Marcus Rashford needs restoring to centre stage, Victor Moses is shining for Chelsea at last and David Moyes should be allowed to rebuild SunderlandThe splurge of title-winning questions after Liverpool’s breathless victory at Selhurst Park provoked a wonderfully enigmatic response from Jürgen Klopp. Can his team conquer the league playing in this wild fashion? “I’ve no idea,” he said. “It’s my first proper season in the Premier League. I have no idea what to do to win the Premier League. I’m pretty sure it was never decided at the end of October. We feel good in the moment, that’s all.” The notion that an experienced manager with 15 years on the job – who won the Bundesliga twice and has...
Chelsea’s manager initially switched to three at the back to avert a rout at Arsenal but his side have not looked back sinceAt first, the idea was simply to stop the bleeding. Three-nil down at half-time against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium a little over five weeks ago, Antonio Conte switched to a back three. The Chelsea manager had enjoyed success with the approach in his previous jobs with Juventus and the Italy team and, against Arsenal, it restored a measure of stability. Chelsea still lost, 3-0, but Conte could feel the stirrings of something.Look at Chelsea now. This was their fourth Premier League game since Conte’s tactical move and it was also their fourth clean sheet. Even better from...
Tottenham failed to create enough chances against Leicester and Pochettino will hope they are a great deal sharper against Bayer Leverkusen and ArsenalGone are the days when a manager could stride into his dressing room, say “Lads, it’s Tottenham” and leave the room satisfied that his message had been delivered. That was Sir Alex Ferguson’s way of motivating his players at Manchester United before games against the north London club, back when a streak of self-destructiveness threatened to undermine Spurs at every turn.Squander a 3-0 lead? Spursy. Score a comical own goal in the last minute? Spursy. Roll over in a daunting away game? That’s Spurs for you. They can’t be trusted. Related: Leicester’s Ahmed Musa strikes to frustrate blunt...
Liverpool feature various forwards who drift around – Philippe Coutinho, Adam Lallana and Sadio Mané – but at Crystal Palace they dovetailed superblyLiverpool remain a work in progress but it’s coming together promisingly. During Jürgen Klopp’s first campaign at Anfield the players adapted quickly to his high-energy, heavy-pressing system and regularly disrupted the opposition’s passing but they only sporadically formulated quick, incisive attacking moves themselves.This season things have improved significantly. The pressing is still impressively efficient and remains an extremely useful way of creating chances but Liverpool’s passing interplay makes them a more complete attacking force. Their 69 shots on target this season is the most in the Premier League. Related: Roberto Firmino rounds off Liverpool’s goal rush at Crystal...
Most people’s ideal would be for a tight top-flight but part of football’s appeal is the drama – and that requires weakness as well as strengthWhat would you like a league table to look like at the end of the season? Forget who you support, forget who you dislike, forget personalities and tactics and prejudices, if you turned up in an alien land and were given a subscription to watch every game in their league season, what would be your ideal? Most people, I’m guessing, would want it to be tight, would want the season to go down to the wire to sustain the interest, maybe so that on the final day every team would have a chance of success....