Beyond the confines of Leicester itself, perhaps the way the Foxes have adapted and indeed thrived in the Championship as a promoted side has raised some eyebrows.

But City striker Matty Fryatt sees nothing wrong with being underrated and said: "It is sort of nice if people are not expecting you to do better than just consolidate Championship status.

"We could be in the play-offs and I think we know we are good enough to do that. Others may look and say 'they have just come up' and not expect us to do well. So, it is nice not to have too high expectations from the nation really."

Those expectations, though, are constantly being re-adjusted as Nigel Pearson's men continue their occupation of the play-off frame.

Looking ahead to the holiday games, Fryatt said: "So far it has been a decent start, we are in a good position and hopefully we can kick on from here.

"We now have two tough games. Sheffield United are coming into a bit of form and they gave us a difficult game early in the season while Doncaster have had a good win over Derby last weekend so they will be two tricky games.

Surprise or not, City aim to continue their challenge for promotion according to Fryatt: "There is no reason why we shouldn't. Apart from Newcastle who appear to have won the league already, there is nothing between second place and mid table where there are teams with the same aspirations and there is no reason why we can't be in the play-off places."