Chelsea's attack best form of defence, Jose Mourinho right to ease in Henrikh Mkhitaryan, Palace need to keep calm
Seven things we learned: Pochettino is having trouble with Spurs' attack, Everton must keep Lukaku and Hull are buying the right players
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Your support makes all the difference.Marco Silva possesses a great eye for a bargain
Two months into the 2011/12 season, struggling Portuguese club Estoril sacked their manger, and turned to rookie coach Marco Silva in desperation. Silva immediately signed two out-of-contract journeymen – goalkeeper Vagner da Silva from Brazilian minnows Desportivo Brasil and winger Lica from Coimbra. By the end of the season, Estoril were Liga de Honra champions, Vagner was named the league’s best goalkeeper and Lica was the division’s top scorer.
So Marco Silva’s ability to spot the odd bargain should not be doubted. But even so, eyebrows at the KCOM were raised when the new manager sanctioned the sales of Jake Livermore and Robert Snodgrass – to West Brom and West Ham respectively – and bussed in the likes of Andrea Ranocchia, Alfred N'Diaye, Oumar Niasse and Kamil Grosicki, the former three on loan.
Good job the gaffer knew what he was doing. All four were superb in the unlikely 2-0 win against Liverpool – N'Diaye opening the scoring, Niasse finishing it, and Ranocchia the stand-out player – as the Hull City resurgence continues apace. They will be hoping to repeat their heroics away to Arsenal next weekend.
Attack is the best form of defence for Chelsea
“We want to play the kind of football we did against Arsenal,” replied a wide-eyed Eden Hazard when asked how Chelsea intend playing for the rest of the season, now that Manchester City trail them by 10 points, and Arsenal by 12. Two years ago and Chelsea parked the bus to win their third Premier League title under Jose Mourinho, but this time it would appear they are far better-placed to swagger their way to the league title, rather than stagger.
Has there been a Chelsea team in recent years as utterly joyous to watch as Antonio Conte’s? Arsenal enjoyed a promising opening 120 seconds at Stamford Bridge on Saturday – and were then mercilessly blown apart. Eden Hazard delivered his best performance of the season, with Pedro also excelling. And behind them, covering every blade of grass and then again, was N’Golo Kante, the bedrock to Chelsea’s attacking success this season.
Chelsea have no need to begin playing for draws or keeping things tight because at present no team is able to lay a glove on them. Contrary to the expectation that they would eventually be reined in by the other clubs, they just keep getting better, and the prospect of them rebooting the winning run that Tottenham shrewdly brought to an end is a tantalising one.
Crystal Palace must keep their heads - even if their fans are losing theirs
Crystal Palace gave pretty much a textbook impression of a club in crisis on Saturday afternoon. Three goals conceded in six minutes. A January signing – in the shape of Patrick van Aanholt – roundly booed by both sets of supporters. And one particularly irate fan arrested after invading the pitch to bawl in the face of Damien Delaney.
Their shock 4-0 loss to Sunderland on Saturday precipitated an emergency telling-off from club chairman Steve Parish as well as a 7am dressing down from Allardyce the next morning – but the club should not panic just yet.
In Jeffrey Schlupp, Mamadou Sakho and van Aanholt they have recruited three defenders of genuine Premier League quality, and fellow new arrival Luka Milivojević has previously been courted by the likes of Roma, Valencia and Benfica. Plus, Allardyce retains his proud record of never having suffered relegation. They remain only two points off safety: A sense of perspective is key.
Saido Berahino's curious career remains in serious danger of being wasted
For a man who played only 32 minutes of Premier League football this weekend – requiring 21 of those just to make his first touch before then going on to touch the ball only three more times – Saido Berahino has dominated an awful lot of newspaper headlines.
That’s because of the news Stoke’s new £15m signing had served a cloak and daggers eight-week ban after testing positive for a recreational substance, which filtered out less than 48 hours before he made his Stoke debut in a grudge match against his old club, West Brom.
“I was a bit disappointed with the stories coming out the day before which was obviously no coincidence,” Ryan Shawcross sniffed after his club’s lacklustre 1-0 defeat. But perhaps more disappointing is the state of Berahino’s career. There were hopes that finally moving away from West Brom would lead to an upturn in fortunes, but this episode is an all too timely remember that reputations can be difficult to change for a reason. Berahino remains in danger of throwing his talent away.
Romelu Lukaku is essential to Ronald Koeman's Everton project
It was as recently as December 22 that Romelu Lukaku’s agent, Mino Raiola, told talkSPORT that: “If Romelu is good enough, strong enough, to move in the next year then we will talk to Everton about it. We will see in the summer what happens and how the situation is.”
Lukaku’s barnstorming performance for Everton against Bournemouth this weekend, during which the Belgian international struck four goals as the Toffees ran out 6-3 winners, was further evidence that Ronald Koeman cannot, under any circumstances, lose his 23-year old frontman.
Not only did Lukaku score four – moving to the summit of the Premier League top goalscorer chart – but he also set up set up James McCarthy for Everton's second. Factor in that he has played every single minute of Everton’s last twenty matches, and his extraordinary value to the club begins to become clear. “He’s one of the best around,” nodded Koeman after the match. Everton must make sure they match his ambition going forward.
Mourinho was right to mind Mkhitaryan
Earlier this season Manchester United regained top spot in the Deloitte football rich list from Real Madrid, and such financial clout affords Jose Mourinho the luxury of signing a player for £27m and then resting him for two months. But in the case of Henrikh Mkhitaryan, that appears to have been precisely the correct course of action.
Mkhitaryan, having been so underwhelming shortly after signing for United, was brilliant in the 3-0 drubbing of hapless champions Leicester City, notching up his fifth goal, fourth assist and fifth man of the match award. As the number 10 behind Zlatan Ibrahimovic, he linked defence and attack astutely, terrifying Leicester's defence with a series of penetrative runs and ultimately playing the playmaker role to perfection.
"Sometimes the best way to protect the players is to not play them. Mkhi is one of those players. We protect him," Mourinho said after the match. Given Mkhitaryan’s recent form, Mourinho's decision to mollycoddle him had been the perfect decision.
Mauricio Pochettino must mix things up up-front
Pochettino was in an optimistic mood when asked what he hopes to have achieved by the end of his next 100 games in charge of Tottenham Hotspur. "I'd like to have won a few trophies. That would be perfect,” he smiled.
"We need to be patient. We need time to try to create a strong team, a strong club, a strong mentality, a winning mentality. And we need to finish the new stadium. At that point we will be ready to fight like now, but with more tools, and to be one of the best teams in the world."
It is testament to Pochettino’s incredible work at White Hart Lane that such talk led to a nodding of heads, rather than a round of smirks. But Spurs were fortunate in their 1-0 win against Middlesbrough. They needed a penalty to break the deadlock. And Marten de Roon should have equalised in injury time.
His team are just beginning to look a little leggy up-front, and if Spurs are continue chasing Chelsea at the top of the league, Pochettino must hope he strikes on an effective plan B for when the feted Harry Kane-Dele Alli partnership fails to pick the lock, as it has done in the previous two matches.
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