Tottenham banishing nearly-men tag; Arsenal flatter to deceive; Louis van Gaal proves his merits at Manchester United
Seven things we learned in the Premier League: Claudio Ranieri is ready to take risks to maintain Leicester City's title charge; Aston Villa are example of a club too bad not to go down; Crystal Palace show fight needed to reverse slump; Chelsea creep back into European contention
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Your support makes all the difference.Tottenham are banishing their 'nearly-men' tag
Still on the coat-tails of the Premier League summit, Tottenham Hotspur appear to have forgotten the small fact that this is where their season usually fizzes out into despair. The pendulum continues to swing at will, as it was always likely to do, but Mauricio Pochettino’s efficacious management and the unrelenting vibrancy of his young squad give the top-flight’s time-honoured nearly-men a chance to write history.
With Arsenal and Manchester City conspiring to clutch disaster from a season which offered so much, Spurs have continued to banish clichés of old to lead an increasingly undeniable title challenge. Two points adrift of leaders Leicester City with 33 still to fight for, Pochettino’s boys have salvaged 17 points from losing positions - a tally they added to against Swansea City at the weekend. A colossal week lies ahead nonetheless.
If their six-match hot streak can be extended to include victories against West Ham United and Arsenal, staring another season of title heartache squarely in the face, the Argentine boss may be set to join Arthur Rowe and Bill Nicholson in Tottenham lore.
Insipid Arsenal flatter to deceive yet again
If you would have offered Arsenal fans a scenario which included Chelsea, Manchester United and Liverpool being subjected to top-four exile, with City on the precipice of joining them, Emirates regulars would have been forgiven for planning the party a few months early.
While Spurs and Leicester have injected the campaign with a sprinkling of stardust, failure to win the title in this of all seasons would represent the biggest misstep of Arsène Wenger tenure in north London.
A “joke” is the most polite way Graeme Souness, the former Liverpool and Newcastle United manager, could think of to describe the insipid surrender at Old Trafford. A side littered with impressionable young things was all that stood in Wenger’s way and yet it was United who displayed the competence of champions, albeit a brief ray of light on an otherwise grey and dour canvas.
The dramatic last-ditch humbling of Leicester a fortnight ago gave the Gunners a rare opportunity to give their title rivals a bloody nose. An awakening of their Premier League aspirations is not beyond the bounds of reality, of course. But there is a familiar, paralysing, feeling beginning to take over: the FA Cup could be all that’s left to fight for this season.
Van Gaal continues his Old Trafford rebirth
Something peculiar is occurring in the North West. Louis van Gaal, dead and buried, waiting ominously for José Mourinho to depose him atop of the United throne, is coming to life. The Dutchman’s touchline theatrics, seized upon with glee on Twitter, reminded the Old Trafford faithful of his lighter side. Incidentally, they’ve also been handed a timely reminder of his managerial talents also.
Sowing together a starting line-up from amidst one of the deepest of several injury dilemmas to have engulfed United since Van Gaal’s arrival is no mean feat. It is with his continued trust in youth, however, where he earns most acclaim with a club who still regard themselves as the kindergarten of English football. Marcus Rashford, the latest graduate to emerge from the shadow of the Class of ‘92, gives battle-scared United fans something, anything, to cling onto.
Perhaps their traditions of youth development and expansive “champagne” football have not been consigned to history after all. Defeat to Watford on Wednesday could cut the optimism short but the course has at least been laid for a successful tail-end to a traumatic year.
The Tinkerman is ready to take risks
Leicester City have forged their unlikely title bid on stability. Boardroom stability. Backroom stability. Changing room stability. And, of course, tactical stability. Claudio Ranieri, the Foxes manager, has rightfully been lauded for resisting the temptation to rip up the sturdy foundations left behind by Nigel Pearson.
The Italian famously suffered the ultimate price for his long-derided tinkering when the opportunity to lift the Champions League at Chelsea slipped through his fingers. Despite his public protestations to the contrary, there is a steely, burning determination in Ranieri’s eyes.
As Chelsea struggle to find a solution to a problem of their own making, replacing the most successful manager in their history for a second time, the forgotten man of Roman Abramovich’s reign is making a mockery of his former employers this year in the East Midlands. “I took a lot of risks,” he said after the 1-0 scrape past Norwich. As sides try to nullify the fearless Foxes in the coming weeks, it’s probably wise to expect more of where that came from.
Villa are too bad not to go down
It often said that some clubs are too good to go down. Newcastle United, for instance, are too good to go down. Swansea City, too, should be protected from relegation by a hidden, esoteric goodness about them. As one fan mused during the online post-mortem to their latest defeat, by Stoke, in Aston Villa we may finally have found a team who are too bad not to go down.
Eight points, or three wins, from safety having amassed the same amount of victories all season, it has been reported that the relegation-haunted Midlanders are already cost-cutting ready for life in the Championship. Rémi Garde, the Villa manager, knew what he was signing up for when he replaced Tim Sherwood in late autumn but the reality of their predicament has worsened yet further.
Squabbles with fans, whether on the side-lines or on social media, have ensured that the unity required to haul themselves clear of danger has been lost along the way. To prevent the embers of this campaign burning into the next, regardless of which division they will call their home, there is still much to be done. Few would deny it would take anything other than a colossal effort in the art of escapology to rescue their season, but it’s hard to avoid the feeling that time has already ran out.
Palace have the fight to reverse disastrous slump
Ten games without victory is hard to dress up in any context. When placed within the theory of thought that Alan Pardew, the Crystal Palace manager, has fallen victim to such apocalyptic downturns before, a worrying, potentially destabilising, pattern starts to develop. The Wimbledon-born 54-year-old has been heralded as a potential successor to Roy Hodgson with England but early season European hopes have been replaced by insecurities over the his side’s top-flight future.
The current eight point gap to Newcastle, in eighteenth, should be enough to protect them until May but underlining fears will become malignant anxieties if this winless run stretches much further. West Bromwich Albion, their victors this weekend, are infinitely beatable with off-field disputes and the endless Saido Berahino saga carrying the potential to derail their campaign.
But Palace invited the Baggies and, incidentally, Berahino to make amends for their stagnant ways of old during a topsy-turvy 3-2 defeat at the Hawthorns on Saturday night. Their mini-comeback in the West Midlands – and earlier FA Cup success at White Hart Lane – proves there’s still plenty of fight among Pardew’s struggling squad nonetheless.
Chelsea creep back into the fold
Whisper it quietly but Chelsea’s slow, undetected, creeping climb up the table, following the 2-1 success at Southampton, continues in earnest. Now just four points behind Ronald Koeman’s men, the undefeated Blues boss Guus Hiddink is masterminding a steady return to type in west London.
The two-legged Champions League round-of-16 tie with Paris Saint-Germain will naturally be playing on their minds but Hiddink’s men would be well advised to prioritise their Premier League form after all. It was considered a lost cause back in January, an impossible task, but a respectable, possibly even successful, finish could yet be salvaged from the fire of Mourinho’s acrimonious goodbye.
In Norwich and Stoke, their next two opponents, the Blues have six points waiting to be plucked, depending on the strength of their desire to finish the season well. Their champions tag is certain to be lost but with fixtures against City, Tottenham and Leicester still to come, expect Chelsea to have a say on who succeeds them.
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