With wins for all of the “Big Six” except Tottenham and the January transfer window looming large we look at the performances and whether or not the teams need to strengthen in any position for the run-in next year.
In the Saturday games Arsenal were at home to Newcastle United and managed to scrape a 1-0 win.
More important for the Gunners this January is probably who they can hold onto rather than who they can buy.
Alexis Sánchez has been largely anonymous this season and that fact goes some of the way to explaining why Arsenal are short of goals.
If he was to leave for Manchester City it would not greatly affect Arsenal at present and the same can be said of Mesut Özil, although he did score the winner against Newcastle.
However, they do have Alexandre Lacazette, Olivier Giroud and Danny Welbeck and it should be more of a concern for Stubborn Old Man that they are not scoring regularly.
He thinks he needs Thomas Lemar from Monaco but that signing would be unlikely to solve his shortage of goals.
Chelsea were also 1-0 winners, this time over Southampton and still don’t look convincing. They may hold onto third position with their current players or they may be overtaken by Liverpool, either way this could very well be Antonio Conte’s last season in charge.
They are also rumoured to be interested in Thomas Lemar and would probably have more chance of signing him than Arsenal.
Signings, however, are unlikely in January if the manager is going to be changed in the summer.
The only game which featured two of the six playing each other was at The Etihad where Tottenham Hotspur became the latest victims of Pep Guardiola’s demolition gang. Only the bravest of fans would have bet on Tottenham with Bodog Sports.
It is difficult to judge where the ambitions of Mauricio Pochettino lie as he is certainly not going to win the title and is unlikely to challenge for the top three on this showing.
Adding players at this stage when it is unlikely they will be able to play in the Champion’s League would appear to be folly as it is the only major trophy still available to Tottenham.
They could, of course, win the FA Cup which in itself, would please their long-suffering fans who would like to see some kind of silverware before they all grow very old.
Manchester City, put simply, don’t need anybody. This means that they will probably buy a centre-back now that Stones and Kompany are injured and they may buy Alexis Sánchez who they certainly don’t need. However, Pep thinks he’s a good player and Sánchez thinks he’s a good player so it will probably happen at some time.
Now that Liverpool have discovered the ancient art of defending they are another club whose needs are few. Their comfortable win at Bournemouth didn’t even highlight their need for a new goalkeeper, but it is still there.
Neither Mignolet nor Karius inspire any confidence in the defence, the midfield, the attack, the fans or even the tea ladies, so a top-class replacement is still the order of the day. Other than that other positions needing cover can wait until the summer.
Manchester United’s needs are many but they are only likely to sign Antoine Griezmann in January.
They will need to address the full-back situation sooner, rather than later, and may even be in the market for another centre-back at some stage. We will have to wait and see.
Their problem is that they have too many players who are simply not good enough and are being carried through games by others.
Their 1-2 win at West Brom was comfortable for 75 minutes before they switched off. After that time they looked the inferior team and that cannot happen if your aspiration is to win titles.
So five of the six won at the weekend with only Manchester City and Liverpool looking comfortable in their victories. The rest fell over the winning line and, in some cases, were lucky to do so.
Who will make up the final top four and who will buy players in January? Let us know in the comments below.
WHY SAY ANYTHING? 