Arsenal haven't convinced this season, Chelsea out on their own, Jose Mourinho right to praise Manchester United

In Arsene Wenger’s own words, Arsenal have had “a horrible week”. They led against Everton last Tuesday, and also led against Manchester City on Sunday afternoon, and managed to lose both matches 2-1 to see their title hopes suffer a serious setback.

It’s not the nine-point gap to leaders Chelsea that suggests it will be another season of disappointment at the Emirates, but the way they are going about matches this season. Beyond the 5-1 win over West Ham and the 3-0 victory over Chelsea, Arsenal have not put in a convincing performance in the Premier League this season. They have made hard work of games against Watford, Burnley, Swansea and Stoke, and failed to beat Leicester and Middlesbrough along with defeat to Liverpool, Everton and now City.

This is a team that is supposed to be on the up by keeping their best players and strengthening each year, but are they any better in 2016/17 than they were in 2015/16? It doesn’t look like it.

For Chelsea this season, see Leicester City last season. No European football to worry about, an Italian manager who has implemented a new team spirit in what was a struggling squad and a lack of genuine rivals to the title. Chelsea lead Manchester City by seven points – a lead that can be cut to six if Liverpool beat Everton on Monday night – and they seem to be going through the motions while others around them make life difficult for themselves.

In Diego Costa, Chelsea have a striker who looks back to his best and is finding ways to score when games are decided by the smallest of margins. His header in the 1-0 win over Crystal Palace on Saturday was a thing of beauty, leaping high above the defence before heading the ball back past goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey.

The change in this Chelsea side since the loss at Arsenal has been nothing short of seismic, and if Conte can keep his key players fit, there’s no reason why they won’t be crowned champions come the end of the season.

Mourinho was keen to stress his pleasure at Manchester United’s performances in November even if the results weren’t falling there way, and his faith in his players has paid off handsomely. United now look like a genuine top four side, and in Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Paul Pogba have players capable of changing matches in a heartbeat.

United are now on a run of 10 matches unbeaten in all competitions and their run of matches through the festive period and into next year is favourable, and they can put themselves right in the mix for the second half of the season.

All of this can be credited to the way Mourinho stuck by his players, and intentionally highlighted their performances when they were struggling to win. For a manager regularly criticised for his man-management, he deserves praise for his methods of late.

In the lead up to this weekend’s fixtures, a number of emails were sent through revealing the players who were one yellow card away from suspension and an apparent ‘Christmas holiday’. Surely though a professional player wouldn’t get themselves intentionally booked in order to tactically pick up a suspension and spend more time at home over the festive period?

Maybe it’s not as farfetched as it seems. Seven players are now suspended for the Boxing Day fixtures, including Diego Costa and N’Golo Kante of Chelsea, Robert Huth and Christian Fuchs of Leicester, West Ham’s Pedro Obiang and Burnley defender Matt Lowton. Jamie Vardy is the additional man suspended, although we’ll give the striker the benefit of the doubt as he received a questionable red card that left him looking bemused.

The problem with this question though is that there is no way of proving that a player has been intentionally booked. In the lower reaches of amateur football, players look at the fixture list and assess when a possible suspension will coincide with a big night out – from first-hand experience – but then they are not being paid for their time. Professionals are, and paid quite handsomely I should add, and the possibility of players looking to be suspended intentionally is a very worrying one.

The fallout from Swansea’s 3-0 defeat by Middlesbrough should have been focused around the abject performance that the Welsh side put in, but it instead focused around the language that American manager Bob Bradley used in his post-match press conference.

A number of fans questioned his use of “PK” to abbreviate penalty kick and “road matches” for away games, and criticised him for not using English language since he arrived in the Premier League.

This is wrong. Bradley is American and is entitled to speak however he wishes given he was brought up using that form of language. It’s no different to Jose Mourinho or Pep Guardiola missing out connectives as they commonly do, because the spoken tongue in this country is not their natural language. If fans want something to criticise, then focus on the dismal showing Swansea put in against an impressive Boro side.

Mauricio Pochettino was keen to talk up Tottenham’s Premier League chances after the 2-1 victory over Burnley on Sunday, but Spurs have shown nothing to suggest that they have what it takes to beat Chelsea this season. They remain fifth, a point behind Arsenal and Liverpool – who have a game in hand – and are already out of the Champions League.

Given he was so keen to play down challenging for the title last season, Pochettino’s claim is a strange one. He should be more focused on consolidating their top-four status and targeting success in one of the cups – either the FA Cup or Europa league would do – as success breeds success.

Putting this pressure on his players could produce the opposite effect, and it’s worth remembering that Spurs are just a Harry Kane injury away from serious trouble.

West Ham’s board meeting at the start of the month determined that Slaven Bilic was still the right man for the job at the London Stadium, and the Croatian was paid back his employers with seven points in three matches including wins over Burnley and Hull and a draw with Liverpool.

The squad have shown that they are still willing to fight for their manager, which went a long way to saving Bilic’s job, and while he was the first to admit that the performance against Hull on Saturday was a pretty torrid one, it’s the result that counts most. We know the Premier League is a results business, and with West Ham now stretching away from relegation as they move into 13th place, those who had such lofty ambitions for the club following the move to Stratford can breathe easy again in confidence that they are unlikely to be playing Championship football next season.