Leicester City boss pays big Sunderland compliment and names 'unbelievable' performer

Leicester City boss Enzo Maresca said the win over Sunderland left the happiest he has been all season.

Maresca's side have now taken a remarkable 36 points from their first 13 games, with the runaway leaders looking certain to win promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt.

Sunderland competed well despite losign 1-0, with Maresca hailing Tony Mowbray's aggressive approach.

He also singled out Anthony Patterson, who made some excellent saves, as an 'unbelievable' performer in the game.

“A very difficult game,” Maresca said.

“It’s the game we expected because we know they are a very aggressive team.

“On the ball, first half, we were quite good, second half we played too many long balls. Also, there is another team there to make a difficult game.

“Almost all of the games they have been man-to-man off the ball, so we expected it. On the ball, they have weapons like Bellingham, Ekwah, Clarke, Roberts. The goalkeeper is unbelievable.

“It’s been a very tough game. But it’s the game I’m most happy about in terms of the way we handled a different kind of game. The first 20 minutes we struggled to find the right measure of how to press, and then after 20 minutes we pressed very well. We were very aggressive."

Maresca said his side would not be getting carried away despite their strong start.

"We are happy but we are not thinking we are the only club in the Championship trying to get promoted," he said.

"In football, the normal thing is to lose more than you win. In this moment we’ve won 12 out of 13, it’s not something normal, the players and the fans deserve to enjoy it after the relegation.

“We know that these records are important if we reach our target, these records show what the players have done and that it is not something normal, but we’re still in October.

“We would like to have the same situation in March and April, it’s fantastic, we are not the only team building to reach the title and in our case we changed 14 or 15 players from last season."