Premier League Review - Costa equaliser shows United what they’re missing

Brittle Manchester United cry out for Jose Mourinho

Louis van Gaal has never made a substitution that has made a fundamental improvement to the level that Manchester United have played at. He might have chucked on the scorer, or the man to provide an assist, but never has he raised the game in a sustained way. So it was against Chelsea. As they were looking to hold onto a lead, he put the feckless Memphis on (there’s no reason to give up on him yet, it’s just that a high pressure scenario is surely not what a player rebuilding his confidence needs). Morgan Schneiderlin and Ander Herrera were sensible choices, but both of them let their manager down by making barely a dent in the match.

This was a chance for Van Gaal to show why United should not be talking to Jose Mourinho. Instead, he went 1-0 up at a perennial rival and was unable to defend a lead. That is precisely the kind of thing Mourinho is an expert at, and the board will surely be hurrying along now to finally make the step up to a manager of the required calibre. First on his many list of improvements, you’d expect, will be to buy two adult central defenders so the birdbrained Daley Blind and Chris Smalling are kicked to touch. Something Van Gaal should have known to do last summer, but went out of his way to ignore.

Leicester City make a compelling case as title contenders

Reasonably, everyone has been impressed with Leicester’s performance relative to the rest of the league. When the rest of them have acted like a bunch of chancers invested in underperforming, they have kept things simple, and done it brilliantly. Strong in defence, incisive in attack, like nobody else so far. Not unreasonably, most people expected their holiday at the top to be cut short at some point. Even Liverpool and Spurs, with theoretically better players, haven’t been able to maintain their own unexpected challenges for a whole season in recent years.

The game against Manchester City felt like something meaningful. In one respect, many people had to pause and say, ‘fair enough, this could actually happen.’ The fewer games there are left, the fewer games there are to throw away. With a five point lead, they have a margin of error to allow them to keep calm. For the players, the way they celebrated Robert Huth’s second, and their third, hinted that they, too, had started to consider that they may actually be capable of pulling it off.

Separately, there was another feeling. Manuel Pellegrini has never been an especially impressive manager at Manchester City. His league success wasn’t anything remarkable, and his failures in Europe have been consistent, if not spectacular. He failed to get his players interested in him last year, and it seems like the same will happen in his remaining games for 2016. They are capable players, even if the defence isn’t as resilient as it should be for the money, but the sense is they’ve already thrown in the towel as they wait for Guardiola. It’s yet another advantage for Leicester, but City fans must be tired of such a gutless team.

Arsenal remain in touch with vital, if tepid, victory

Arsenal hadn’t scored in five hours of football, and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain hadn’t scored for 18 months in the league. They’d slipped to fourth, and doubts were rightly raised about whether another Arsene Wenger side were going to let themselves and their supporters down. The performance against Bournemouth was clinical, but hardly mesmerising. All this match has done is stop the rot and kept Leicester within reach, just about. If they fail to beat them at the Emirates next weekend, they should consider yet another season voided.

Spurs continue to improve under Pochettino

Spurs now have the best defence in the Premier League, having conceded just 19 goals all season, running at fewer than one a game. In midfield, Eric Dier is growing into a promising and intelligent midfielder, not yet blighted by the demands of England fans and journalists. In attack, Christian Eriksen has improved his form to help Erik Lamela and Harry Kane.

It is this recent improvement that has helped add another dimension to Spurs’ attacks, as well as Dele Alli’s continued inventiveness. It was Alli who set up Kieran Trippier for the only goal of the game against Watford, but Spurs had not struggled to create opportunities before his introduction.

The team was patiently approaching Watford’s massed defence calmly, switching from one side of the pitch to the other. Nacer Chadli and Ben Davies exploited space on the right, and Eriksen and Trippier did the same on the right. There was reason to doubt Spurs for much of the season - and it could all fall apart yet, as they have many more games to play - but Mauricio Pochettino has so far artfully, if riskily, juggled his squad to take them to second place. It will only get harder to keep on doing so, but the manager and his players have risen to the task so far.

Liverpool fan protests deserve respect but need to go further

Usually, for the neutral, the temptation is to make fun of Liverpool, just as it is for any team you don’t support. Of course, that’s easy to do, given their contribution of the Red And White Kop, the most unknowingly hilarious website in the western world. But, for a change, they’re not being self-parodying blowhards, or defending racism on the internet.

Instead, they deserve praise for their actions this weekend. They have long had a large collection of fans capable of campaigning for the right thing. Not just for Hillsborough, but also over the general treatment of fans. They were one of the first sets of Premier League fans to take a stand over the cost of away tickets, and this time it was their own club in their sights. Liverpool have recently announced a £1,000 a season season ticket, and will introduce a ticket that costs £77 for a single match.

This is plainly ridiculous. Regardless of however much the Northern Powerhouse ends up producing for its participating cities, £77 is an entirely unreasonable fee for an hour and a half’s entertainment. And so Liverpool fans, estimated at 25% of those at the game against Sunderland, walked out in protest. One match won’t make a difference, but we should all encourage Liverpool fans to keep up the campaign and, if possible, join them.