Five things we learned from the Premier League weekend

1. Welbeck shows the good and the bad but emerges on top

Not too many players can be arguably the man-of-the-match in a game when they miss an open goal. If Danny Welbeck conjured a remarkable miss against Southampton, he also produced a hugely influential performance.

Arsenal’s 3-2 victory included the former Manchester United forward’s first two league goals since September. If his winner felt cathartic, coming a couple of minutes after he contrived to miss from two yards, his assist for Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s equaliser may have been more impressive. It came from the sort of delightful flick not normally associated with Welbeck.

READ MORE: Gunners enjoy home comforts as Welbeck sinks Saints

READ MORE: Wenger happy to keep winning run going after ‘hectic’ finish

READ MORE: Mkhitaryan may still play again this season, insists Wenger

It may have been a timely display, with his place in England’s World Cup squad up for debate. It is undeniable a bit-part player is benefiting from the circumstances. With Arsenal’s focus very much on the Europa League, Arsene Wenger made seven changes. Under other circumstances, and even with Henrikh Mkhitaryan injured, Mesut Ozil, Jack Wilshere and Alexandre Lacazette may have begun in Welbeck’s place. Instead, he could show familiar qualities – unselfishness, versatility and willing running – and an unusual scoring habit to illustrate his attributes.

2. Hernandez shows why he remains such a fine substitute

It is one of the more impressive 100 percent records. Javier Hernandez has made four Premier League appearances as a substitute at Stamford Bridge. He has scored on each occasion. Even his first appearance in England was as a replacement against Chelsea. He scored in that, too, for Manchester United in the 2010 Community Shield.

It was at Old Trafford that he forged his reputation as a super-sub, a modern-day Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. A capacity to score four minutes after his introduction, as he did to further Chelsea’s problems, is why he is so effective in cameos.

AS IT UNFOLDED: Chelsea v West Ham

IN PICTURES: Chelsea v West Ham

READ MORE: Wasteful Blues punished by Hernandez

A victim of Marko Arnautovic’s unexpected excellence as a lone striker this season proved a beneficiary of the Austrian’s excellent cutback on Sunday. When he joined West Ham, it was supposedly as a spearhead. His time as a Hammer feels underwhelming: Hernandez was signed to be a starter and is now a substitute. Yet he averages a goal every 184 minutes in the Premier League this season, a fine return in a relegation-threatened side. But the point he earned West Ham in a 1-1 draw at Stamford Bridge is a reason they should stay up.

3. Sanchez shows why City wanted him in the first place

It was not just the blue streak in Paul Pogba’s hair that meant the limelight lingered on him in the Manchester derby. Nor, even, Pep Guardiola’s suggestion on Friday that agent Mino Raiola offered the Manchester United midfielder to their neighbours in January. Pogba’s quickfire brace turned the game on its head and a 3-2 win extended the title race and spared Jose Mourinho the sight of his arch-rival celebrating the title.

READ MORE: Seeing Man City win the title would be like death – Pogba

READ MORE: Mourinho congratulates City despite spoiling their party

READ MORE: Manchester City made to wait for title after stunning United fightback

And yet United’s astonishing comeback in Saturday’s Manchester derby was not just about a man City perhaps could have signed this season but one they definitely did try to buy. Alexis Sanchez was a summer and winter window target. He ended up at Old Trafford instead and if the first two months of his United career were underwhelming, Saturday brought a belated demonstration of his ability and his capacity to make things happen.

The Chilean was involved in all three United goals, taking the free kick for Chris Smalling’s winner. His was a display of both drive and quality. It showed why United felt it was a coup to steal him from under City’s noses and how he could exert a major impact next season.

4. Lloris gets lucky as another blunder does not cost Tottenham

In one sense, it is a happy habit. For the second successive week, Hugo Lloris erred to gift opponents a goal. Once again, Tottenham were sufficiently potent that it did not cost them precious points. Last week, Alvaro Morata’s opener for Chelsea was cancelled out. On Saturday, Mame Biram Diouf’s equaliser for Stoke, when the Spurs goalkeeper slammed an attempted clearance straight into the Senegalese, who accepted the gift, mattered not when Christian Eriksen and Harry Kane contrived to deliver victory.

AS IT UNFOLDED: Stoke v Tottenham

READ MORE: Eriksen double seals victory on Kane’s return

READ MORE: I swear it was my goal – Harry Kane

Yet while Spurs are safely in the top four, their captain finds himself in the top three of another table: for most errors leading to goals this season. He is in joint second with Bournemouth’s Asmir Begovic, behind only Arsenal’s Petr Cech. The Czech is in decline. At 31, Lloris should not be. Perhaps this is just a blip, but if there are times in his Tottenham career when he has been one of the most underrated goalkeepers in the division, this does not seem one of them.

5. Lambert’s positivity jars with Stoke’s desperate plight

Sometimes football management is not benefited by cold-eyed realism. A downbeat analysis of a team’s plight may be accurate but could lower morale. Yet there is something jarring about Paul Lambert’s seemingly forced upbeat pronouncements after Stoke’s many setbacks. “I thought we were brilliant against Arsenal last week but I thought we were even better today,” he said after the 2-1 defeat to Tottenham.

And, in fairness, Stoke have lost to two of the top six teams in the division, equipped with more talent and far greater budgets. Yet the reality is that they have lost their last four games and not won in nine. Lambert also praised his players against Everton. And Manchester City. And Southampton. And Leicester. The Scot’s sunny verdicts seem to be made in ignorance of a league table that shows Stoke four points from safety with only five games to go and no win since January. Nor do they seem to be working, in terms of actually conjuring the right kind of results from his team.