1) ‘It was the best JT has ever played’
How can it possibly be that John Terry can play with this distinction but not even merit a place on the shortlist for the PFA Player of the Year award? But then, there are a lot of awkward questions that still surround Chelsea’s formidable captain. Watching him play with so much authority, then listening to the eulogy that came from his manager, once again the thought occurred of what a mess it is that England’s best central defender is not involved with the national team and, at this stage, almost certainly never will be. Perhaps it is the occasional rest on international weeks that is helping Terry put in one of the outstanding seasons of his career. “I told John Terry in the dressing room he had [put in some] fantastic performances for me, but this was his best,” José Mourinho said. “It was the best JT has ever played. It was absolutely amazing. He’s had fantastic performances in the five or six years we worked together, and some of them with goals. One performance at Highbury, I think in my first season, was a fantastic performance too. But I think today everything was clean: reading the game, giving cover, leading the defensive line, making interceptions, even in the pass. The team was phenomenal, but John was one step ahead of every other player.” Daniel Taylor
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2) Are Stones and Barkley coming of age?
Manchester United’s complacent attitude at Goodison Park attracted fierce condemnation from Louis van Gaal but it should not detract from the disciplined defensive performance and clinical touch that brought Everton their biggest win in the fixture since 1992. Roberto Martínez’s side were just six points above the relegation zone when they hosted Newcastle United on 15 March. They are now pursuing a top-half finish after a six-game unbeaten run that has yielded five victories. The repair to Ross Barkley’s confidence and John Stones’s maturity in central defence (although his distribution remains a work in progress) have been key factors, especially in the United win. “To highlight just one player would be unfair,”said the Everton manager. “But John deserves his moment because scoring his first goal for Everton is a memory he is going to treasure. The boys were giving him a hard time recently because he only scores in training, but his defensive display was his best since he was playing in the first team. I also thought Ross had his most complete performance for Everton.” Andy Hunter
• Match report: Everton 3-0 Manchester United
• Van Gaal slams team for complacency at Everton
3) Burnley limitations begin to drag them down
No one can fault Burnley’s heart or commitment. They run and they sweat and they graft for the cause and it is testament to Sean Dyche’s managerial acumen that the prospect of them staying up is not completely out of the question. The truth is that few people gave them a chance at the start of the season. Yet their hopes are fading and their limitations at this level are beginning to catch up with them.
Burnley have stopped scoring. They have three goals in their past 10 matches and that has coincided with Danny Ings’s barren run. Ings has not scored since his header flew past David de Gea in the 3-1 defeat at Manchester United nine games ago. Burnley felt that they were the better side in their 1-0 defeat against Leicester City on Saturday. Yet they struggled to create chances in open play – Ings had one sight of goal and was denied by a smart stop by Kasper Schmeichel – and Matt Taylor wasted their best opportunity, smacking his penalty against the post when the game was goalless.
Ultimately Leicester contained Burnley, who badly missed the suspended Ashley Barnes and the injured Sam Vokes. The absence of that pair meant that Ings was partnered up front by Lukas Jutkiewicz, who has not scored this season. When Jutkiewicz was substituted, his replacement was Marvin Sordell. His record in the league this season is two starts, 11 substitute appearances and no goals. Jacob Steinberg
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• Match report: Burnley 0-1 Leicester
4) Pardew has no time for Hull’s tactics
Alan Pardew had issues with Mark Clattenburg, the referee, after his Crystal Palace team’s 2-0 home defeat by Hull City on Saturday. However, unlike some other managers we could name, he was not planning an immediate call to Mike Riley, the head of the Professional Game Match Official Ltd to express outrage over the officials’ failure to spot a handling offence in the buildup to Hull City’s opening goal or Clattenburg’s decision to disallow an equaliser by Yaya Sanogo. Instead he called for independent timekeepers after what he perceived as blatant time-wasting by Hull.
“I hope Mark sits down at some point and looks at that second half and times the substitutions coming off the pitch, times how long one free-kick took, when they made eight different decisions how to take it,” Pardew said. “I’ve got no problem with that, but give us the time [back], and he didn’t. I think there is a case, and I think it’s been talked about before, for timekeeping to come away from the referee. Someone gives us the time so we know exactly what it is, and if it’s 12 minutes, 13 minutes, that’s what it is, we play it.” Nick Szczepanik
• Match report: Crystal Palace 0-2 Hull City
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5) Has time finally caught up with Lampard?
Considering all the trouble Manchester City went to in their determination to keep Frank Lampard for the second half of the season, and the damage it caused to the reputation of their sister club New York City FC, it is worth asking the question if it was really worth it. The veteran has begun City’s last two games, but before then he had only started once in three months and some of his late cameos, particularly in the Camp Nou and at Old Trafford, appeared thank you gestures by Manuel Pellegrini, granting him a valedictory appearance on the biggest of stages, and his last two appearances have suggested Lampard has lost the sharpness which enabled him to play at such a high level for so long. Perhaps it is a result of rare inactivity for a footballer who is accustomed to clocking up the miles in the midfield; perhaps, like his adversary, counterpart and friend Steven Gerrard, time has finally caught up with a 36-year-old veteran of more than 1,000 games. Either way, as Aston Villa dominated in midfield with Jack Grealish, who is young enough to be Lampard’s son, Pellegrini replaced the veteran with James Milner, looking to shore up his side with a player with more running power. It seemed sadly telling. Richard Jolly
• Match report Manchester City 3-2 Aston Villa
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6) Eriksen makes the right point about Kane
How heartening was Christian Eriksen’s reply when asked after Saturday’s match at Southampton whether he thought Harry Kane should go to the Under-21 European Championship with England this summer? The Middelfarter, if that is what folks from his home town are known as, has played in the tournament for Denmark and his response to the question about Kane seemed in tune with the vibe that Kane himself has given off: “That’s up to him. It is a good tournament to play … I think it is always fun to do. I think it is a place where you can show off.” Hear that? Nothing about workloads or money or whether it would be a shrewd career move: Kane should play Because It’ll Be Fun and He’ll Enjoy Expressing Himself. Isn’t it lovely to get the occasional break from the seriousness of football? Paul Doyle
• Match report: Southampton 2-2 Tottenham Hotspur
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7) Adam beginning to prove his worth at Stoke
It might not have been quite another goal of the season contender like his wondrous one from his own half against Chelsea recently, yet Charlie Adam still added another stellar strike to his ever-increasing showreel with Saturday’s equaliser against Sunderland. Few players in the Premier League strike the ball better than the Scotland international and this top-corner piledriver made it three goals in his last four outings. It wasn’t just Adam’s goal which stood out, however. At his best, he is a rare commodity as comfortable snapping at heels as he is capable of stunning strikes. Not so long ago Adam was fighting for a place on the Stoke bench never mind their starting XI – this was only his 11th league start of the campaign, making his return of five goals particularly impressive – so it is a testament to his determination that he has forced his way back into Hughes’s plans. Now he looks like the player who shone week after week for Blackpool in 2010-11 – when he scored 12 goals in a relegated team – and persuaded Liverpool to part with £9m for his services. With 12 months remaining on his contract the 29-year-old has signalled his intent to commit his remaining best years to Stoke and surely it is an opportunity manager Mark Hughes will not pass up. Brendan McLoughlin
8) Whether WBA is sold or not, Pulis has the nous to give them stability
Jeremy Peace is “a very astute man”, Tony Pulis confirmed on Saturday evening, and if the West Bromwich Albion chairman has not found a buyer for the club by the end of next month, his new head coach can expect to open the transfer window with a pledge to get the club back on the track where Dan Ashworth and Roy Hodgson had led them three years ago. Pulis says he has not been told the cut-off date by which Peace will no longer listen to offers to sell up for up to £200m but that “he understands the situation”.
“If it’s not sold by a certain time, that’ll be it, he’ll keep it and move forward,” Pulis added. The former Stoke and Crystal Palace manager is a past master in acquiring the players to help develop medium-sized clubs such as West Brom but as much as this, Peace’s declaration that he will sell – businessmen from America and the Far East have been shown round the club – will buy him patience from any fans who would denigrate the achievement of establishing West Brom in the Premier League for, barring a surprising turn of events, a fifth successive season.
If any supporters moan as Peace sanctions bids for, say, Peter Crouch, Bakary Sako, Matt Jarvis or Aaron Lennon for West Brom to grind their way into mid-table, the chairman can turn round and say: what is the alternative? Who else wants to run your club? It’s a savvy move. West Brom fans should be grateful. Peter Lansley
• Match report: West Brom 0-0 Liverpool
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9) John Carver should not be judged too harshly
It is easy to blame Newcastle United’s coach for the seven straight defeats which have sucked the team to the fringe of a relegation skirmish but even José Mourinho might have struggled to cope with the injuries and suspensions which have so ravaged an already overly slender squad. For example here is the team Carver would probably pick were every player in his squad available:
(4-3-1-2) Krul (currently playing); Janmaat (currently playing), S Taylor (out for the season with a ruptured achilles), Coloccini (currently playing but only recently back from a damaging four-game suspension), Dummett (out with a knee injury); Sissoko (suspended at the moment), Tioté (out for the season with a knee injury), Colback (currently playing); De Jong (returned as a late substitute against Swansea and volleyed a classy goal after spending the season sidelined); Cissé (suspended at the moment); Pérez (currently playing).
So to summarise of Newcastle’s strongest potential team, five players: Steven Taylor, Paul Dummett, Moussa Sissoko, Cheik Tioté and Papiss Cissé were missing against Swansea, with a sixth, Siem de Jong, only fit enough to make a late cameo appearance from the bench. This, though, was the palpably weaker side which started against the 3-2 home defeat to Garry Monk’s side:
(4-3-3) Krul; Janmaat (and Newcastle’s player of the season was forced off with sickness in the second half), Williamson, Coloccini, Anita; R Taylor, Colback, Gutiérrez; Cabella, Rivière, Pérez
I wonder how many current Premier League managers would back themselves to beat a very decent Swansea side with that lot on their teamsheet? Yes, motivation is one part of Carver’s problem with certain individuals letting him down but it’s far from the whole story. Louise Taylor
10) West Ham heading for Europe … via the back door
There was a moment midway through the second half at Loftus Road on Saturday when, as with each passing minute it became more obvious that the game was heading for a scoreless draw, the West Ham fans burst into song. “We’re on top of the league,” they chanted, tongues firmly placed in cheeks. That league is the fair play league. Each year, Uefa gives an additional Europa League place to the top three ranked member associations. England are in third and West Ham lead the Premier League table.
It may not be the desired route, especially considering they looked well placed before Christmas to push for a top-six finish, but should it be sneered at? The majority will look at it negatively but the club have not been in Europe since 2006-07, when they were hammered at the first hurdle by Palermo. That is a long wait and if the gap between mid-table and the top six continues to expand, then the only avenues in are a cup win or a good disciplinary record. Alan Smith
