The title race is going all the way
Consider the various changes in the space of the last two games alone. After both Chelsea and Manchester City recorded comfortable wins on December 26, Jose Mourinho's side dropped two points at Southampton. When the final whistle blew there, City were beating Burnley 2-0.
It is safe to say neither the Portuguese nor Manuel Pellegrini expected Burnley to come back and draw at the Etihad Stadium. When City lost another two-goal lead, against Sunderland on New Year’s Day, it boded well for Chelsea.
Instead, Frank Lampard came up with a winner for City and Chelsea, in perhaps the season's strangest result, lost 5-3 at Tottenham Hotspur. The two are now locked together at the top, with exactly the same record, but Chelsea remain the Premier League title favourites as they have the more favourable fixture list for the second half of the season.
But Manchester United are not in it
When Manchester United won seven games out of eight, drawing the other one, it prompted suggestions they could emulate Louis van Gaal's Bayern Munich, who surged from mid-table to win the title in his first season in Bavaria. Back-to-back draws should bring something of a reality check.
The fact remains that United have only won twice on the road all season and Van Gaal has admitted both of those wins were lucky.
They were fortunate, too, to take a point at Stoke City on New Year’s Day. They are certainly not defending like champions and their injury problems are a constant. It is hard to see them making up nine points on City or Chelsea, let alone both.
Tottenham are genuine top-four contenders
Tottenham have had a strange season. They have rarely played particularly well and Mauricio Pochettino has spent months trying to find his strongest team. Yet they developed a handy habit of winning, especially away from home, when their performances did not merit three points.
Thursday’s emphatic, excellent home victory against Chelsea, usually their bogey team, was very different. Among other things, it took Tottenham above Arsenal. It has the potential to be a springboard for greater success.
Southampton have shown their steel
Go back two weeks and Southampton had lost five games in a row. After their bright start to the season, they threatened to go into freefall. Their response has been superb. They have reclaimed fourth place, taking 10 points from four games, even when injuries and suspensions have hit them hard.
Manager Ronald Koeman has switched his tactics intelligently. Neither he nor his team looks a flash in the pan. They would still have to overachieve in the remaining 18 games to finish in the top four, but it does not look impossible.
The firing season is underway
It was a rarity, a Premier League campaign that reached Christmas without a single sacking. Then two arrived in quick succession as Neil Warnock and Alan Irvine, managers whose CVs scarcely promised a long career in top-flight management, were dismissed by Crystal Palace and West Bromwich Albion respectively.
With Alan Pardew set to leave Newcastle United to take over from Warnock, the managerial merry-go-round has been switched on again.
The signs are that chairmen, chief executives and owners are starting to panic, so more men may be hopping on and off it in the next four months.
The relegation strugglers are showing their mettle
Normally one team will be cast adrift at the foot of the division. Everyone else’s nerves will be eased by the presence of a team that looked certain to go down.
For many, that appeared to be Leicester City, before they won away at Hull City and came from two goals down to take a point at Liverpool on Thursday.
At the start of the season, many thought Burnley were doomed but they showed extraordinary levels of spirit, and no little quality, to salvage a point at Manchester City, where they were 2-0 down, and another at Newcastle, when they trailed three times.
And Hull, after a wretched run, won twice in three games. They are all fighting to survive.
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