1) Credit to Mignolet
Persevering with Simon Mignolet in the Liverpool goal does not rate as the boldest decision of Brendan Rodgers’ tenure given that in Brad Jones the Liverpool manager is not exactly blessed with a proven alternative. That said, after a miserable spell for the Belgium international and unrelenting criticism, Saturday was a time to give credit where it is due and demonstrated that sometimes a subtle change can work as effectively as a dramatic axe. Mignolet may have flapped at a late corner and almost allowed Ryan Shawcross to equalise for Stoke City at Anfield as a consequence but that corner stemmed from a superb save by the Liverpool keeper from Bojan Krkic’s exquisite volley. He also saved well from Charlie Adam and prompted some ironic cheers when commanding his area to claim a cross in the dying seconds. Having demanded a reaction to his mistake against Ludogorets in the Champions League and a clean sheet against Stoke, Rodgers took Mignolet aside in training on Friday and asked him “to simplify his game”. The Liverpool manager later elaborated: “You have to deal with what you’ve got. You’ve got a goalkeeper who is struggling with the ball at his feet to play out, so you can’t expose him. Even though it was probably not how he wants to work and hopefully in time he will get to a point where he is comfortable again playing, it was just important to win. That’s what we are paid to do. The flowing football will come but first we’ve got to get our confidence back into the team.” Andy Hunter
• Gerrard dismisses reports of rift with Rodgers
• Johnson saves blushes with late winner against Stoke
• A paradox at Liverpool, Djimi Traoré is ready to retire
2) Saints can still finish in the top four
Those who know history are doomed to repeat it until everyone else’s ears bleed. Yes, yes, it is true that Southampton were flying high last season before starting to fall as soon as they ran into a turbulent series of fixtures, which happened to have been around the same stage of the campaign as the gruelling run of games that began this term with Sunday’s tonking by Manchester City. Over the next month they will also meet Arsenal, Manchester United, Everton and Chelsea. But they are certainly capable of getting better results from those matches than they did in the corresponding ones last term, although that will require several of their newcomers to adapt to another feature of the Premier League with which they are unfamiliar – the lack of a winter break. If they can remain physically strong, and the City defeat is treated as a lesson in sharpness rather than a reason to lose confidence, then Southampton could still be well placed in January, when Jay Rordiguez may return and there may be, perhaps, a couple of purchases. City confirmed what everyone already knew: Southampton are unlikely to win the title but a Champions League spot is still within Saints’ reach. Paul Doyle
• Match report: Southampton 0-3 Manchester City
• Jacob Steinberg: five talking points from City’s win
• Paul Doyle: Southampton get a reality check with loss
• Win over Saints lifts our title defence, says Pellegrini
3) Van Gaal’s counter-intuitive selection pays off
The sight of Ashley Young lining up at left-back for Manchester United’s 3-0 win over Hull City was an eye-opener but for Louis van Gaal this kind of counter-intuitive selection is becoming de rigueur. As was the enthusiasm Young showed when quizzed after being part of a defence which kept a clean sheet for only the second time since September. “Obviously it’s a new position for me to play in but I know the job that I have got to do there because we practised during the week,” he said. “It was fluid. Everyone was rotating and everyone was moving. I don’t think Hull could deal with that. In that position you have to get forward as well at times. Obviously you have to defend but it’s always nice to be going forward rather than defending. I think I showed that, being a winger, that I knew when to break forward and when to defend.” This United squad dare not show anything other than a willingness to do whatever Van Gaal wants. So asked if he would be content to operate at left-back again, Young said: “Of course. If the manager wants me to play there again, of course I’ll help out. I’m delighted to be playing football again. I’d been out for so long and it was a frustrating time but I’m back now and hopefully the injuries are behind me.” Jamie Jackson
• Van Gaal lifted by win amid more injury woe
• Van Persie on target as Manchester United stroll past Hull
• Di María hobbles off with injury against Hull
4) One rule for big name players and another for the rest?
Many were left wondering how Diego Costa remained on the pitch at the Stadium of Light during Sunderland’s 0-0 draw with Chelsea on Saturday. First the striker escaped unpunished for kicking out at John O’Shea, then he was merely booked for catching Wes Brown in the mouth with a flailing arm. Opinion was divided regarding the degree of intent contained in the latter incident but the suspicion lingers that, had Costa been another player belonging to another team, Kevin Friend might not have twice offered him the benefit of the doubt. Imagine if Lee Cattermole had been involved in identical cameos – referees would have been queueing up to give him his marching orders. Talking of Cattermole, the England squad cannot claim to be a meritocracy unless Roy Hodgson gives him a chance. The midfielder was outstanding against Chelsea. Louise Taylor
• Chelsea frustrated in goalless draw with Sunderland
• Mourinho gives an early Christmas present to players
• Premier League clubs paid out over £115m in agents’ fees
5) Will Pochettino stick with two strikers at Chelsea?
Well, that was better from Tottenham Hotspur. The club’s home support could finally enjoy the sort of Premier League performance that a Mauricio Pochettino team are supposed to give, during the 2-1 win over Everton. It was one that was marked by energy and aggression and it was perhaps no coincidence that it featured a trio of hungry, young academy products in central roles – the midfielders Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb, and the striker Harry Kane. Each of them ran hard and harried and the crowd responded. White Hart Lane has not felt so positive for some time.
Kane was the star turn and he bent the contest to his will, playing a lead role in both of his team’s goals – the second of which was scored by Roberto Soldado, which was a sight for extremely sore Tottenham eyes. Pochettino had started with Kane and Soldado up front in a 4-4-2 formation and he must be tempted to stick with it at Chelsea on Wednesday night. Soldado was pepped by his first league goal since 2 March and dropping him at Stamford Bridge would be no way to harness the confidence boost and, on this form, Kane cannot be omitted.
It begs another question. Whither Emmanuel Adebayor? The Togo centre-forward was missing through illness on Sunday but, when fit, he may not return automatically to the starting XI. And a non-starting Adebayor is not always a happy Adebayor. Pochettino faces a test of his man-management. David Hytner
• Daniel Taylor: Everton’s Catterick is a forgotten great
6) West Ham on course to best ever finish
If West Ham beat West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday night and Swansea City, then they will have more points after 15 matches than they had at the same stage in the 1998-99 season. They finished fifth that year, which is still their best Premier League finish, and qualified for the Uefa Cup (although they had to win the Intertoto Cup first, beating Metz over two legs in the final). Managed by Harry Redknapp, that team had Rio Ferdinand in defence, Frank Lampard and Eyal Berkovic in midfield, Trevor Sinclair on the wing and Paolo Di Canio and Ian Wright up front. They had an unfortunate habit of imploding at times, conceding four or more goals on eight occasions and finishing the season with a goal difference of minus seven, but they were excellent on their day.
Sam Allardyce is building a team that could turn out to be as good as that one. West Ham have beaten Liverpool and Manchester City at home and, although it was not a great performance against Newcastle United on Saturday, it was a great win given that they were without Winston Reid, Alex Song, Diafra Sakho and Enner Valencia. “I think it’s my second best squad,” Allardyce said. “The first one was the last three years at Bolton. That was littered with outstanding world-class talent. Djorkaeff, Hierro, Okocha, Anelka, Campo. And then Gary Speed, Nolan scoring goals all the time as a young lad. Stelios won Euro 2004 with Greece while with us.
“That one was probably a little better but this one has the potential. We’ve signed lots of young players with ambition. I think the rest of the players who have accepted these players have got better as well. James Tomkins was outstanding. They have raised their level.” West Ham will be stretched over the next month – they play Arsenal and Chelsea in the space of three days over Christmas – but an opportunity is starting to present itself. Jacob Steinberg
• Cresswell the hero as West Ham edge past Newcastle
7) Monk’s words distort real view of Palace draw
The media’s modern obsession with quotes is dumbing down football coverage and often giving the public a distorted view of events. By trotting out managerial verbiage, without analysing it properly, match reports too often give a biased account of what really happened. Saturday’s 1-1 draw between Swansea and Crystal Palace provides a good example. The Welsh team were dominant for the first 20 minutes but their finishing was poor allowing Palace to claw their way back into the game and gain a deserved 1-1 draw. Yet afterwards the Swansea manager, Garry Monk, said his team had controlled the match for all but 10 minutes and had deserved to win. This was patently untrue but Monk, like all managers, knew his view would be given more space, or air time, than most reporters’ words to the contrary. Joe Lovejoy
• Bony: ‘I’m naturally strong. I don’t do the gym’
• Swansea rue missed chances as Crystal Palace claim point
8) Will Welbeck accept his place out wide?
This was the first time Arsène Wenger has been able to start Olivier Giroud, Alexis Sánchez and Danny Welbeck together and questions might be asked about whether it is possible to accommodate all three at the same time. In particular, whether Welbeck and Giroud, who both see themselves as No9s, can play in the same team. On Saturday the signs were encouraging. Giroud played through the middle and Welbeck started out wide, where he roamed from left to right and made some dangerous diagonal runs that created goalscoring opportunities. Even when deployed in a wider role, Welbeck’s natural striking instincts mean he is always likely to find himself in the sort of position he took up for the goal, as he did when he headed Santi Cazorla’s cross powerfully beyond Ben Foster. Whether Welbeck accepts that wide berth on a regular basis, however, remains to be seen. Not long after signing for Arsenal, the former Manchester United striker said: “It is well known that I prefer to play through the middle.” Stuart James
• Henry faces final curtain as New England beat Red Bulls
• Welbeck header gives Arsenal timely win over West Brom
• Wenger says Arsenal will look to buy in transfer window
9) Villa enjoy freedom away from home
It may just be a happy coincidence but, with no Roy Keane on the bench, Villa played with a real freedom and attacking spirit. Being away from Villa Park – and playing a side below them in the table – may also have released the shackles as they played a far more expansive game than when grimly drawing 1-1 with Southampton. Scoring goals remains a problem but with three attack-minded midfield players behind Gabriel Agbonlahor that could change depending on how manager Paul Lambert fits Christian Benteke back into the team.
They need to find a solution quickly, though, with games to come against Crystal Palace, Leicester and West Bromwich Albion, who are all likely to be in the relegation shake-up in spring. Lambert also needs to get things right off the pitch in finding a suitable replacement for Keane as assistant manager. He needs to get someone to bring the best out of a squad currently relying on a lot of young players. But with his own position not fire-proof in the eyes of the fans, will he want a manager-in-waiting alongside him? Burnley, meanwhile, again proved they will be nobody’s pushovers, although someone needs to help Danny Ings out on the goalscoring front. Pete Oliver
• Ings’ late equaliser gains Burnley a point against Aston Villa
• Keane’s sudden Villa exit leaves Lambert in the lurch
10) Championship signings prove their worth
Two of the biggest stars of this weekend – indeed this season – were signed from the Championship: QPR’s Charlie Austin and West Ham’s Aaron Cresswell. Neither came cheap – both just shy of £4m – but the two players suggest that cherry-picking the most promising talents from the second tier represents a better deal than taking a punt on someone abroad. Every signing is a calculated gamble, of course, and for every Jay Rodriguez or Robert Snodgrass, there is a player that proves out of his depth – Premier League Leicester paying Wolves £5.5m for Ade Akinbiyi in 1999 springs to mind – but January purchases are bought to make an immediate impact and little sympathy is given to mid-season signings from abroad that require a bedding-in period. Harry Redknapp said last week that he does not see QPR spending next month but nobody would be surprised if they do and Tony Fernandes could do a lot worse than raiding the Championship again to find another Austin. Michael Butler
• Austin supplies a lift as Leicester City hit the skids
