Premier League best & worst: Alex Keble picks out the major Premier League talking points

Best

Chelsea’s 3-4-2-1 offers Lampard a solution

Frank Lampard has found a formation that can revitalise Chelsea’s season. Although his side were assisted by Tottenham’s clumsy 5-4-1, in which an isolated Harry Winks and Tanguy Ndombele were easily targeted in the press to keep the visitors pinned back, Lampard will be delighted with the creativity of his side.

Olivier Giroud was excellent supporting dual number tens Ross Barkley and Mason Mount, who span in behind if the Frenchman came short or dropped into space between the lines if Giroud stayed up to pin the centre-backs. Their interactions restored confidence and fluency to the Chelsea attack, exemplified perfectly in the winning goal when all three touched the ball before Marcus Alonso scored.

The system also meant Jorginho and Matteo Kovacic consistently had a narrow, vertical passing option, bringing the tempo back into Chelsea’s midfield, plus the shape allowed for a high press to swarm and overwhelm Tottenham’s midfield throughout the contest. Lampard ought to stick with the 3-4-2-1 for the foreseeable future.

Armstrong & Djenepo performances show Southampton did their homework

Southampton’s wingers Stuart Armstrong and Moussa Djenepo dominated Aston Villa, completing 12 dribbles and nine key passes between them as wingers who cut infield to turn the hosts’ formation from a 4-4-2 to a narrow 4-2-2-2. It was a clever tactical tweak from Ralph Hasenhuttl that appeared to deliberately target Villa’s biggest flaw.

Dean Smith’s 3-4-3 is far too light in central midfield, particularly when a high-pressing and possession-dominating opponent pins back the wing-backs – as Saints did on Saturday. When that happens Villa fall into a 5-2-3, which means enormous patches of grass opening up on the outside of the central midfielders and just in front of the wing-backs.

It is in these pockets that Armstrong and Djenepo played, taking advantage of the fact Villa couldn’t get out to meet them thanks to the threat of the overlapping full-backs Ryan Bertrand and James Ward-Prowse.

Five-goal thriller at the Emirates

As expected, neither Everton nor Arsenal have particularly strong defences but both are quickly absorbing their new managers’ attacking methods. In the reverse fixture just two months ago Carlo Ancelotti and Mikel Arteta watched a 0-0 draw from the stands. Few people that day will have anticipated such a dramatic upturn in performance levels by late February.

Arsenal’s attacking shape was helped on Sunday by excellent performances in midfield from Mesut Ozil and Dani Ceballos, although the most prominent feature was the high frequency of through balls played into a front four constantly seeking to run in behind. It continuously undermined Everton’s high defensive line, especially in the first half.

Everton threatened mostly on the counter-attack via Richarlison, whose movement into the left channel exposed the gaps that open up behind Hector Bellerin. The Brazilian and Dominic Calvert-Lewin are developing a superb partnership up front – although they need help from higher quality central midfielder. Fabien Delph and Morgan Schneiderlin struggled to assert authority at the Emirates.

Worst

Saturday is VAR’s most disastrous day yet

By Saturday evening respect for VAR was perhaps at its lowest since the technology was first introduced in August. Calls for it to be scrapped are only growing louder, but given that not a single referee looked at a monitor – despite the chaos – it seems highly unlikely such a drastic step will be taken. Instead, small steps to improve it in 2020/21.

Giovanni Lo Celso clearly should have been sent off for a stamp that VAR viewed dozens of times before making the wrong call, later taking the unprecedented step of admitting error. In the evening kick-off, Kevin de Bruyne was inexplicably allowed to handball in the box only for Dennis Praet to be penalised for a very similar offence later in the game, and when Ederson clattered Kelechi Iheanacho a VAR check didn’t even seem to take place.

In the Burnley match, Bournemouth were harshly treated on two occasions. First they had a goal disallowed when the ball hit Philip Billing’s shoulder and then Adam Smith was judged to have handled the ball in his own box a long time before the Cherries scored an equaliser. The goal was ruled out and a penalty awarded, flipping the game on its head.

Heavy defeats for bottom five suggest low points tally for 18th

Not long ago it looked like this might be one of those rare seasons when a team with 40 points get relegated, and certainly a lot of people began to believe one good Premier League team would go down. However, the current bottom four are now all looking pretty terrible following an aggregate 8-0 defeat - and that’s before West Ham face Liverpool at Anfield on Monday night.

Villa are on a three-match losing streak and the three clubs below them have all gone four without a win. Norwich City are all but down, Watford’s new manager bounce under Nigel Pearson has well and truly worn off, West Ham’s shambles should only get worse given their horrendous run in, and Villa are in free fall ahead of next weekend’s League Cup final.

In keeping with recent seasons, 37 points will probably be enough to avoid the drop.

Fuchs’ error lets Leicester down in tight game at Man City

A high-quality contest in Leicester on Saturday evening was ultimately decided by one small error in defence from Christian Fuchs, who showed his age with some tired backpedalling in the 80th minute that allowed Gabriel Jesus to find space to score the winner.

In the 33-year-old’s defence, it had been an exhausting game. Man City were impressive in gradually grinding the hosts down, with Kevin de Bruyne back to his best in a central role and Bernardo Silva supporting cleverly in a deeper, withdrawn position on the left wing. Pep Guardiola rightly praised his players for their attitude after a professional performance that wore Leicester down.

Then again, we could have given a ‘worst of the weekend’ award to Man City’s penalty taking. Sergio Aguero’s miss – and it was a very poor hit – made it four in a row for Guardiola’s side. The manager admitted recently that Ederson is the club’s best penalty taker. Surely it is time the manager gives his goalkeeper a chance from 12 yards.

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