Premier League: 10 talking points from the weekend action

1) Why is Rooney playing as a holding midfielder?
Wayne Rooney ended Manchester United’s 3-1 win over Leicester City as a holding midfielder alongside Daley Blind. He began the game as a floating schemer in the Paul Scholes mould. The idea was that Rooney would ignite play, seeing the quick and long pass. The problem was his radar was often awry when attempting the raking ball designed to open Leicester up. While the 29-year-old has the vision to operate in the role, on afternoons such as Saturday when it does not happen for him, it seems a waste that he is not operating further upfield as the No10 or in attack. There, as his long career shows, Rooney wreaks havoc. Instead, in a sizeable slight against the £29m Ander Herrera, Louis van Gaal opted for Rooney while the Spaniard remained an unused replacement. Seeing Rooney in front of the defence at the end compounded the general oddity of his manager’s deployment of him. Jamie Jackson

2) Sturridge shone but Liverpool’s defence was key against West Ham
Daniel Sturridge naturally claimed the headlines with his comeback goal for Liverpool against West Ham United on Saturday but other, notable aspects of the home performance could not be ignored. Liverpool’s defending against the obvious aerial and set-piece threat of Sam Allardyce’s team impressed in particular. It took Brendan Rodgers’ side 22 matches from the start of this season to register four clean sheets. They have kept the same total in their past six games, with Eden Hazard’s penalty and Branislav Ivanovic’s header from a free-kick for Chelsea in the Capital One Cup semi-final the only goals conceded in that sequence.

Simon Mignolet’s form has improved significantly while Mamadou Sakho has benefited from Rodgers’ refusal to hold grudges against errant or struggling players. The France international was disciplined for walking out of Anfield having been omitted from Liverpool’s squad for the Merseyside derby in September. He now approaches the return meeting with Everton this Saturday in commanding form. “You have to be honest with players and sometimes the modern player cannot deal with that,” said Rodgers. “Maybe Sakho was frustrated with himself at times but he’s got a really strong mentality. That’s what you need, a team that’s hard to beat with mental toughness, and he’s a tough boy.” Andy Hunter

3) Fan loses perspective on Lampard’s return
On returning to Chelsea Manchester City’s Frank Lampard received a mixed reception, as might have been expected, on his return to Stamford Bridge, but not everyone retained a sense of perspective for a fixture that engenders much frenzied hype. So hats off to the grown adult human that took in this banner, denouncing Lampard as “a traitor” to Chelsea and “not a legend”. Some people really do have too much time on their hands. Tom Davies

4) Is Villa’s plight the sorriest of any club in England?
Taking into account heritage, fanbase and potential is there a sadder club in England right now than Aston Villa? Supporters of Leeds United and a few other teams may raise their hands but it is hard currently to look beyond the Midlands’ struggling giant. Defeat by Arsenal on Sunday made it eight league games without victory for Paul Lambert’s men and, for the first time in their history, six without scoring. No points and no goals, God bless those Villa fans who turned up at the Emirates on a bitterly cold afternoon.

The visitors did not actually play that badly and things could have been different had Andreas Weimann or Christian Benteke taken the more than decent chances that came their way either side of half-time. Lambert described them as “big moments” and there was no hiding his frustration at his team’s current plight. In all probability Villa will score enough goals and secure enough points to avoid relegation but come the summer this routine of stinking the place out yet surviving by the skin of their teeth has to end. It has gone on far too long for a club that not so long ago were competing for a Champions League place and remain one of only six British clubs to have won the European Cup.

That means Randy Lerner finally selling the club or, if he has no option but to stick around, once again investing strongly in playing resources. It may also mean Lambert, despite his obvious hunger to succeed, moving on. It has been almost three seasons since he arrived and, if anything, things are getting worse. Fresh change may well require a fresh man in the dugout. Sachin Nakrani

5) Shelvey’s shining example – to himself
Southampton supporters are usually delighted with the high-calibre performances that they see from central midfielders at St Mary’s but they got little pleasure from watching Jonjo Shelvey thrive in the absence of Morgan Schneiderlin and Victor Wanyama on Sunday. Garry Monk, by contrast, was thrilled to see Shelvey put the crowning finish to an accomplished, uncharacteristically defensive away performance that offered more proof of the promise of this novice manager. Given Shelvey’s previous tendency to lose focus and lapse into indiscipline, Monk was wise to lace his praise of the player with a warning not to fritter away his potential. “When Jonjo’s motivation and worth ethic are high, the quality is there to see,” said Monk. “I try to push it out of him every day. I can push him but he has to push himself. Things like that goal should be a reminder of what can be achieved if you work hard. He’s still only young and he has to take that into the rest of his career.” Paul Doyle



6) Playing Lescott at left-back will not help either player or club
After going 266 minutes without conceding a Premier League goal, West Bromwich Albion collapsed in the opening quarter of an hour of Saturday’s first defeat under Tony Pulis as Tottenham Hotspur opened them up with ease. Even when they did battle back into the contest, they made it 3-0 with a penalty conceded after Joleon Lescott’s handball.

Pulis likes to build from the back so he will not be satisfied by his team’s defending. The decision to play Lescott at left-back can be rationalised by the manager’s desire to play a left-footer on that side whom he can trust defensively. With Andre Wisdom at right-back, it meant all four members of the defence have played centre-back for some or all of their careers. It also means West Brom can defend aerial balls to the back post better.

But it does not suit Lescott. “The manager has obviously asked me to do a job and at the [moment] I can do that but I see myself as centre-half,” the former Manchester City man said. “I came here to play centre-half. I feel I have been doing well doing that. That is what is best for the team but I am not a left-back”. And while he is not the type to throw his toys out the pram, the selection does seem counter-productive.

Lescott does not offer much going forward down the left, he is much happier playing simple short passes into central midfield and he has been in top form in central defence, playing with the composure and decisiveness that made him an England squad regular. Perhaps Pulis wants to make his point that he needs a more accomplished left-back but he would do well to keep his best pros onside. Peter Lansley

7) Hull’s end-of-season form is cause for concern
Hull’s precarious Premier League position will be of even more concern for their supporters when reflecting on their finishes to their three previous seasons in the top flight. While it is a relatively shallow history, it is a modern one, and a recurrence will inevitably result in a second relegation. Under three different managers Hull have tailed off dramatically in the final 15 matches to claim a combined points tally of 32 (an average of 0.7 points a game). Last season produced comfortably their best haul when a collection of 14 saw them finish in 16th place. However, they were in the relative comfort of 13th place when that sequence began, not in the relegation zone as they are now. Richard Gibson

8) Goal-line technology is being embraced by all, if a little reluctantly
Alan Pardew joked about the genius behind goal-line technology needing “a kick up the bum”, bemoaning the fact all this new-found accuracy had taken an element of fun out of the game, but there is no denying football is benefiting from Hawk-Eye’s intervention. Dwight Gayle’s clever flick on Damien Delaney’s downward header was perilously close to crossing the line at Selhurst Park, Phil Jagielka hacking it clear from under the crossbar, but the cameras revealed it was marginally short of the mark. Crystal Palace’s players, and a few Evertonians judging by the flashes of anxiety, had initially been convinced an equaliser had been scored.

“I thought it was in from the reactions but you want the right result,” said Pardew. “If it had been late in the game I think it would’ve hurt even more. But it’s there now and it works. At least it proved it works now.” There will be occasions when it works in Palace’s favour, but there is already an acceptance that this is an accurate system that leaves little room for argument. The technology works well. Dominic Fifield



9) Will Redknapp leave his mark on deadline day again?
Harry Redknapp is regarded as Mr Transfer Deadline Day but, despite interest in Emmanuel Adebayor, he is predicting an uneventful final day of the window today. “We are looking but don’t think we’re close to doing anything really,” he said. “We’ve been looking and looking but it’s so difficult, who’s going to let good players go? We just need another striker really, someone who might come and score goals. Good frontmen are not easy to find.” Ian Baker

10) Do Sunderland have the Premier League’s most loyal supporters?
A crowd in excess of 44,000 made their way to the Stadium of Light on an icy late January day big on wind chill factor to watch Sunderland – aka the doziest of sleeping giants – beat Burnley 2-0 in a classic relegation six-pointer. The remarkable thing is that this was only the second time this season Gus Poyet’s side have won a Premier League game at home – and it is not even as if the football has been entertaining. Only last week Poyet acknowledged that his players had been “rubbish to watch” just lately and admitted even he “would struggle to score in this team”.

At other clubs attendances would surely have dwindled to embarrassing levels months ago but the loyalty of Sunderland fans is something else. The atmosphere they created was described as “electric” by Jermain Defoe on Saturday – just imagine what it might be like if the team was any good.

Louise Taylor


Guardian