Leicester are in grave danger of making unwanted history, and three other big talking points...
Can Leicester arrest the slide towards relegation?
Not since Manchester City in 1938 have defending champions in England been relegated, but even the most positive among Leicester City supporters are beginning to fear the worst.
Four successive Premier League defeats have left Claudio Ranieri’s men just a point clear of the relegation zone heading into the final 14 games of the season in the kind of form that makes it difficult to fathom from where they will find their next victory.
The glorious days of May, when the most unlikely of title victories was sealed, have given way to worrying times nine months later.
Too many of the stars of last season, most notably Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy and Danny Drinkwater, have seen their magical powers vanish.
Ranieri has been unable to find a solution to deal with the summer loss of N’Golo Kante to Chelsea, and yesterday provided further evidence that the centre of his defence is creaking alarmingly.
Robert Huth and Wes Morgan both struggled badly and the absence of new signing Molla Wague from the matchday squad suggests he has a way to go before he can provide the Foxes with an alternative option.
So, having shocked the football world last season, Leicester look in serious danger of doing so again.
Has a nightmare week made Wenger’s Arsenal future untenable?
There were no audible calls at Stamford Bridge for Wenger’s 20-year reign to end And the ‘Wenger Out’ protests last season were firmly silenced by the vast majority of supporters who attend matches. But there was one attention-seeking youngster photographed at Chelsea with a poster declaring ‘Enough Is Enough. Time To Go.’ The airwaves and social media were then buzzing with obituaries for the French coach. And if this is to be his last season as manager, and there are strong arguments why he should not sign a new contract this summer, does it not have to be handled with dignity on all sides?
Wenger hates it when people claim he is above reproach at Arsenal and wants to be treated fairly. So, when the time does come to go it has to be done with the acknowledgement he is without equal in the history of the football club and sits alongside every great coach in football’s history.
He will deserve to be feted as Alex Ferguson was when exiting Manchester United and not hounded out.
How can Klopp solve Reds’ goalkeeping problem?
It’s a discussion point that just simply won’t go away. Who should be Liverpool’s number one? Is Simon Mignolet good enough for the job or Loris Karius the answer? The truth is probably a new signing if the Reds are serious about their quest for honours.
Neither Mignolet or Karius have been helped by a defence that clearly needs strengthening, particularly when players are often asked to play out of position as was the case with Lucas and James Milner in the defeat to Hull City.
However, the reality is that top keepers like Courtois, Cech, Lloris and even Kasper Schmeichel, who played a key role in Leicester’s title success last season, are simply in a different league.
Former Reds favourite Jamie Carragher has again called for a new stopper in the wake of it, the obvious answer would seem to be a move for Joe Hart once he returns from his loan spell in Italy with Torino.
What’s the reason for City’s home discomfort?
A ridiculously hard-earned victory for Man City over Swansea allowed them to avoid an unwanted statistic of having failed to win exactly half their 12 league games at the Etihad this season but still the question persists as to why Pep Guardiola’s team has struggled at home.
Prior to kick-off, City had actually gathered more points on their travels than on their own turf so far in this campaign (24 against 22 points).
A far from convincing win over Swansea redressed that statistic but, still, the fact that Burnley are one of seven teams to have matched, or bettered, City’s seven home victories should be a matter of concern.
Afterwards, Guardiola pointed to an inconsistency within the 90 minutes that mirrors City’s unpredictability over the season.
“The gap (in performance) between the first and second half was too big.”
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