A QUICK GLANCE at some stats will tell you that Spurs are flying. They’ve lost once from their last eight league games and are the most in-form side in the Premier League right now.
True, their recent fixtures have been kind (Sunderland, Palace, Norwich to name a few) but the results have built momentum and confidence and led to Mauricio Pochettino allegedly being on Chelsea’s radar.
They sit in joint-third, ahead of Arsenal on goal difference (which is the best in the league at +25), five points from the summit and are perfectly placed to take full advantage of whatever happens at the City of Manchester Stadium on Saturday lunchtime when the top two clash.
All they need to do is rack up a fourth straight league victory and push past a struggling Watford whose only recent positive was a 2-1 win over Newcastle. Still, it was a tight affair in late-December when the sides met – Spurs needing a 89th-minute winner from Heung-Min Son to gain three points against the resolute and spirited ten men.
Leicester have nothing to lose – City have plenty
Watching the Foxes conjure a victory over Liverpool midweek, it all felt a little strange. Something was different.
For Jamie Vardy’s spectacular opener, he would’ve normally ran onto the bouncing ball and headed straight for the penalty area, bursting past Dejan Lovren and trying to engineer a shot (or a penalty) inside the box.
Instead, he pulled a most inexplicable strike from nowhere. His first goal of the campaign that came outside the eighteen-yard line.
It wasn’t the only thing from that game to go viral.
There was the passage of quickfire, purposeful, beautiful interchanges that eventually led to Shinji Okazaki taken down amid some penalty appeals.
This is no longer a side that merely play on the counter-attack, get it wide and look for Vardy to run the channels. There’s more to their game and with two incredible effective and unselfish central midfielders in Danny Drinkwater and N’Golo Kante, there’s plenty of protection to go along with the freedom in the final third.
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They won’t fear City when they face them on Saturday lunchtime. And they know that a win will put them six points clear at the summit with the final lap fast approaching.
Surely it’s all over for a sorry Aston Villa
If you still needed reminding of just how bad things are at Aston Villa, here’s a really simple but startling fact: they have won one league game since the opening day of the season.
On occasion, they’ve hinted at potential.
John Walton / PA Wire/Press Association Images
John Walton / PA Wire/Press Association Images / PA Wire/Press Association Images
In Remi Garde’s first game, they held Manchester City. In mid-January, they held Leicester. But it seems that many of the Villa players are already holding up the white handkerchief and downed their weapons.
This month alone, they have managed three Premier League goals in five games. If they are to stay up, who will provide the firepower? Their top scorer is Jordan Ayew and he’s now ruled out for the next three games because of the idiotic red card he picked up against West Ham. Meanwhile, Rudy Gestede, signed for £6m in the summer, is still sidelined after picking up an injury a few weeks back.
Derby’s 2007/2008 season will take some beating for the worst ever Premier League display. They finished with 11 points and were relegated on 29th March.
If this funk continues, Villa could go down even before then.
Many have already written-off Arsenal’s title hopes, bizarrely
It hasn’t been a nice few weeks for the Gunners. There was the 3-3 draw at Anfield, thanks to the concession of an injury-time equaliser from Joe Allen. That was followed by a scoreless draw with Stoke and a defeat to Chelsea in which they were forced to play with ten men for 72 minutes.
And still, through all that, they’re five points from the top of the league and two points off second place.
Only a remarkable display from Fraser Forster prevented Arsenal from winning against Southampton. Frank Augstein / AP/Press Association Images
Frank Augstein / AP/Press Association Images / AP/Press Association Images
Still, after their 0-0 with Southampton during the week, it seemed the club could be safely removed from any conversations about the title pretenders – going by the press reports.
Truth is, they found themselves in a difficult place in November too, when they registered one win from five games in all competitions and had to deal with that battering handed to them by Bayern.
With Danny Welbeck due back to first-team action in a few weeks, Arsenal are still firmly in the mix. They merely need to stop the rot away to Bournemouth on Sunday and get things headed in the right direction again.
Return to early season form could put United back in the frame
Manchester United responded to the talk of crisis with successive wins and six goals from two games.
The last time they enjoyed such a rush in front of goal came back in September, you know, when Louis van Gaal was being celebrated, United were top of the league and there was genuine talk of championship success.
Ultimately, despite the football being nothing but boring for the vast majority of the season, United have only wobbled in December. It was only then that results went south but in spite of this, van Gaal faced relentless criticism and many had completely forgot about the stability shown during the first three months of the season.
Van Gaal would’ve been especially pleased that a kind-of comeback happened against Stoke, owing to the dismal display conjured by his players on 26th December against the same opposition.
Anthony Martial and Wayne Rooney are back in form. Martin Rickett / PA Wire/Press Association Images
Martin Rickett / PA Wire/Press Association Images / PA Wire/Press Association Images
Midweek, there was pace and shots and chances, another magnificent display from Anthony Martial and another goal for Wayne Rooney.
It could’ve been a United performance from September and that’s encouraging. Last term, United had to wait until March and April to hit a purple-patch but it proved to be season-saving.
Finding their stride in February? Who knows that could happen in a most bizarre Premier League season.
The subplot of two Dutchmen facing each other in opposing dugouts on Sunday afternoon only adds to things, as does those persistent Mourinho-to-United rumours.
Spurs could be the big winners this weekend & other Premier League talking points
Tottenham are the most in-form top-flight team
A QUICK GLANCE at some stats will tell you that Spurs are flying. They’ve lost once from their last eight league games and are the most in-form side in the Premier League right now.
True, their recent fixtures have been kind (Sunderland, Palace, Norwich to name a few) but the results have built momentum and confidence and led to Mauricio Pochettino allegedly being on Chelsea’s radar.
They sit in joint-third, ahead of Arsenal on goal difference (which is the best in the league at +25), five points from the summit and are perfectly placed to take full advantage of whatever happens at the City of Manchester Stadium on Saturday lunchtime when the top two clash.
All they need to do is rack up a fourth straight league victory and push past a struggling Watford whose only recent positive was a 2-1 win over Newcastle. Still, it was a tight affair in late-December when the sides met – Spurs needing a 89th-minute winner from Heung-Min Son to gain three points against the resolute and spirited ten men.
Leicester have nothing to lose – City have plenty
Watching the Foxes conjure a victory over Liverpool midweek, it all felt a little strange. Something was different.
For Jamie Vardy’s spectacular opener, he would’ve normally ran onto the bouncing ball and headed straight for the penalty area, bursting past Dejan Lovren and trying to engineer a shot (or a penalty) inside the box.
Instead, he pulled a most inexplicable strike from nowhere. His first goal of the campaign that came outside the eighteen-yard line.
It wasn’t the only thing from that game to go viral.
There was the passage of quickfire, purposeful, beautiful interchanges that eventually led to Shinji Okazaki taken down amid some penalty appeals.
This is no longer a side that merely play on the counter-attack, get it wide and look for Vardy to run the channels. There’s more to their game and with two incredible effective and unselfish central midfielders in Danny Drinkwater and N’Golo Kante, there’s plenty of protection to go along with the freedom in the final third.
They won’t fear City when they face them on Saturday lunchtime. And they know that a win will put them six points clear at the summit with the final lap fast approaching.
Surely it’s all over for a sorry Aston Villa
If you still needed reminding of just how bad things are at Aston Villa, here’s a really simple but startling fact: they have won one league game since the opening day of the season.
On occasion, they’ve hinted at potential.
In Remi Garde’s first game, they held Manchester City. In mid-January, they held Leicester. But it seems that many of the Villa players are already holding up the white handkerchief and downed their weapons.
This month alone, they have managed three Premier League goals in five games. If they are to stay up, who will provide the firepower? Their top scorer is Jordan Ayew and he’s now ruled out for the next three games because of the idiotic red card he picked up against West Ham. Meanwhile, Rudy Gestede, signed for £6m in the summer, is still sidelined after picking up an injury a few weeks back.
Derby’s 2007/2008 season will take some beating for the worst ever Premier League display. They finished with 11 points and were relegated on 29th March.
If this funk continues, Villa could go down even before then.
Many have already written-off Arsenal’s title hopes, bizarrely
It hasn’t been a nice few weeks for the Gunners. There was the 3-3 draw at Anfield, thanks to the concession of an injury-time equaliser from Joe Allen. That was followed by a scoreless draw with Stoke and a defeat to Chelsea in which they were forced to play with ten men for 72 minutes.
And still, through all that, they’re five points from the top of the league and two points off second place.
Still, after their 0-0 with Southampton during the week, it seemed the club could be safely removed from any conversations about the title pretenders – going by the press reports.
Truth is, they found themselves in a difficult place in November too, when they registered one win from five games in all competitions and had to deal with that battering handed to them by Bayern.
With Danny Welbeck due back to first-team action in a few weeks, Arsenal are still firmly in the mix. They merely need to stop the rot away to Bournemouth on Sunday and get things headed in the right direction again.
Return to early season form could put United back in the frame
Manchester United responded to the talk of crisis with successive wins and six goals from two games.
The last time they enjoyed such a rush in front of goal came back in September, you know, when Louis van Gaal was being celebrated, United were top of the league and there was genuine talk of championship success.
Ultimately, despite the football being nothing but boring for the vast majority of the season, United have only wobbled in December. It was only then that results went south but in spite of this, van Gaal faced relentless criticism and many had completely forgot about the stability shown during the first three months of the season.
Van Gaal would’ve been especially pleased that a kind-of comeback happened against Stoke, owing to the dismal display conjured by his players on 26th December against the same opposition.
Midweek, there was pace and shots and chances, another magnificent display from Anthony Martial and another goal for Wayne Rooney.
It could’ve been a United performance from September and that’s encouraging. Last term, United had to wait until March and April to hit a purple-patch but it proved to be season-saving.
Finding their stride in February? Who knows that could happen in a most bizarre Premier League season.
The subplot of two Dutchmen facing each other in opposing dugouts on Sunday afternoon only adds to things, as does those persistent Mourinho-to-United rumours.
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