4 things we learned: United keep pace with City, West Ham keep their man (for now)
By Dan Voicescu
Manchester City add to their winning streak and Slaven Bilic’s days in east London are numbered. Here’s what we learned from the Premier League weekend.
Matchweek 10 saw a consolidation at the top of the table, as Manchester City, Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool all won. Tottenham lost at Old Trafford but remain in third place. At the opposite end of the spectrum, Everton’s woes continue in spite of the change in management, West Ham’s troubles continue in spite of the managerial continuity and Leicester look revitalized under Claude Puel.
Manchester City are their own (and only) tough challenge
We’re more than a quarter of the way through the season and Manchester City look like the clear-cut favorites for the title. Outscoring opponents 32-5 during their current eight-game winning streak, City are five points clear and playing with the confidence of champions.
Watching their performance during the 3-2 disposal of West Brom was a thing of beauty in terms of player movement, spacing and ball movement. Pep Guardiola’s team is a much improved product following a summer transfer window and the tactical moves made to adjust to the pace and physicality of the Premier League.
Their main challenge appears to come from their crosstown rivals, United. However, United’s performances have been unconvincing of late. They lost at Huddersfield and barely edged out Tottenham at Old Trafford on Saturday. Arsenal and Chelsea have been inconsistent and look unable to mount a serious challenge. Spurs have an exceptional collection of young English talent and have shown flashes of brilliance but it looks like their busy schedule may prove too much for a significant number of their players.
By all accounts, City’s level of play has actually improved as the season has progressed. They’ve been able to deal with injuries to key pieces (Benjamin Mendy, Vincent Kompany) in a relatively seamless manner and the squad rotation is on point. This is all to say that unless the wheels come off the bus, it looks very unlikely any of the other usual suspects will be able to mount a serious title challenge at this point.