Fulfilling Lineker's dreams

Back in September 2000, in the old days when only three Champions League places were allocated for English football, Gary Lineker, as chief football presenter for the BBC, indulged in some wish fulfillment.  Three games had been played and his beloved home town team, Leicester City had enjoyed a decent start and sat third (pre-knighthood Bobby Robson's Newcastle Utd, incidentally, were top).  "Stop the clock and Leicester are in the Champions League!"  It was a hope beyond hope but Gary could dream.
He need dream no longer nor gerrymander the league.  After last weekend's results, Leicester City have ensured that at the very, very least they will make the Champions League qualifiers and that only if they endure an utterly spectacular collapse and the three teams below them win all their games.  Realistically, sitting seven points clear of second-placed Tottenham Hotspur (who would have been the fairytale had it not been for Leicester), the title is within their grasp. Of their remaining five games, they can afford to lose two and still be crowned champions but they have only lost three games all season.  If they were to win one and draw the remaining four and Spurs kept on winning, then they would be cruelly pipped to the post by one point.  But Spurs' remaining quintet of fixtures are marginally harder.
A year and a week ago, Leicester sat 20th in the league table, a sure-fire certainty for relegation.  They pulled off a miracle winning eight of their last nine games.  Yet this tops even that as it has been maintained across an entire season.  Gary Lineker's promise to present the first Match of the Day of next season in his underwear if Leicester lift the Premier League trophy edges ever closer and he couldn't be happier.