7 truths: How Manchester City can catch Chelsea and win the Premier League

There’s no doubt about it, Chelsea have been the standout team so far. Not only did they take an early lead in the Premier League, but they have been in scintillating form and have rarely been troubled thus far.

Last season’s champions, City, whilst keeping Jose Mourinho’s Blues in their sights, have been some way off the pace. Up until the win over Southampton, they even trailed Ronald Koeman’s Saints. However, after Chelsea’s stalemate with Sunderland, City are now just six points behind the leaders and looking at their next seven games, could be in an even better position should they come out of it with the points that they’d expect.

Man City's Premier League fixtures over Christmas: S'land (A) Everton (H) Leicester (A) Palace (H) WBA (A) Burnley (H) S'land (H). #MCFC— Squawka Football (@Squawka) November 30, 2014

Frank Lampard scored his 174th Premier League goal in Manchester City’s 3-0 win over Southampton in the Premier League – catapulting himself into the top five goalscorers in league history, behind only Alan Shearer, Andy Cole, Wayne Rooney and Thierry Henry.

The midfielder departed Chelsea on 171 Premier League goals and as the club’s all-time record goalscorer and has already won over the fans at the Etihad despite his 13-year stint with the Blues.

Lampard is set to join up with MLS side New York City FC – co-owned by Man City – in January, but after impressing there are reports claiming Manuel Pellegrini will attempt to keep the former England midfielder until the end of the Premier League season.

Regardless of when he goes, we’ll certainly miss him.

Having sold a large chunk of their squad over the summer (mostly to Liverpool), many believed that Southampton were one of the favourites for the drop. But rather incredibly, the Saints surprised us all and proved their doubters wrong as they picked up win after win, rocketing their way up the table and sat comfortably in second place.

Doubt had turned into hope and there were whispers of Champions League football next season, but the high-flying Saints were brought crashing down to Earth after failing their first real test of the season.

Sure, Ronald Koeman’s men have found winning rather easily so far this season, but questions over their ability to mix it with the big boys remain.

Southampton have played 3 games against last season's top 7 and lost all 3. Six of the 9 goals they have conceded have come in these 3 games— Dale Johnson (@dalejohnsonESPN) November 30, 2014

4. In some instances, yellow cards should be rescinded

'THE WORST DECISION OF THE SEASON!' Reaction to the Aguero booking. https://t.co/V8R9nOJw9bpic.twitter.com/K4UnsVwCyE— Eurosport.com (@EurosportCom_EN) November 30, 2014

In what was referred to as ‘the worst refereeing decision of all time’, Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero was booked for simulation, despite having his feet taken from underneath him inside the Southampton penalty area. There’s no doubt about it, it was a penalty. Regardless, referee Mike Jones brandished the yellow and the game went on.

Now, we could spend all day discussing the finer points of video technology for decisions such as this, but that is an argument for another time. But what does need to happen is Aguero’s yellow card being rescinded. Not only did the Argentine and his team-mates suffer due to a lack of a penalty, but he was unfairly booked and that yellow card will wrongly go against him and could contribute to a suspension.

The Spurs youngster has been blessed with a healthy dose of good fortune in November. First, his tame free-kick flicked off Nathan Baker against Aston Villa to earn Tottenham a dramatic winner, then he popped up in the right place to tap home after Christian Eriksen’s free-kick had struck the post against Hull. Both incidents required a certain level of skill, but the conundrum remained: was he merely an energetic frontman or a player with genuine ability?

His shift against Everton suggests the latter is true. Deployed as a number 10 rather than number nine, Kane was free to charge around the pitch – a tactical tweak that resulted in him dispossessing Gareth Barry prior to Spurs’ second goal. Instead of hanging on the last defender, he repeatedly carried the ball through the (largely absent) Everton midfield and created chances for a previously blunt attack. Spurs can make an England international of him yet.

Emmanuel Adebayor: a striker whose tagline reads: “unplayable on his day”, despite his day failing to occur for about a year.

Erik Lamela: a £30 million signing who does everything in slow motion and always finds a way to hamper his side’s defence with a ridiculous lapse.

Etienne Capoue: a defensive midfielder who contributes neither to the defence nor the midfield.

The list goes on and on… Kyle Naughton (positionally-awkward), Nacer Chadli (erratic), Younes Kaboul (inconsistent) and Mousa Dembele (mopey) are also culpable for Tottenham’s difficult start to the season.

But it finally appears boss Mauricio Pochettino, aided by injuries and suspension, has eliminated those defects and got 11 passionate players willing to subscribe to a high-intensity game. A central midfield of Ryan Mason and Nabil Bentaleb shouldn’t have worked – especially against a side like Everton – but the pair buzzed around expertly and helped Spurs dictate play. Now, if they could just get Roberto Soldado scoring a bit more freely…

We’ve poked a fair amount of criticism in the direction of Spurs after they off-loaded Gylfi Sigurdsson and £5 million to Swansea in return for Davies and Michel Vorm. Suddenly that deal doesn’t look quite so bad. Davies was magnificent against Everton – his highlight when he schooled Aidan McGeady in a second-half scrap – and looked at home at White Hart Lane.

There’s always the temptation to rate full-backs based on their attacking contribution, and yet their primary function is to defend. Davies is vastly more positionally sound than left-back rival Danny Rose and although he offers little going forward, Spurs’ current formation with pretty much two strikers means they are better off with the defensive-minded Welshman.