HANDS up – who is starting to regret writing off Leicester City’s Premier League title challenge?

If most are honest, there cannot be many who thought the Foxes would still be up there in mid-February, let alone five points clear at the summit.

Most neutrals would love to see Claudio Ranieri’s men stay the distance and upset the apple cart, but let’s remember there are still 13 games to go – just over a third of the season left and plenty of points still up for grabs.

Each week, though, the Foxes keep throwing it back in the doubters’ faces.

In their last two games they have comfortably beaten Liverpool and then Manchester City on their own turf which has not been easy for any team in recent years.

If they come through another big test at fellow title challengers Arsenal tomorrow then their odds to finish in top spot will be slashed again.

Imagine if you were that punter who had a fiver on them at the start at 5,000-1? We need to check whether his second name is Tannen and if he likes manure!

Seriously, though, in this season of strange results you cannot rule out the Foxes.

It’s incredible to think back in Dougie Freedman’s first season at Wanderers, it was a late, late goal from Anthony Knockaert – who coincidentally now players for the Whites’ opponents today, Brighton – that saw Leicester snatch the final Championship play-off spot from Bolton in the dying moments of the final day in 2013 on goal difference.

They went on to lose in the play-offs but clinched promotion the following year as Championship winners.

Fast forward three years and the fortunes of the Foxes and Bolton could not be more contrasting.

It just shows the fine lines between success and failure in football.

Going back to the Foxes, though, and I think much of their growing support from onlookers is not just down to a fresh face in the mix but the way they have gone about things this term.

It really is the stuff of movie scripts.

The foreign boss returning to prove a point in the Premier League, an unknown Algerian winger who has taken the league by storm, a goalkeeper signed for free who had previously struggled to shake off the famous name of his father and, best of all, a former non-league striker who has broken goalscoring records and earned international recognition in such a short space of time.

It’s an incredible story whichever way it ends this season.

They may not win it but they are looking good for a Champions League spot at the very least right now.

Tottenham, too, have benefitted by creeping into second under the radar with all the focus on Leicester.

It means some of the big boys are likely to miss out on their regular Champions League fix next season and that will not be going down well with the privileged few at the top of the English game.

When you have Leicester top, having spent a fraction of their outgoings, and the likes of Stoke and Bournemouth spending multi-millions on star players it is no wonder there is panic among the elite.

Maybe that’s why they are suddenly calling for changes to what they feel is a ‘stagnant’ Champions League format.

Seems to me it’s a veiled threat to Uefa that if the usual suspects don’t get into the Champions League then they will look at taking their business elsewhere and form a breakaway super league.

For many of us, a change is as good as a rest; those who benefit from the big bucks every year seemingly fear it.