6 talking points from the weekend's Premier League action

Adnan Januzaj’s performance against Sunderland and other much-discussed occurrences.

1. Is Tottenham’s attack too predictable?

Despite the club currently finding themselves in 6th position, Tottenham’s attack has often struggled this season.

While Spurs’ defence has been invariably stellar, down the other end they have scored just six goals in total this season — only the bottom five clubs have fared worse in front of goal.

This pattern continued against West Ham today, as Tottenham were unable to break down the visitors’ stubborn defence, while their normally reliable backline for once failed to perform adequately.

There is a strong case to be made that their attack is too predictable and overly reliant on the talented Christian Eriksen — the Dane was all too often marked out of the game today, and without his influence, Andre Villas-Boas’ side look decidedly short on creativity.

2. Adnan Januzaj looks the real deal

The youngster had a full debut to remember, scoring both goals as Man United laboured to a victory over Sunderland yesterday.

The 18-year-old’s rapid progress has been well documented — we’ve already written about him here and here.

Of course, sceptics may suggest he’ll turn into another Federico Macheda or Danny Cadamateri — stars who have burned bright initially before rapidly fading into obscurity.

Yet he continues to silence doubters, showing the talent to ostensibly ensure his long-term future is at Old Trafford (or somewhere equally glamorous).

Alex Ferguson recently talked about how what makes a great player is courage and a willingness to take responsibility — the fact that Januzaj is always demanding the ball from his teammates suggests he has these characteristics in spades.

3. Everton not top-four contenders on yesterday’s evidence

YouTube credit: Danny Wilson

Given that before yesterday, Everton had won six of their last eight encounters with Man City, many expected them to cause Manuel Pellegrini’s side problems.

However, even after the Toffees took the lead, they never really played with any great conviction — as if they didn’t believe they could win the game. Moreover, after at least threatening on the counter-attack regularly in the first half, they faded badly in the second.

Consequently, despite having been unbeaten before Saturday, talk of a top-four place suddenly seems fanciful.

Manager Roberto Martinez may have cause for complaint with regards to the soft penalty that helped decide the match, but he will have been hard pressed to argue with the outcome.

4. It’s as if Suarez never went away

It’s no surprise that talk of Luis Suarez’s attempts to leave Liverpool in the summer has died down very quickly.
The star has been excellent since his comeback and now has 19 goals in his last 22 matches for the Reds.

Yesterday, amid a routine victory over Crystal Palace, Suarez was on target again, thus consolidating the widely held belief that — along with Robin van Persie — he is the best striker in the Premier League.

So while Liverpool undoubtedly have one of the weakest squads of all the aspiring top-four contenders, few of their rivals have a player as effective as the Uruguayan.

5. Chelsea squad depth formidable

Have Chelsea the best squad in the Premier League?

After Ireland’s Anthony Pilkington struck in the 68th minute, they were heading for a 1-1 draw against Norwich, but late goals from Eden Hazard and Willian got them out of trouble.

It was particularly ironic that one of the changes prompted the departure from the field of Juan Mata — the player who last week came on to help secure a point away at Tottenham.

Jose Mourinho has throughout his career made intelligent use of substitutes and that quality, in addition to the depth of talent available to the coach, has been starkly evident of late.

6. West Brom sh0w United win was no fluke

The reaction to last week’s United-West Brom game focused so much on David Moyes and his side that their opponents were rather unjustly almost treated as an afterthought.
Yet the Baggies will surely be given greater respect following a second consecutive impressive result — drawing 1-1 with Arsenal this afternoon, as once again, Steve Clarke got his tactics correct.

Arsenal effectively played with five central midfielders at the Hawthorns today, as Jack Wilshere and Aaron Ramsey were pushed out to the wings.

Unsurprisingly, they consequently often looked all too narrow, with West Brom combating this style by tucking their wide players in and minimising the space available to the visitors.

Steve Clarke’s side’s approach was akin to the one invariably adopted by teams (most recently Celtic) playing against the similar eye-of-a-needle philosophy adopted by Barcelona — and to West Brom’s credit, this strategy was executed with aplomb.