Leicester City may be top of English football at Christmas for the first time in their 131-year history but manager Claudio Ranieri is still playing down title talk.
Ahead of the festive matches against Liverpool and Manchester City, all the Italian would say was that if his team won both they would have 44 points, four more than the first objective he had set, to avoid relegation.
Leicester, who avoided going down in May thanks to a late run of victories under Nigel Pearson, began the season at odds of 1,000-1 to be top of the Premier League at Christmas.
That encouraged one optimistic fan to wager £5 on them with bookmakers Ladbrokes.
The supporter celebrated after a 3-2 win at Everton on Saturday helped Leicester go into the holiday fixtures with a two-point lead over second-placed Arsenal.
Ranieri, who took over in the close-season after Pearson was sacked, said he was looking no further than Saturday's return to Merseyside to play Liverpool.
"We are doing well but haven't achieved anything yet," he said. "If we win the next two games we have 44 points, I hope with 40 we are safe.
"I'm proud of my players and our fans. The fans are dreaming and I don't want to wake them up."
Ranieri also addressed the question of Leicester's direct style after statistics released this week showed they play fewest sideways and backwards passes of any Premier League team, and also take fewest passes before every attempt on goal.
"Possession is important but it's not our best," he said. "We're strong because we play to our strengths."
Those strengths have made Leicester the team of the season so far with two of the league's outstanding performers in top scorer Jamie Vardy (15 goals) and Algerian Riyad Mahrez (13).
Meanwhile, Ranieri has told Riyad Mahrez he must learn to deal with the spotlight and speculation.
The 14-goal winger is likely to stay at the King Power Stadium in January despite being linked with a move away.
League leaders Leicester are not interested in selling Mahrez, who signed a new four-year deal in August, and Ranieri knows the Algeria winger needs to handle the extra pressure ahead of the January transfer window.
He said: "He wants to stay with us, we want to keep him and that's it. He has to improve and when he improves, the team improves and when that happens why would he want to go away? He's a king here.
"He can grow with the team because if you stay at the bottom and fight no-one knows you but now everybody is talking about you and that is maybe a bit of pressure.
"You have to manage this kind of pressure. It's important for him to manage this stress. It's important he understands on the pitch is one thing and the TVs and newspapers are another thing."
