Iain Macintosh picks some heroes and villains from a full midweek fixture list in the Premier League.

Heroes

Chelsea sent out a message that was received loud and clear by the rest of the Premier League: Saturday was just a blip. Defeat to Crystal Palace, as stunning and surprising as it was, will not unsettle Stamford Bridge. What was striking about the victory over Manchester City was not the way Chelsea took and then regained the lead in the first half, it was the way they protected it in the second. They shut that game down, tied it in a sack and hurled it down a well.

And it could have been an even better night for the leaders, had it not been for an extraordinary end to Tottenham's visit to Swansea. Faced with a very winnable game, for 88 minutes Spurs were profoundly "Spurs-y" and threatened to "Spurs it all up." But these players are maturing, learning from mistakes and, when all looked lost, found three goals to save the day. Spurs came through a challenge to win at Burnley last weekend and showed the same resolve in Wales.

Is Arsene Wenger back? Can an emphatic victory over West Ham at the Emirates Stadium enable the embattled Frenchman to sweep away the resistance to his new contract and reassert his position in preparation for another tilt at the title? Could this night have been the turning point, the moment that the clouds broke and sunlight poured in? Probably not, no. But it's nice to have at least one day when the world isn't pointing and howling at Wenger, as if he's just been caught kicking kittens down the stairs.

Let's be quite clear: Hull City's owners do not deserve to stay in the Premier League. Their preparations for the season were shambolic, their relationship with the fans has collapsed and their team is a hastily compiled collection of stalwarts, has-beens, never-weres and exotic loanees. But they have done one good thing: Hiring Marco Silva. Another win, Hull's second in five days, has changed the look of the relegation dogfight. They are out of the drop zone now. Can they possibly stay there?

You have to salute Leicester City's players. When their season began, back in late February, no-one could have imagined a run like this. It's five wins from five for manager Craig Shakespeare. Victory over Sunderland on Tuesday featured another Jamie Vardy goal and puts Leicester on 36 points, which should be enough to safeguard them against the nightmare scenario of becoming the answer to a quiz question. Perhaps, though, they might want to consider starting next season in August, like everyone else?

Two home games against West Bromwich Albion and Everton have provided just two points, and one goal, for Jose Mourinho's uninspiring Manchester United. That the goal was an injury-time penalty, coolly converted by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, is even more telling. Mourinho, like Pep Guardiola, should be allowed a transitional season, but some United fans are beginning to wonder if 2017-18 will be any better. Mourinho's United are more entertaining than Louis van Gaal's United, but there's not a lot in it.

There's not much to separate United from Manchester City, though that is not a compliment. From consecutive games against Liverpool, Arsenal and Chelsea, Guardiola's side have claimed just two points. While City can take solace from not having been outclassed in these encounters, there is much to be done if reality is to catch up with expectation. As with Mourinho, first-season managers should not be expected to overly impress. Frankly, Antonio Conte really has ruined this for everybody.

We're starting to worry about West Ham and, in particular their engaging, fascinating manager Slaven Bilic. Everything seemed to be fine in February when three wins in four games lifted the Hammers into mid-table safety. But it's all gone horribly, horribly wrong since then, with two points won from seven games; defeat at Arsenal was West Ham's fifth in a row. They have winnable fixtures next - Swansea at home and Sunderland away -- but, after appearing to stabilise, they are in trouble all over again.

Paul Clement must be wondering what he's got himself into at Swansea. He could have stayed at Bayern Munich, helped Carlo Ancelotti to the Bundesliga title and paused occasionally to march through the Champions League with impunity. Things were looking up on Wednesday night when, for a long time, it looked as though Wayne Routledge's goal would see off Spurs and move Clement closer to knowing he'd start next season as a Premier League manager. And then it all went wrong.

Another day, another flat performance, another defeat and another step taken towards the Championship. No-one ever expected Sunderland to beat Leicester, but a goal might have been nice. David Moyes' side haven't scored since their increasingly-weird-when-you-think-about-recent-results 4-0 victory over Crystal Palace. That's six games without a goal. In fact, they'll actually have to improve slightly to even be described as "going down with a whimper." But is that likely? Not on the evidence of recent form.

Source:
courtesy of ESPNFC

by IAIN MACINTOSH

If you have any stories or news that you would like to share with the global online community, please feel free to share it with us by contacting us directly at [email protected]