Wolves join top-four race: five talking points from Premier League
Are Wolves the fifth team in the race for the last Champions League spot? Sunday’s 2-0 victory at Tottenham Hotspur, their rivals for fourth place in the Premier League, would suggest so.
The visitors took advantage of sloppy Spurs defending to race into an early two-goal lead in north London and kept the hosts at bay for the rest of the afternoon to clinch an important win.
Bruno Lage might have been slow to start at Molineux, losing four of his first five league games, but the Portuguese manager has quietly turned them into obstinate opponents.
They have won 10 of their 18 top-flight games since then, beating West Ham United and Manchester United, who they are now just three points behind with a game in hand.
Back-to-back trips to Arsenal and West Ham later this month could have a major say in those teams’ hopes of being the best of the rest.
Hammers stammer
West Ham might well consider Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Leicester City a point gained rather than two dropped, given that they trailed heading into injury time and Craig Dawson’s equaliser appeared to come off his arm.
But this was a match – and opponents – that were there for the taking after Jarrod Bowen raced onto a long ball and fired them ahead in the first half.
A win would have put West Ham three points clear of Manchester United in the race for fourth place and Champions League qualification. Instead they edged one ahead, having played a match more.
Having started the season like a train, the Hammers have laboured for the last three months, winning just five of 14 Premier League games. Their charge has slowed and they are now staggering towards the finish.
Bowen’s bounce
The silver lining for West Ham during their wobble has been the form of Bowen, who made it seven goals from his last seven games in Sunday’s defeat.
He is yet to receive an England call-up but, injury permitting, the 25-year-old will surely be in Gareth Southgate’s thoughts when for next month’s international break.
The former Hull City player is not a glamorous option and Southgate is spoilt for choice in attacking players but, with eight league goals and seven assists so far this season, is putting up the sort of numbers that Southgate can’t ignore.
Up, up and howay
For perhaps the first time this season Newcastle can sleep a little easier after putting daylight between themselves and the relegation zone on Sunday.
Eddie Howe’s team held on to beat Aston Villa 1-0 at St James’ Park, thanks to Kieran Trippier’s deflected free-kick, and move four points clear of 18th-placed Norwich City.
The Magpies have now won three Premier League games in a row for the first time since November 2018, when Rafa Benitez was still in the dugout.
They have some elusive momentum to take into the testing run of fixtures that looms and features five games against teams in the top half of the table in their next seven.
A concern for Newcastle, however, will be that they face a spell without Trippier, who has brought vital goals and some much-needed authority to a previously flaky side.
Fab’s five
Liverpool’s loss of Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane for the Africa Cup of Nations raised the question of who would replace their goals and keep the Reds in the title race?
The answer, improbably, turns out to have been defensive midfielder and occasional centre-back Fabinho, who kept up his scoring streak against Burnley on Sunday.
The Brazilian now has five goals since the turn of the year, as many as any of his team-mates and more than the total he had managed in his previous three and a half years at the club.
Fabinho’s contribution helped Liverpool take three wins from their three Premier League games without Salah and Mane, and now they are back he doesn’t seem ready to stop yet.