EPL wrap: Man City and Liverpool’s sharp-shooters hit their straps

“It’s a bad day and we lost our discipline completely in the last 20 minutes. Out of the six goals, we gave them five.” Manchester City don’t need presents when playing at their Etihad fortress, but in the opinion of Arsenal’s coach Arsene Wenger the Premier League leaders arrived with a selection of gift-wrapped goodies. Appropriate, you might say, now we are deep into Christmas season. Painful for Arsenal and their fans, however.

City were very, very good going forward, and much more energetic than their opponents in a 6-3 win which continues an impressive 100% winning record on home turf this season. That extra energy was partially explicable.

For Arsenal, this was their third big match in six days and they are again counting the cost of injuries. Manuel Pellegrini’s side, on the other hand, had the luxury of resting their most important players in midweek and that freshness showed.

It’s often hard to single out individuals in City’s side when they’re on song, but Alvaro Negredo, Pablo Zabaleta and Fernandinho were the ones who might have pleased their manager the most.

Negredo made a string of direct runs, getting in behind defenders and giving City’s midfielders options. Occasionally, he dropped deeper to provide a creative edge too and his decision-making was excellent. Zabaleta shuttled up and down the right flank with his customary enthusiasm. He doesn’t look the fastest, but his stamina is extraordinary. And Fernandinho perhaps had his best game yet for the club he joined in the summer, snuffing out Arsenal attacks at source and setting City in motion. He also scored two good second-half goals. Arsenal’s problems began when they conceded the first goal at a set piece.

Zonal marking at corners is always a problem when a player runs from a deep position as Martin De Michelis did, flicking the ball on for Sergio Aguero to score. But somebody should certainly have cut him off, or at least made life difficult for the big Argentine defender.

The late game on 23 December is Arsenal v Chelsea at the Emirates, a game that is vitally important for both teams. If Chelsea were to win it, their own title aspirations would look very good, while Arsenal could end that round of matches as low as fourth.

But you’d sense the Blues would have to be a lot sharper in that game than they were in their home match against Crystal Palace on Saturday, where they scraped a 2-1 win. It required Petr Cech to make three important saves in the second half to secure the points, though Ramires was himself wasteful on two occasions when he could have put the result beyond doubt.

The most disappointing aspect for Palace, who should avoid relegation despite their current league position, was how easily they allowed Chelsea to score their second goal when the game was tied at 1-1. A team like Southampton, perhaps the best “pressers” in the league, would never have allowed it.

When Liverpool turned up at White Hart Lane on a wind-swept, rainy Sunday afternoon you felt that it might be a tough game for the visitors to win without the experience of Steven Gerrard or Luis Suarez’s favoured side-kick, Daniel Sturridge.

But instead, this provided an opportunity for some of the very talented young midfielders at Anfield to move out of Gerrard’s shadow. Jordan Henderson assumed responsibility for sparking most of the moves, and everywhere he looked there were willing runners to supply – Raheem Sterling having his best game in a long time, Philippe Coutinho always a threat, and of course that man Luis Suarez.

Tottenham looked sluggish, uninspired, even confused. They should, by now, have sorted themselves out following Gareth Bale’s exit. But they simply could not gain a foothold, failing to win the 50-50 contests against Lucas and Joe Allen and almost apologetically giving away possession. They lost 5-0, their heaviest home defeat ever to Liverpool, and rumours were rife afterwards that Daniel Levy had sacked Andre Villas-Boas.

AVB stays in post, for now – but Tottenham’s post-Bale era remains highly unpredictable. As for Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool, top four looks an absolute minimum ambition now – and you’d have to fancy their chances in the FA Cup too.