Claudio Ranieri plays down Leicester City title talk

Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has played down suggestions that the title is now his side's to lose following their 1-0 win over Watford this evening.

Riyad Mahrez scored the only goal of the game at Vicarage Road to send the Foxes five points clear at the top of the table with just nine games remaining, after Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal had both dropped points in the North London derby.

Ranieri acknowledged that it was an "important" three points for his side, but insists that they have won nothing yet and will need to approach all of their remaining matches like cup finals.

"An important win, a big battle. Now there will be only battles for everybody not just for us. A tough match. We created four or five chances, they created two or three. We are so happy now," he told BBC Sport.

"We wanted to show what we have inside. The desire is so high and we have a great opportunity. We know the way is very long and very tough. The title is not ours. We have to fight a lot, step by step and keep our feet on the ground. At the end we can see what happens. I'm sorry, we know every team can win or lose so it has to be slowly slowly.

"I don't know who is behind us, I asked to my players 'every match is a final'. I don't know how many points we need. At the start of the season I said we needed one more than 39 from last season. Of course now we are running for something special."

Leicester are back in action a week on Monday when they host struggling Newcastle United at the King Power Stadium.