When Tottenham brought in Jose Mourinho to replace Mauricio Pochettino they did so to take the club to the next level required, in short to win trophies. So less than a year since he was appointed chairman Daniel Levy will be all smiles to see that Tottenham are in 1st place in the Premier League.
There have been bumps along the way for Tottenham, dropping too many points at home for example since Mourinho's arrival and missing out on Champions League qualification in his first season, though Mourinho did take over the club when they were in 14th place. He was gracious enough indeed to point out in the post press conference after victory over Manchester City that 14th place was a 'fake' position and that Pochettino had done a great job at the club.
This past weekend Tottenham beat Manchester City 2-0 and it was a professional display and also one over on Mourinho's great rival Pep Guardiola. Was the game a turning point? Have Tottenham gone from the club that could be to one with a dynamic and killer instinct Mourinho style? And for City did this match not expose that Guardiola's fifth season could be his last with the club. City played some good football of course, but there seems to be a hunger and passion missing compared to what the club achieved in 2019 for example.
Liverpool put down their marker by beating a potential top 4 rival in Leicester, as they overcame the Foxes at Anfield, winning 3-0. It was a superb display by Liverpool who had no less than 24 goal attempts and with Mohamed Salah out because of the Coronavirus it gave more opportunity to the likes of Robert Firmino who indeed scored the third goal. The Reds remain on course to win back to back titles, but the table is very close at this present time.
Another team in with a shout of a title run is Chelsea, who keep putting the wins together. The Blues went to Newcastle and came away with a 2-0 win to put them into 3rd place and just 2 points behind Tottenham, that was Chelsea's third league win in a row.
Carlo Ancelotti will be relived as he witnessed an Everton victory at Fulham ending a worrying 3 game losing streak for his team. Dominic Calvert-Lewin scored a brace to take his tally for the season to 10 and he now leads the goalscorers chart. Fulham did not make it easy for Everton though, and pulled the game back to 3-2 with twenty minutes remaining but Everton held on.
Arsenal could only draw 0-0 at Leeds though the Gunners will be happy with a point in a game where Leeds hit the post twice and had 25 attempts on goal. To make matter worse Nicolas Pepe was sent off and the Gunners are languishing in 12th place after 9 games.
Premier League Team of the Week:
Lloris, Ogbanna, Robertson, Bellerin, Dier, Jota, Firmino, Fernandes, Lo Celso, Haller, Calvert-Lewin.
Euro round up:
Barcelona lost 1-0 against Atletico Madrid to turn the heat up on Ronaldo Koeman's future with the club. This is the worst start for Barcelona to a league campaign in almost 20 years and they are in the unlikely position of 13th place and 12 points behind Real Sociedad who have been the surprise package of the season. Sociedad have won 70% of their games so far and lead by 3 points over Atletico.
PSG lost a rare game going down 3-2 at Monaco, which makes the season in France at least interesting for now. With Lille winning it means that PSG only has a 2 point lead at the top. Indeed the top 5 is only separated by four points.
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