Riyad Mahrez: Leicester cannot win Premier League title

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Leicester winger Riyad MahrezImage source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Riyad Mahrez has 10 goals and six assists in the Premier League this season

Leicester winger Riyad Mahrez has dismissed his team's chances of winning the Premier League, despite being top.

The Foxes narrowly avoided relegation last season but are two points clear at the summit after 15 games.

But Mahrez, who took his goal tally to 11 with Saturday's treble at Swansea, is more concerned at getting the eight more points needed to reach 40, a total usually enough for survival.

"I don't think we can win the league," he told BBC World Football.

"We just need to get the 40 points and then after that we will see."

Image source, .

The Algeria international's form, along with that of 14-goal team-mate Jamie Vardy, has been instrumental in Leicester's rise.

"I'm not surprised because I knew I could do the things that I have done," Mahrez, 24, added.

"Football is just confidence. When you start scoring and you carry on it gives you more confidence so maybe that has helped me."

Don't take me for a 'sucker'

Marseille president Vincent Labrune reportedly dismissed the idea, external of the French club signing Mahrez when the player was suggested to him as a potential target in December 2014.

"Do you really think that Leicester players now have a place at Olympique Marseille?" Labrune is quoted as saying. "I don't put up with people taking me for a sucker."

"He thinks what he thinks. I know what I am, I know what I'm doing in the football, I know what I can do," Mahrez said.

"The people who don't know football - I don't want to speak about them.

"Everyone's not going to love you. Sometimes some people love you, some people hate you, some people don't like your football. That's life so I don't care, I don't mind."

Where does the team top after 15 games finish?

Season

Team

Final position

Season

Team

Final position

1993

Norwich

3rd

2005

Chelsea

1st

1994

Man Utd

1st

2006

Chelsea

1st

1995

Man Utd

2nd

2007

Man Utd

1st

1996

Newcastle

2nd

2008

Arsenal

3rd

1997

Arsenal

3rd

2009

Liverpool

2nd

1998

Man Utd

2nd

2010

Chelsea

1st

1999

Aston Villa

6th

2011

Man Utd

1st

2000

Man Utd

1st

2012

Man City

1st

2001

Man Utd

1st

2013

Man Utd

1st

2002

Liverpool

2nd

2014

Arsenal

4th

2003

Arsenal

2nd

2015

Chelsea

1st

2004

Chelsea

2nd

2016

Leicester

?

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