It was not the most thrilling weekend of Premier League action, at least compared to some of the games we’ve had recently, but the results of the games created interest.
Liverpool and Chelsea won, while Manchester City drew, cutting their lead a little and adding some excitement to a Championship that risked drifting away.
Gary Neville spoke about the rest of the season on his Sunday night podcast summarising the weekend, and he was positive about Thomas Tuchel’s Chelsea on the back of their 2-0 win over Tottenham.
“If [Chelsea] can just hit form between them, they can play three games a week because they can change two players every game and not really have a dip.
“Whether it’s Christian Pulisic and Timo Werner or Hakim Ziyech and Mason Mount, you don’t see a massive dip in terms of quality when one plays or the other.
“If Thomas Tuchel can keep them all happy, I think they can have a really strong finish to the season, I really do.
“I think the quality in the Premier League this season is outstanding and it doesn’t deserve to have someone winning it by 15 points.”
We agree in that we think Chelsea can finish the season strong, and that there is so much potential in this team to rip off a string of wins, if they can just find that momentum again.
But after seeing the side so low on confidence in some recent games, we’re not quite as certain as Gary that we are going to be back to our best this season.
Based upon a formation change only??? So far, Tuchel’s attempts at changing our play under him have resulted in on partial deviation from his lesser-Barca style of possession-obsessed style. I wish managers and youth development would look at football differently in the wake of Barcelona’s glory days with possession and Messi. You cannot replicate it here, there and everywhere, so MOVE ON!