The time around the holidays is usually one to take a step back, spend time with family and get a little relaxation done away from work. Except if you’re in the Premier League.
Since our previous column, Premier League teams have played at least five games each in the span of three weeks. That’s four league games and one FA Cup match – plus the first leg of the Carabao Cup semifinals for four teams.
Unsurprisingly, we’ve seen a ton of movement in the table and none moreso than at the bottom.
Two teams in particular – Southampton and Watford – made sharp rises up the table. And these are two clubs that we had all but left for dead at points of this season.
For the first time this season, Watford is actually out of the relegation zone. The Hornets are unbeaten in five games with four wins and a draw. This comes after notching just one victory in their previous 17 league matches.
Watford is a curious case. After making a run to the FA Cup and finishing 11th in the league, things were looking up for the club just north of London. Now onto its third manager of the season, Nigel Pearson seems to have things on track. While we’re not expecting a midtable finish again, we should see this side safe from relegation at season’s end.
The other squad that pulled up its laces and marched up the table was Southampton.
In rather poetic fashion, the Saints bounced back to defeat Leicester City this weekend and move up to 12th in the table. The result was a stark contrast from the 9-0 trashing the Foxes delivered on the south coast earlier this season.
The man leading the way is Danny Ings, the oft-injured English striker who has finally rekindled the form he had with Burnley on its run to the Premier League.
Ings now has 14 goals this season with 10 in his past 11 games. In all, he has failed to score in nine of Southampton’s 22 games, but played less than a half in five of those contests.
Now flying with Ings, the Saints have won four and drawn one in their past five league matches and are closer to a spot in Europe than relegation.
Of course, not every team can be so fortunate. Norwich, the team which shocked Manchester City early this season, has just one win since then and is eight points from safety. Aston Villa and Bournemouth have hit tremendous skids as well. And don’t discount teams like Burnley, Brighton & Hove Albion, and even David Moyes’ West Ham sinking into the muck.
There may not be much of a race at the top of the table, but there certainly is one at the bottom.
PLAYER OF THE WEEK
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Sergio Aguero is undoubtedly one of the best players to ever play in the Premier League.
This weekend he only further cemented his legacy by scoring his 12th career Premier League hat trick, tying him with Alan Shearer for the record. Kun now has 177 career goals, the most by a foreign-born player in Premier League history and ties him with Frank Lampard on the overall list.
The Manchester City talisman, who turns 32 this summer, may not be able to catch Shearer’s 260 goals before his career ends, but it’s not exactly impossible.
More likely, we could see the Argentine finish as the league’s second-best scorer, with only Andy Cole (187) and Wayne Rooney (208) ahead of him.
AROUND THE LEAGUE
What was West Ham’s Declan Rice supposed to do on that handball? There was no way for him to avoid a ball that was headed towards his arm from close-range in the build-up to the goal. It’s one of those calls where the spirit of the rule should be taken into account, but no longer can because of the rigidity of VAR … We’re not ones to exaggerate, but Manchester United’s Brandon Williams had the miss of the decade against Norwich. The young left back somehow put the ball over the wide-open net from literally a yard in front of it. That takes talent … Lukasz Fabianski is back on the shelf, but there’s some good news for West Ham. The keeper injured the same hip he had surgery on earlier this season, but should miss only a few weeks instead of months … The Ashley Young era appears to be over at Manchester United. Now we wait and see which Italian club, Inter Milan or Roma, wants him more. Never thought the aging defender would be so in-demand … Max Meyer should feel lucky that he wasn’t seriously hurt by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s nasty-looking challenge. The red-card-worthy foul looked like it could have broken the German’s ankle.
THE LAST WORD
Hope is running on short supply at Spurs and the light at the end of the tunnel is getting very dim.
Since squeaking by Wolves 2-1 on Dec. 15, everything has fallen apart for Tottenham.
Spurs have a record of 1-2-3, including a draw against lower-tier Middlesbrough in the FA Cup. Harry Kane is out until at least April with a torn hamstring. Fans are already starting to get disillusioned with Jose Mourinho. Christian Eriksen is on his way out the door to Inter Milan.
This season has become a disaster for a team that reached the Champions League final last year, but was ultimately in some poor form for nearly all of 2019.
Now, the problems are coming home to roost and we’ll just have to see how patient Mourinho can be.
Midfielder Gedson Fernandes is the first reinforcement, on his way from Benfica to bolster the midfield. But more needs to be done. A short-term replacement for Kane is much-needed, with the Special One already talking about his lack of options at striker.
With Tottenham sitting eighth in the table and its form nearing rock bottom, this might be the toughest challenge Mourinho has ever faced.