Survival game: Leicester's battle to beat drop reminds Gary McAllister of Leeds United's troubled 1992-93 title defence

Shock Premier League winners Leicester – from whom McAllister joined Leeds – are just a point above the relegation zone with their title defence in tatters.

It carries echoes of Leeds’s campaign in 1992-93 after McAllister helped them win the old First Division in 1992, only for their own defence to unravel in the debut season of the Premier League.

They finished 17th in the new top flight, which included 22 teams, failed to win away and sold Eric Cantona to eventual champions Manchester United.

This season, Leicester are two places above the relegation zone, yet to win on the road and sold N’Golo Kante to Chelsea for £32m in the summer.

Leeds beat the drop by two points despite winning just one of their final 10 games and McAllister, who moved to Elland Road in 1990 after five years with the Foxes, wants Claudio Ranieri’s side to repeat the feat after last season’s 5,000-1 triumph.

“It (relegation) would waste the story. It would be a better story if they won the league and just survived this season,” said McAllister, who made 225 appearances for the club.

“I would hate to see them get relegated. It would be horrendous, for all that good work of last year, the fairytale. Leicester gave me my chance in England and I owe them a lot.

“In general when Leicester are in the top division they are one of those teams who you’d think would be in the fight at the bottom. To win the league, you think ‘wow, how on earth?’.

“At Leeds we were reacting to bad results away from home because we kept winning at home, but it wasn’t good enough. Leeds had only been up in the top division a couple of years after a spell in the old Second Division – like Leicester – but every performance was analysed.”

He added: “People will say they’re too good to go down, but they can’t sit on that. Every time Claudio Ranieri picks the side they have to go out and fight, run, bite and scratch like they did when they were winning games.

“There’s no doubt Kante leaving has been a massive void because he was instrumental, but he was part of a midfield four who performed brilliantly.”

Leicester have struggled to replace Kante with Nampalys Mendy having missed four months with an ankle injury and Wilfred Ndidi only just arriving from Genk.

France international Kante has continued to shine with leaders Chelsea and McAllister saw him as more important than former team-mate Cantona, who joined Manchester United for £1.2m in 1992 after less than a year at Elland Road.

“Eric wasn’t as pivotal as Kante was for Leicester,” he said. “He came late, in the February, but was crucial in games that were very tight.

“It was a phrase that wasn’t used back then, but teams would come to Elland Road and ‘park the bus’. Eric would come on as an impact player and he’d unlock a defence.

“There was no doubt he influenced, but there were (Lee) Chapman, (Rod) Wallace and (Gary) Speed. It was a team which didn’t get recognition for winning the league.”

Leeds only suffered one home defeat – 4-1 to Nottingham Forest – but lost 14 and drew seven away from Elland Road in 1992-93.

The Foxes have lost four, drawn three and won five at the King Power Stadium and go to Swansea on Sunday having lost nine of their 12 away games.

Goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel has called their season “embarrassing”, but McAllister believes the champions need to be truthful.

He added: “Leicester, having did what they did the season before (their title success, winning seven of their final nine games to survive), were used to winning and we were the same having finished fourth in 1991. Then losing becomes a bit of a habit as well, you think ‘here we go again’.

“There’s always a series of meetings whether it’ll be with or without the manager, you cannot look for excuses and have to pull together.

“Within that dressing room everyone has got to be brutally honest.”