The title race is heating up and the relegation battle is taking shape
1. Don’t write Leicester off just yet
Claudio Ranieri’s men may have lost 2-1 at Arsenal with the last kick of the match, but Danny Welbeck’s strike won’t be enough to dampen Leicester City’s team spirit.
The Foxes can take plenty of positives from the defeat and they still look a threat no matter who the opposition is.
At the end of the day, they nearly held on for a point at the Emirates Stadium, despite playing with 10 men for around 40 minutes after Danny Simpson was sent off.
Also, they are still top of the Premier League, albeit two points clear rather than five.
2. Time to take Tottenham seriously
Mauricio Pochettino continues to impress everybody after his Tottenham team picked up an excellent 2-1 victory at Manchester City.
Spurs remained in second place but they closed the gap on league leaders Leicester to just two points, as mentioned previously.
Not only have they shown the quality needed to be successful, they have also shown a resilience and a desire that is required from a top team. When Kelechi Iheanacho cancelled out Harry Kane’s penalty to make it 1-1, the majority of people expected City to kick on and win the match.
However, it would be Spurs who grabbed the headlines when Christian Eriksen bagged the winner, and that never say die attitude is why they should be considered as serious title contenders.
3. City will struggle to win the league
Back-to-back home losses to title rivals Leicester City and Tottenham Hotspur is nothing but a disaster for Manchester City.
They now find themselves six points off the Premier League summit and, although winning the title is still very much achievable, they may struggle due to the form of both of their trophy-chasing rivals.
It seems that there may be some unrest in the camp at City ever since they announced on transfer deadline day that Pep Guardiola would replace Manuel Pellegrini as manager at the Etihad Stadium.
4. Arsenal are starting to believe again
This particular ‘five things’ article has been title race themed and it’s going to continue with this next point.
Arsenal’s last-gasp win over Leicester blew the race wide open again and it also keeps the Gunners’ hopes of a fourth Premier League trophy alive.
They sit in third position and, just like their North London rivals Tottenham, they are on 51 points – two behind Leicester at the pinnacle and only behind Spurs on goal difference.
With the top four being so tight and teams such as Leicester and Spurs unexpectedly being in the mix, it is shaping up to potentially be the most exciting title race in the history of the Premier League.
5. Villa look doomed
After the transfer window slammed slut, SillySeason did a ‘five things’ article reflecting on the deals that had been done.
We mentioned that Aston Villa didn’t make one single addition and therefore didn’t strengthen their current squad, and that could possibly contribute to their demise.
Well now it looks like Villa will definitely be playing Championship football next campaign, after they were destroyed 6-0 at the hands of Liverpool in front of their own fans.
If Remi Garde is to keep the Midlands side in England’s top flight, it will be nothing short of a miracle. They currently prop up the table, rock bottom with just 16 points – eight from safety.
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