Revenant Ranieri can put Chelsea past to rest by beating Mourinho

Doing much the same for Monaco as he did for the Old Lady, Ranieri returned the Principality club to Ligue 1 and mounted a credible title challenge during 2013/14, but was sacked when they finished second to PSG. That disastrous subsequent steering of the Pirate Ship, as Greece are nicknamed, suggested he was finished in coaching.

Changing perceptions

Not a bit of it. Ranieri is proving the doubters wrong, dispelling myths of those with longer memories that christened him ‘Tinkerman’ in the British tabloids around 15 years ago. His Leicester vintage is not one blended by rotation, but an old-school, fearless 4-4-2 that takes on all-comers.

So clean sheets may be something of a novelty, though the Foxes have kept two in their last three Premier League outings, yet they held a lead against Arsenal and took a point off Manchester United at the King Power Stadium.

Ranieri’s Leicester almost don’t know how to lose with a solitary defeat from 18 games in charge, 11 victories and six very entertaining draws. How this contrasts with Mourinho’s Chelsea, who started the weekend just two points above the bottom three.

What is behind this Foxes flight of fancy? And more to the point, how has Ranieri made it a reality with a very similar squad to the one that propped up the Premier League under predecessor Nigel Pearson as recently as April?

Foxes playing above themselves

Everyone expected the loss of deep-lying midfielder Esteban Cambiasso – last term’s player of the season – to be keenly felt by Leicester. Ranieri’s raid on Caen to pluck N’Golo Kante from Ligue 1 mid-table obscurity has not only plugged this gap, but enhanced the engine room.

In attack, Riyad Mahrez and Jamie Vardy account for 75 per cent of the Foxes’ 32 Premier League goals from the first 15 games. The system allows this key duo to express themselves with an open approach freeing both from defensive responsibilities.

With forward threats enjoying the feeling of complete confidence coursing through their veins, Ranieri is more than capable of taking on spectre Mourinho, who has looked a shadow of his former self in the Stamford Bridge struggles of the third season of his second spell .

Relations between these rivals may have thawed, however. “Claudio deserves all the credit,” Mourinho said of Ranieri. “Leicester are now in a position where only three things can happen to them. One, they can be champions, which would be amazing.

“We cannot be best friends”

“Another would be to finish top four, which again would be a super achievement. And the worst thing that can happen to them is to finish top six, which would be a phenomenal season, too.

“When I was at Inter, Claudio was at the two rivals. We cannot be the best [of] friends. I was in contact when he got the Leicester job, just a normal word of good luck. I always had respect for the man.”

Just how much respect he has for Ranieri will be measured by the way Mourinho’s men set up at the King Power Stadium.

A 21/10 price on Leicester beating the Blues is very tempting because it’s more than plausible, and such a result would allow Ranieri to finally lay this ghost to rest.

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