WHY SAY ANYTHING?

Manchester United lie second in the Premier League, but eight points off Manchester City who, at present, are running away with it.

City, even with a couple of injuries to senior players don’t appear to have anybody who could be said to be letting the side down and Eliaquim Managala and Fabian Delph, when called upon, have performed admirably. The same cannot be said about some of the other teams.

United, for example, persisted with Henrikh Mkhitaryan for about two games more than they should have done. He “went missing” as José Mourinho would say, in a couple of games before being dropped and was guilty of losing possession almost every time he had it!

Marcus Rashford looks as though a rest may do him some good. Yes, it must be tempting to start with his and Martial’s pace on the flanks but Rashford, of late, has been running down blind alleys, hoping that his pace alone will beat players and hanging on to the ball too long.

It has long been a trait of young players that they don’t like to pass the ball, preferring instead to try and grab some personal glory but Rashford has now been around the first team long enough to know that he has to be a bit less selfish at times.

It would also appear that Zlatan Ibrahimović could be returning from injury at an opportune moment in time as Romelu Lukaku is beginning to show signs of needing a break. He is missing the occasional decent opporunity and, to be fair, is too big and ungainly to offer very much other than a goalscoring threat.

Yes, Mourinho has him chasing back and helping out in defence but, in truth, he doesn’t need Lukaku to do that, there are plenty of others who are better defenders. Lukaku is there to score goals and anything else is just a bonus.

At Liverpool Alberto Moreno is taking much of the flak for many poor results. Last season he couldn’t get in the team because James Milner, a winger, was Klopp’s preferred selection.

This season he is undoubtedly more disciplined but has not noticeably improved, so his promotion this term is slightly baffling.

Although the system employed by Liverpool is often as much, if not more, to blame than the individual, Moreno is still one of the stand-out under-performers in this team.

Tottenham Hotspur are currently rueing a decline in the form of Dele Alli. He is being picked on reputation at the moment and this is something he cannot expect to last very long under Mauricio Pochettino.

Spurs achieved reasonable results during August, a month they are unable to rely on Harry Kane for any goals, yet they are struggling now that Kane is scoring because Alli is not playing well. Bear in mind that, when on form, Alli will also chip in with a few goals.

Pochettino now has a slight problem. Does he persist with Alli and allow him to play his way through this dip in form, or does he bite the bullet and take him out of the firing line?

Time will tell, although our guess is that the fans will want to see him remain in the team as he is still more likely to do something to affect the game positively than he is to make a mistake.

Arsenal are a team with peaks and troughs and it is difficult to single out one player as having any major detrimental affect as there are a few under-achievers. In fact, it is probably their manager who is the current weakest link.

Of the players though, Mesut Özil can have a very positive effect on a game when he decides to take part. When he decides not to take part, however, it can have the directly opposite effect.

He is probably the main inconsistency to which Arséne Wenger would like a solution because there is certainly a greater chance of Arsenal winning when he plays well.

Chelsea are in a similar situation to The Gunners and their fate is very much dependant upon the form of Eden Hazard. Fortunately for them he is currently in a rich vein of form since failing to sparkle when he first returned from injury.

Hazard can be both the strongest and the weakest link as, when he is out of sorts, Chelsea lose more often but, when he is on form, they win far more than they lose.

So that’s the supposed “weak links” in the top six teams, although a couple of them can be considered to be strengths as well!

Do you agree? Who do you think is the one, (or more), holding your team back? Let us know below.