beIN SPORTS

By Graham Ruthven (@grahamruthven)

Perhaps for the first time, Leicester City allowed themselves a moment on Sunday. Until then the Foxes had looked only straight ahead, as if recognising where they truly found themselves would act only as a distraction. With victory over Sunderland, though, they finally took in the view from atop the Premier League.

Their 2-0 win at the Stadium of Light momentarily opened up a 10 lead over Spurs, with just six games left to play of the season. The Foxes’ celebrations in front of their travelling fans on Wearside, along with Claudio Ranieri’s tears upon the full time whistle, illustrated a team finally enjoying their imminent success. They know they have almost achieved the impossible. The biggest upset of the Premier League era has all but come to fruition. It would take a dramatic collapse for it not to happen now. 

Of course, their players and manager insist differently when confronted with a camera or a microphone. "You make this job for the emotion you feel inside but it is difficult for me to tell you what kind," Ranieri said after the win at the Stadium of Light. "The fans must continue to dream but we must be concentrated and focused. We have to stay calm, be focused, strong, solid and keep going. Today we made some mistakes. We still have to look at what is not right.”

Ranieri is being disingenuous, however. Leicester are surely looking at their current position with a wider scope, targeting their first ever Premier League triumph. The greatest ever Premier League triumph. It’s why, in recent weeks, their style of play has been adapted, putting the importance of winning above anything else, registering four 1-0 victories in their last five outings.

With every match the slip up has been predicted, and with every match the Foxes have quelled those predictions. The same happened once again at the Stadium of Light on Sunday, when Leicester saw off a side fighting for their top flight survival. Even revised expectations are being surprised by Ranieri’s team. 

For so many aspiring title challengers before Leicester, the spine is the thing that breaks. Teams like Arsenal, Spurs and Liverpool not so long ago fell just short because the core of their side simply wasn’t strong enough. They lacked the mental capacity, too. Not in the case of the Foxes, though. Their spin is what has sustained them.

In Kasper Schmeichel, Robert Huth, N’Golo Kante and Jamie Vardy, Leicester have the strongest linear lineup of any side in the Premier League. They are at the top of the standings because they belong to be there. They have been, by quite some distance, the best side of the 2015/16 campaign. No team has ever fluked a title win achieved over 38 games, and Leicester won’t be the first.

It speaks volumes of just how far above expectations Leicester City have performed this season that their qualification for next season’s Champions League almost passed without acknowledgement. To only finish in the top four would be something of a disappointment having come this far. Ambitions - expectation, even - are loftier than that at the King Power Stadium. 

The surrealism that once rendered Leicester’s title challenge is starting to dissipate. In its place there is a wider acceptance that the Foxes are where they belong to be, regardless of natural order or the established food chain. Their place at the top of the table no longer looks so unfamiliar, given that they have been there for all but four weeks of the season.

Still, there are five games left to play and 15 points up for grabs. Spurs’ win over Manchester United keeps them in contention, seven points behind the league leaders. But Leicester may have already won the race to be crowned champions in the minds of those who have doubted them all the way.