Premier League Review - Manchester City and Arsenal fail again

Louis van Gaal is a monkey with a gun

Each week Louis van Gaal does something, and each week it verges on the inexplicable. Resting Marcus Rashford was just the start of things. A reasonable choice given he’s a young man, maybe, but to not even take him to put on the bench backfired when Anthony Martial became injured in the warm up. That there was no back-up striker to fill the position showed what a bafflingly esoteric Van Gaal takes to simple, common sense procedures. He put on Timothy Fosu-Mensah into midfield with the game closing to a tight finish, despite having never played a senior game in that position before. He put Cameron Borthwick-Jackson on ahead of the excellent Fosu-Mensah, who appeared to be suffering still for a transgression made in the FA Cup semi-final. Not only that, Van Gaal’s original plans were to play Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney, two slow-motion footballers, as his central midfield pairing, and the woeful Marcos Rojo was picked in central defence. Essentially, if you let Van Gaal make a choice, he won’t even choose the obvious wrong one, but blindside you with a wrong decision so unpredictable as to be worse than the sum of its initially bad parts. He’s a monkey with a handgun, choosing to shoot a petrol tanker next to a school.

Manchester City and Arsenal should avoid the mirror for a few months

Manchester City had the chance to claim Champions League football, at the same time as making sure that Manchester United, their muted neighbours, were less likely to qualify with their remaining games. They had the chance to demonstrate their morale was not dented by losing to a very good Real Madrid side. They had the chance to impress their fans after an underwhelming league campaign, and pay tribute to Manuel Pellegrini with their final home game, a decent man who had been let down by the players, even if he was uninspiring.

Arsenal had the chance to leapfrog Spurs, a killer blow to their beaten North London rivals who had fallen off in the aftermath of a failed, inspiring title run against Leicester City. They, too, had the chance to make Champions League football certain for next year, the least that they could do for their manager after another comprehensive Arsenal season. They had the chance, even, to make a late dash for second place as some kind of vindication for Arsene Wenger in a bizarre season where Leicester City ended up as Champions.

Both the teams had the chance to do the bare minimum for themselves, their manager, their fans and each other, but almost inevitably, they cacked it up again.

Sunderland edge towards survival again

Sunderland keep doing it, and for once they are less abhorrent a club than usual. That this can be said when Sam Allardyce is their manager shows just how low down they were in the gutter in previous years. Paolo Di Canio, Gus Poyet and Adam Johnson, to name the most appalling three, have finally been set aside for the scrupulously honest and above-board Allardyce, and the club are benefiting from it. But not in the usual, Allardyce-approved way. The defence is by no means effective, and the team seem barely more organised than they were under Dick Advocaat. No, what Allardyce has done is create a team with attacking verve and belief. Having seemed unimpressed by Jermain Defoe, he now understands just how vital and effective his finishing, if nothing else, is. Whabi Khazri has the potential to be one of the best mid-table players in the Premier League, and Fabio Borini still is the best forward to have around in the months of April and May. It’s an astonishing recovery in a fraught year full of self-inflicted mistakes by Sunderland, yet again.

West Ham are in danger of spoiling a brilliant season

West Ham’s collapse is quite something. To lose at home to Swansea City, who appeared to go on their summer holidays in February, is worrying in itself. To lose by such a striking margin hints that there could be something afoot that is more serious. With the videos from their end of season ceremony showing a truly happy bunch of players, all sure of their own achievement and promise, perhaps the likeliest explanation is that they’ve simply become complacent with only a few matches to go, and become assured that next season is where the excitement is. New ground, new money, new players and, they hope, new fans. They have one game left at the Boleyn Ground, though, and a win over Manchester United could have proved exceptionally important in the race for the Champions League. This brainfart against Swansea has made that much less likely. It would be a shame to blight such a promising time for the club by throwing away the chance of achieving something truly special.

Spurs are in need of leaders

It was set up to be more Spurs than a plate of lasagne told to facking ran abaat a bit by Harry Redknapp. Spurs lost at home for just the third time this season. A 2-1 defeat with second place, and more importantly being ahead of Arsenal at the end of the season, within reach, suggests that Spurs could have been thrown off course by their defeat to Chelsea last week. Given the recent spate of indiscipline that has cost them two of the best midfielders in the league, it might simply be a case of diminished resources leading to a case of diminishing returns. Southampton are no chumps themselves, after all. Throughout the season one of the most remarkable things about Spurs is that there’s no obvious, stand-out leader. It is a collective mental effort to give them this season and to have momentarily made them the best team in the country. Perhaps that could be their downfall. A leader might have instilled the resilience needed today, and which will be demanded in the Champions League next season.