1) Is Van Gaal’s luck changing at Manchester United?
Who knows what is next for Louis van Gaal’s hugely unpredictable Manchester United – but perhaps the Dutchman’s luck is changing. And changing big time: opportunity only knocked for Marcus Rashford when Anthony Martial went down injured in the warm-up against Midtjylland. Fast forward to Sunday evening and United have a new four-goal hero in Rashford, as Arsenal were downed 3-2 to follow the 5-1 thrashing of the Danish champions on Thursday. Both of these wins were at Old Trafford and there was a definite reconnection between the crowd and Van Gaal that teemed visceral emotion. It came when he did his falling man routine before Mike Dean, to show the fourth official how Van Gaal believed Alexis Sánchez was trying to fool the referee, Craig Pawson. At that moment the support went ballistic and it did not feel beyond the bounds of football’s operatic storylines for Van Gaal to rescue the season with a top four place, and/or an FA Cup or Europa League triumph, and still be in place next season. If so, this would be the latest illustration that it is better to be a lucky general than a good one. Jamie Jackson
• Match report: Manchester United 3-2 Arsenal
• Rashford’s second match even better than his first, says Van Gaal
• Amy Lawrence: Wenger faces familiar questions as Arsenal freeze
2) Tottenham desperate for Alli to remain fit
The one worry for Tottenham Hotspur after Sunday’s spirited and vital 2-1 home win over Swansea City was the sight of Dele Alli limping heavily on his way out of the dressing room. The midfielder, who has been one of the stars of the season, said that he had kicked the ground in the warm-up but he still got through the 90 minutes. Perhaps it was the adrenaline that carried him, together with his desire but, with the visit to West Ham United looming on Wednesday night, Tottenham have to hope that he feels no ill effects. There was a moment during the first half when Alli lost possession and the manager, Mauricio Pochettino, immediately signalled to the midfield substitutes, Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb, to begin warming up. It reflected a degree of concern over Alli, although he would not have completed the match if it had been too great. This was not one of Alli’s most effective performances – Christian Eriksen ran the show alongside him – but his value to Tottenham’s title push is tremendous. David Hytner
• Match report: Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Swansea City
• The Dozen: the weekend’s best Premier League photos
3) Norwich discover a blueprint for handling Leicester
For the best part of 89 minutes Norwich’s gameplan worked to perfection against Leicester and may provide a blueprint for other clubs to follow between now and the end of the season, particularly at the King Power Stadium, where the Premier League leaders still have to play West brom, Newcastle, Southampton, West Ham, Swansea and Everton. Norwich deployed a three-man central defence, with Russell Martin almost playing as a sweeper, sat deep and in effect asked Leicester to try to break them down without being able to get in behind. “I look at how other teams set up against certain opposition and the only team who has played that way against them has been Manchester United,” Alex Neil, Norwich’s manager said, referring to their three-man defence. “I watched that game – it was 1-1 but Man United should have won. I looked at that and thought we could deploy that and it would help us.”
Leicester enjoyed 59% possession against Norwich – remarkably it was only the third time this season that they have had more of the ball than their opponents – yet they registered only three shots on target, the first after 58 minutes and the last when Leonardo Ulloa tapped in a dramatic late winner. Unable to break with alacrity and play on the counterattack, Leicester’s threat was nullified for long periods. There was no space for Jamie Vardy to exploit behind the Norwich defence, which was compounded by the fact that Riyad Mahrez and Marc Albrighton failed to make the best use of the ball in wide areas, until the latter finally found his range with the cross that Ulloa converted in the 89th minute. The good news for Leicester is that they still managed to find a way to win the game, largely thanks to Ranieri’s tactical gamble late on. The bad news is that they could come up against these tactics again and will need to be more adept at finding a way through. Stuart James
• Match report: Leicester City 1-0 Norwich City
• Ranieri turns Thinkerman for Leicester’s late win
4) Chelsea focus is on Europe and the fitness of Terry
Chelsea may have registered back-to-back Premier League wins for the first time this season, reason in itself for optimism, but it is still hard not to be distracted by what awaits in the rematch against Paris Saint-Germain in nine days’ time. Trailing narrowly from the first leg, but bolstered by Mikel John Obi’s away goal, Guus Hiddink’s side believe they can still force passage beyond the runaway Ligue 1 leaders and into the quarter-finals. Ensuring they are in the best state to stretch the Parisians on 9 March has become a priority.
To that end, Hiddink is already mulling over how to reintegrate John Terry into his lineup and ensure his captain, potentially counting down his last few months at the club, is fully recovered from the hamstring injury sustained against Newcastle. The 35-year-old had admitted in the build-up to the trip to St Mary’s that caution might be the better approach. “We looked at him on the training pitch and asked him how he felt, and he said: ‘Okay, but not ready to play,’” said Hiddink. “I’ll be careful because I have experience in the past of these kind of injuries. They take longer to heal than an ankle injury, or whatever, and it’s better to wait maybe even a game longer than everyone thinks. So we talked and I said: ‘Hey, let’s take our time and not rush things.’”
Terry, on 699 club appearances, will be infuriated at the untimely nature of the damage given his time at Stamford Bridge appears to be edging towards the end. Tuesday’s trip to Norwich will come too soon. So, in truth, might Saturday’s visit of Stoke City, meaning Chelsea may have to rejig their training routine to offer the captain something akin to a competitive run out before PSG arrive in the capital. “It’s very, very tight [in terms of his availability against the French side],” added Hiddink. “We’ll see how he reacts and, if he needs a game, we might organise one at Cobham: an intense game, maybe 11 vs 11 or a smaller-side game with intensity. But it’s very tight, it’s very tight.” The thought that he might have to sit on the sidelines and watch what could be Chelsea’s last Champions League game for a while will drive Terry to distraction. Ensuring the captain can play some part is one of this club’s priorities. Dominic Fifield
• Daniel Taylor: Conte court case could be a distraction for Chelsea
• Hiddink content after key players take command against Southampton
• Match report: Southampton 1-2 Chelsea
5) Gradel’s return can give Bournemouth a lift for run-in
Statistics show that Bournemouth players have run more on average than those of any other team in the league this season – so questions have been asked about their ability to sustain their dynamism for the rest of the campaign. But on Saturday it was their opponents who looked jaded and it took a couple of fine saves by Watford’s Heurelho Gomes to stop the south coast side from striding two points closer to Premier League survival. Those saves were from shots by Max Gradel, who looked sharp on his return from six months out with a knee ligament injury. It was unfortunate that Junior Stanislas’ hamstring injury was the reason for Gradel’s introduction in the 21st minute, but Bournemouth can take encouragement from Gradel’s return for the final part of the campaign. The winger, signed for £7m from Saint Etienne last summer, said afterwards that he was surprised at how fit he felt during his first match back. He added that he is all the more determined to make an impact between now and the end of the season in order to repay Eddie Howe for allowing him to do most of his rehabilitation back home in the Ivory Coast. “When I came back this month people were surprised to see me,” said Gradel. “People didn’t expect me to train and then when he saw me I looked good. When someone trusts you, you cannot let them down. I showed him he did the right thing by trusting me and letting me go home and today the result is I’m back to carry on.” Paul Doyle
• Match report: Watford 0-0 Bournemouth
• Gradel thanks manager Howe for his trust
6) Villa are too bad to stay up
The Premier League has had some remarkable great escapes, from Oldham in 1992-93, to Wigan showing that you really can pass your way out of trouble in 2011-12. In the first Premier League season, Oldham stayed up despite being eight points behind Crystal Palace going into the last week of the season. Aston Villa still have 11 games to make up eight points on 17th-placed Norwich, but scarcely any sentient beings give them a chance.
Rémi Garde knows as much: after their 2-1 defeat at Stoke on Saturday, he praised their spirit but highlighted their essential shortcoming in a manner that evoked Martin Johnson’s famous quote about the England cricket team in 1986-87. Villa, you see, have only two problems: they can’t score goals and they can’t stop conceding them. “We know we are a team that finds it difficult to score goals,” said Garde, “and we are not scoring many.” Relegation is the inevitable conclusion of inexorable decline since Martin O’Neill left in 2010, and the list of Premier League ever-presents will soon be reduced to six. Villa, to reverse the phrase usually spouted at this time of year, are surely too bad to stay up. Rob Smyth
• Aston Villa: the club that pedalled backwards and expected to stand still
• Match report: Stoke 2-1 Aston Villa
• Stoke win over Villa marred by coin-throwing claim
7) Spotlight on Berahino is becoming too bright
Is anybody else tired of the Saido Berahino story? Not a match goes by without Tony Pulis facing endless, repetitive questions about the striker, who increasingly looks to have his head screwed back on and has perhaps realised that he is unlikely to earn a coveted transfer to a big team if sat on the bench. Every question put to the West Brom manager in his daily newspaper briefing on Saturday was about Berahino and it is becoming increasingly difficult to remember a time at The Hawthorns when the standoff did not dominate discussion. It is also easy to forget that Berahino remains unproven in many respects; a player with plenty of talent but a questionable mentality. Ask a neutral to name one standout moment and they would struggle. Ask an Albion regular for a definitive description and something negative would feature. Yet in this age of endless speculation, wouldn’t it be refreshing to blur out transfer talk for the remainder of the season and simply observe a young striker try to develop his game? Alan Smith
• Pulis tells Berahino to ‘squeeze the pips’ at West Brom
• Laurie Cunningham: the dancing footballer with eternal youth
• Match report: West Brom 3-2 Crystal Palace
8) Bilic highlights the change in West Ham’s intent
West Ham rarely burst into life against Sunderland but the league table does not lie and Slaven Bilic believes their position on the fringe of the European places owes plenty to their positive attitude. “Our fourth game of the season was at Anfield,” remembered Bilic. “We’d beaten Arsenal in our first game and then lost to Leicester and Bournemouth at home. My assistant said ‘a point would be good tomorrow’ and I said ‘yeah, it would be good but I wouldn’t take it now’. Sometimes you are over the moon with a point after the game, but beforehand I will always say ‘no thank you’ because we have a good team and I believe in it.” They won that match at Liverpool 3-0 and have gone on to brighter things since. It is something of a quirk that two such forward-thinking sides as West Ham and Everton have more draws than any of their top-flight rivals, with 10 and 11 respectively. That statistic does not bother the Upton Park faithful, who see the proof of their team’s intent unfolding before them. There is little joy in compounding the disappointment of their former manager, Sam Allardyce, after his team played well enough to deserve a draw of their own on Saturday – but Bilic’s words inadvertently highlighted the fundamental change in outlook that has arisen at West Ham since he took his rival’s old job. Nick Ames
• Allardyce fears for Sunderland future despite Bilic support
• Sunderland give free shirts to fans travelling to West Ham away match
• Match report: West Ham 1-0 Sunderland
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