Angry AVB remains defiant, Liverpool stumble badly

December is the month of reckoning in the Premier League. Teams must negotiate a further seven league fixtures by 1 January, and many have League Cup and or Champions League commitments as well. It’s a tough month to make up ground if your position in the table isn’t quite what it should be. Sustaining energy levels sufficiently to string together a run of wins is difficult enough; in addition -and this is often forgotten - poor weather can limit a team’s scope to express itself. Plus there’s the distraction of the impending mid-season transfer window too. It will be fascinating to see what happens at Tottenham over this period. There are one or two in the media who think Andre Villas-Boas is out of his depth in the Premier League, that he got lucky when winning three titles in his first season at Porto and that he does not have the tactical bravery to succeed at a club like Spurs. With a bit of luck or some more clinical finishing, Tottenham would have beaten Manchester United on Sunday, a result that would have put them above the reigning champions in the table. AVB rounded on his conspirators afterwards, saying: “A couple of people insult my integrity, my human values, my professionalism. It insults the success that I have achieved in other clubs and I don’t think it’s fair. I think it’s a lack of respect.” Perhaps more importantly, the players stood up and worked hard for their under-fire manager. The 6-0 thrashing at Manchester City truly was an abomination, but this was a strong recovery. Spurs twice led against United, and were only ultimately denied what would have been a very satisfactory win when conceding a debatable penalty which Wayne Rooney converted. Spurs certainly did enough to suggest they can make tentative steps towards the top four in the next few weeks. AVB mixed things up a fair bit with Paulinho playing in a more advanced role and Nacer Chadli starting on the left wing. Aaron Lennon played particularly well and Sandro’s screamer of a goal will aid his confidence. As for United, a second consecutive away draw is no disaster though their next two games come against teams in strong form at present, Everton and Newcastle. [caption id=“attachment_1261171” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Liverpool striker Suarez missed a lot of opportunities. AP[/caption] One man who may not have slept very well on Sunday night is Brendan Rodgers after Liverpool produced one of their poorest displays under him away at Hull. The news that Daniel Sturridge was out of not just this game but probably all football until February appeared to create collective doubt in the rest of the players as the Reds stumbled miserably to a 3-1 defeat. Rodgers has chopped and changed his defenders at will this season, and this time it was Daniel Agger on the bench, while Kolo Toure and Martin Skrtel teamed up as the two centre-halves, and the lack of communication and cohesion between them was plain as day. At the other end of the pitch, Hull’s defenders did an excellent job on Luis Suarez, who wasn’t able to link up effectively with Raheem Sterling and Victor Moses. For Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City – the three teams that occupy the top three places in the table – this was a pretty straightforward weekend. Aaron Ramsey, playing at his old club Cardiff, produced yet another magnificent individual display – one that suggests he will follow in the line of brilliant Welshmen destined never to play in a World Cup (Ryan Giggs and Gareth Bale are others). Ramsey scored two of Arsenal’s goals, but he is the complete midfielder who never shirks defensive duties and his territorial coverage was outstanding. Mesut Ozil, who created one of Ramsey’s goals, is now the leading provider of assists in the Premier League, while Santi Cazorla’s general classiness is nearly always a major asset for the Gunners. It rather summed up Chelsea’s season so far when they conceded an early goal to Southampton at Stamford Bridge only to launch a comeback with goals from each of their central defenders. Chelsea played Fernando Torres and Demba Ba together for nearly the whole of the second half – and it worked fine, with Ba collecting Chelsea’s third goal. City were a bit flat in the first half at home to Swansea, but with Samir Nasri their chief inspiration they were excellent after the interval and proceeded to win the game 3-0. Their next two games are away from the Etihad – which suggests they’ll suddenly forget how to play football again. Let’s see what happens.