After the rush of the festive period, a break allowed some teams to rest players for the FA Cup – reigniting old arguments about what’s mor...
After the rush of the festive period, a break allowed some teams to rest players for the FA Cup – reigniting old arguments about what’s more important: finishing ninth in the Premier League or going deep (perhaps reaching the final) into the FA Cup.
We’re all glad the League is back and the fascinating battles are back on. Chelsea are out on their own, the fight for second place is threatening to get really scruffy, the relegation battle and Everton being in some kind of purgatory.
Let’s take a look at some of the interesting points from last weekend.
Spurs Hammer West Brom
At the start of October, Spurs hosted a Manchester City team that had won its first six league games and were looking to open up a huge lead at the top of the table. They ended City’s fine run with a superb performance without conceding a goal. They followed that with a draw at The Hawthorns and didn’t win a league game until they faced West Ham, having drawn four league games after beating City.
Fast forward to January and Spurs faced a Chelsea team on a 13-game winning run and they ended that streak with a confident performance. They followed that with a four-nil dismantling of West Brom. They’ve now won six consecutive games since losing to Manchester United. They sit second on the table, have the best defensive record, the fourth best attacking record and the confidence that they can breach any defence they face right now. Things are looking good and they next face a wobbly Manchester City. Don’t bet against them.
Burnley Still Doing It
Burnley’s home form has been a constant talking point and it continues to be. They have built their bid to stay in the Premier League on the strength of their home performances. The difference between their results at home and their results away from home is stark: twenty-five points from twelve home games against one point from nine away games.
This column has continuously insisted that at some point, they will need to start picking up points away from home but the Clarets now find themselves ten points from the relegation zone. Considering the lack of quality in the bottom five, it will take a monumental collapse for the Clarets to go down this season.
Having said that, they find themselves only seven points from Everton in seventh and fourteen points from Manchester United in sixth. Perhaps an improvement in their away form will see them challenge for European places? We’re getting ahead of ourselves because anything higher than a fifteenth-place finish at the end of the season would be an impressive achievement for the club.
Hull City’s Marco Silva Off to A Great Start
The Tigers came from behind to win at home against Bournemouth. It was their first win in ten games and only their second win in nineteen games. Their form has been dire. They propped up the league table before this weekend. Not many expected things to be different coming into their season with their ownership issues, and the simple fact that they started the season with not enough players. When the manager who took you to the FA Cup final and wins you promotion decides to walk away from the club on the eve of the new season, you know things are rotten at the club.
They got rid of Mike Phelan and appointed Marco Silva who honestly should not even be taking this kind of job having worked wonders in Portugal and managed in the Champions League. The new man showed his mettle by winning his first game in the FA Cup and now winning his first league game. The combination of winning their game and the ineptitude of some other teams has seen Hull City jump to eighteenth, level on points with Crystal Palace in seventeenth, only five points from fifteenth. They needed this win because their next four games are doozies: they go away to Chelsea and Manchester United, host Liverpool and then go away to Arsenal. Four points from that run would be outstanding but they’ll be hoping to be either out of the relegation zone after the Arsenal game or within striking distance of their relegation rivals.
Manchester City and Pep Guardiola
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| Pep Guardiola |
Everton’s season effectively ended in January after their FA Cup loss. Out of all the domestic cups, not in Europe and seventh (best of the rest) with a chasm between them and sixth and it seemed like they would sleepwalk the remainder of the season. That’s not what happened against Manchester City. Pep Guardiola’s men needed to win to keep up with the likes of Spurs and Arsenal but were blitzed by an Everton side the featured three at the back.
This season is threatening to become a nightmare for the new manager and his Manchester City side. His squad has been exposed as bare and almost unfit for purchase. The defence is weak, the midfield is undermanned without Fernandinho, the supporting cast behind Sergio Agüero isn’t having the effect it should be having. Everything is in shambles from overpriced players to injury-prone players. The manager must be wishing for the days in September when everything is great. There is something wrong and he needs to fix it because the club cannot afford to continue with these kinds of performances. They next face Tottenham Hotspur at home and they could find themselves in fifth after the next round of games. Things don’t look great.
Manchester United back to their Drawing Ways?
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| Paul Pogba |
The end of the winning streak. It lasted for six games and it consisted of defeated powerhouses like Crystal Palace (17th), West Brom (8th), Sunderland (19th), Middlesbrough (16th) and West Ham (12th). The run of wins featured wins against teams a team that should be fighting for the league title should be defeating. It unfortunately needs repeating because of the revisionism that has occurred since the start of the season, United and City were the favourites for the league title.
United find themselves in sixth behind City but it’s the City manager who has gotten the most grief about performances and results. Something is causing people to become blind to the inadequacies of Manchester United [it’s the hatred felt for Jose Mourinho’s predecessor, the feeling towards Jose Mourinho and the hatred of Pep Guardiola]. Manchester have drawn the same number of games at home as they have won, have scored only seventeen goals in eleven home games and have picked up only twenty points at home.
With the loss of City, United had the chance to go level on points with their neighbors while also closing the gap between second and sixth to three points. They failed on both counts letting another rival off the hook. In games against teams in the top seven, only Arsenal have picked up fewer points than Manchester United. In seven games against those teams (four of those games at home), they’ve only won once and drawn four times. The corresponding games last season yielded five wins and two draws and a difference of ten points. There’s still a long way to go between the disappointing season that this is slowly turning into and the decent end of season that this season should be. The manager needs to be doing much better.
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