Ranieri deflects pressure onto BPL pretenders Spurs

Leicester manager Claudio Ranieri has moved to take the pressure off his shock Premier League leaders by tipping Tottenham as title favourites.

Ranieri's side are two points clear of second placed Tottenham and host West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday with Mauricio Pochettino's men facing West Ham on Wednesday. Tottenham's 2-1 win over Swansea on Sunday kept the pressure on Leicester, who beat Norwich 1-0 on Saturday, but, in a transparent attempt to ease the burden on his own players, Ranieri insisted the north Londoners are frontrunners.

“Tottenham, in my opinion, are favourites then Arsenal, Manchester City,” he told reporters. “Spurs are strong in every situation. When they defend and when they attack they know what they want. Everyone is speaking about Leicester but nobody is speaking about Tottenham. We are the surprise, that is fantastic, a good energy, but if we are realistic the real competitors are City, Arsenal and Tottenham. Our job is done, we wanted to be safe and now there is something new. You can achieve something new if you think match-by-match. Now we are focused on West Brom, we know we can win, lose or draw but it's not important what the other teams do.”