JAMIE VARDY and Riyad Mahrez might have hogged the headlines for most of the season, but Sunderland goalkeeper Vito Mannone has highlighted fellow shot-stopper Kasper Schmeichel as the unsung hero of Leicester City’s remarkable title charge.

Claudio Ranieri’s league leaders visit the Stadium of Light on Sunday knowing four wins from their final six matches will guarantee them the title.

That represents a remarkable turnaround from the opening weekend of the season, when Leicester entertained Sunderland with bookmakers quoting title odds of 5,000-1 and most neutrals expecting the Foxes to face another battle against the drop.

Vardy and Mahrez have been the attacking spearheads of their surprise championship challenge, with Danny Drinkwater, N’Golo Kante and Robert Huth also receiving a large amount of praise at various stages of the campaign.

Schmeichel’s role in Leicester’s stellar season has been more underplayed, but Mannone feels the 29-year-old goalkeeper has been absolutely integral to his side’s success.

“I was reading an interview this week with (Watford striker) Troy Deeney talking about Leicester and their defence,” said Mannone. “And I was thinking, ‘Why doesn’t he talk about the keeper, because he’s been excellent?’

“You have ups and downs in your career, and he’s (Schmeichel) been down at Notts County and Darlington. But he’s worked really hard to come back after leaving Man City.

“It’s not only Vardy and Mahrez - he’s had a very good season and he deserves all the praise he can get. He’s gone from the keeper who everyone wanted to be similar to his father to an excellent keeper in his own right. I don’t think you can compare him to his dad - he’s got his own style.”

Mannone also highlights his compatriot, Ranieri, as another key factor in Leicester’s dramatic transformation.

The Italian manager was derided as the ‘Tinkerman’ during his time at Chelsea, and critics were quick to flag up his recent failure with the Greek national team when he was appointed as Nigel Pearson’s successor at the King Power Stadium.

Mannone never doubted his capabilities though, having watched him impress at a host of Italian clubs including Napoli, Fiorentina, Parma, Juventus, Roma and Inter Milan.

“I don’t know him personally, but I’ve obviously seen what a good manager he is,” said the Sunderland shot-stopper. “It’s incredible that people didn’t believe in him before he came after he had a bad time in Greece.

“He had a great time in Italy. He managed some great clubs there. He’s an experienced man and he’s very tactical. In Italy, that’s very important as a manager. He’s done magnificent, and it’s a nice story in football.”

Sunderland’s task is to sully that story, and while they will go into this weekend’s game on the back of four successive draws, the standard of their recent performances provides cause for optimism.

“It’s a strange feeling at the moment that we are in this position,” said Mannone. “We’re playing well and under Sam (Allardyce), we’ve brought a few people in and the squad is complete now. It’s going in the right direction.

“I think we’ve been a little bit unlucky with results because we wouldn’t be talking like we are if we had 30 seconds less at Southampton or been a bit more clinical at Newcastle. We’d have four points more and be in a good position, but we are where we are.”