "have a determination about them".

"I only see Tottenham being a danger to Leicester. [They] are playing some of the best football I've seen from a Spurs team in many years. But Leicester have got the edge. I think they'll get there."

Can Leicester beat the pressure and reach 'immortality'?

14 March

Leicester City go into their match against Newcastle United tonight with the growing realisation that they are on the brink of history.

With eight games left in the season, victory would leave the Foxes five points clear of Tottenham Hotspur, who kept up the pressure with a 2-0 win over Aston Villa on Sunday.

But the reality is that Leicester are likely to need no more than 16 points from their final nine games to win the title and they could bag three of them against the Magpies.

For the Foxes' number one fan Gary Lineker, it is overwhelming. A year ago, the team were bottom of the table and apparently doomed to relegation. But they have lost only four league matches in the last 12 months and are now "on the edge of sporting immortality".

"What we are witnessing, should Leicester go on to win the title, is quite possibly the most unlikely triumph in the history of team sport," Lineker writes in The Guardian. "A collection of individuals who couldn't win a football match for love nor money a year ago have turned into an invincible force.

"I don't think I have ever wanted something to happen more in sport in my entire life."

But, he notes, it could still unravel. Observers have been waiting for the bubble to burst all season and writing in The Times, Matthew Syed warns that Leicester are now more vulnerable than ever.

"They are on the verge of an achievement that will transform the lives of the squad and staff. The temptation to hold on, to alter their approach — to psychologically cash out, as it were — must be overwhelming. It might also prove fatal," he argues.

"This is a team who have subverted expectation by playing with flair and resolve, creating the impression that they are enjoying themselves. They compete with will, tactical coherence and, above all, an absence of fear. And yet these are the ingredients most at risk from loss aversion."

The pressure is now greater than ever for the Foxes "are attempting to overcome an entire system", says Martin Samuel in the Daily Mail.

"Almost every change to the structure of football in the last 30 years has been designed to push the likes of Leicester further from the top table. That is why so many will regard a title win for them as the pinnacle of achievement."