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Soccer-Ranieri hopes Leicester avoid rude awakening at Arsenal

Feb 12 (Reuters) - Leicester City manager Claudio Ranieri has asked Arsenal not to give him a rude awakening when the Premier League leaders visit the Emirates Stadium on Sunday. Leicester's amazing tilt at a first league title is turning doubters into believers and their convincing 3-1 defeat of Manchester City in their last league outing led to them being installed as title favourites by the bookmakers. The question now hanging over Leicester's season is whether they have the experience to handle the pressure of a title run-in, but Ranieri insists their rivals have more to worry about. "This time I hope the bookmakers are right. They're just words though, not points. Give me points," the Italian told reporters on Friday. "The pressure is on the others. Tell me why we have pressure? Why must I feel pressure? We just continue to dream with our fans. Nobody wake us up please. "It is not pressure for us, the pressure was at the beginning to start well and carry on. We wanted to maintain the standard of performance and now we are safe." Third-placed Arsenal, who trail the leaders by five points, are one of only two teams to have beaten Leicester in the league this season, having prevailed 5-2 at the King Power Stadium on Sept. 26, and Ranieri is anticipating another thriller. "Arsenal have so many fantastic players. They have magicians that can score suddenly," he said. "In the last match they scored five, we scored two and hit the post twice. It was an exciting match. It will be open on Sunday... (but) Arsenal has more pressure because they have spent more money." (Reporting by Simon Jennings in Bengaluru)