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Why Manchester City should still be anxious about Arsenal in title battle

Rodgers and Sherwood both in the firing line. The Germans have been weakened by the loss of Kevin de Bruyne to Manchester City, but United should be wary of his replacement, Julian Draxler, and former Chelsea forward Andre Schurrle in a very risky tie.

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It’s now three defeats in four for this City team.

But the challenge will be for Sergio Aguero to kick on.

At the end of last season, England were second behind Spain and ahead of Germany in the rankings, calculated over a five-year period, but the 2010-11 season now drops out of the calculations – and that year was especially good for England and poor for Italy.

They were presented with a tough set of fixtures over the past three weeks, having faced the likes of Chelsea, Man City and Spurs in their last three games.

Inspirational: Both can drag their team from mediocre to brilliant – Which will produce?

Watford, like Leicester, are enjoying life back in the Premier League.

Man City have scored 27 goals in their last eight league games against Spurs at an average of 3.4 a game.

At just 24, there appears plenty more to come Paris-born star, who has come on leaps-and-bounds in the last nine months.

All this seemed most unlikely to many commentators at the start of the season in the wake of Leicester’s turbulent summer, which saw Nigel Pearson depart the club in controversial circumstances to be replaced by Claudio Ranieri, whose “Tinkerman” tag from his Chelsea days had left him with a somewhat tarnished reputation in English football.

Arsenal need a win in order to keep up with the two Manchester clubs and to show that they have recovered fro their 2-0 defeat to Chelsea last week. Or will Mahrez fuel Leicester’s fire once more.

But there is still the feeling of inevitability about the end of Brendan’s reign at Anfield.

But Eric Dier rifled in a long-distance equalizer on the stroke of halftime and Erik Lamela curled over a free kick for Toby Alderweireld to head home five minutes after the re-start.

“But I know John’s attitude and I know his quality”. Why is Danny Ings playing out wide?

The formation itself is clearly a good one.

You need not spend long in Arsène Wenger’s company on any European trip to sense that the opportunity to become the first Arsenal manager to win the Champions League remains an overriding motivation as he approaches his 66th birthday.

Rodgers constant changes are increasingly looking like those of a man who is pushing the panic button but getting little response.

After the match, McLaren continued with his post-game ritual of walking to the middle of the field to applaud the fans for their support. Zouma has had a solid start to his Chelsea career, producing standout defensive performances as well as demonstrating a real presence in the opponents’ box, proven by his goal against Arsenal. This will be the day when the Reds get all three points.

Kane is still waiting for his first Tottenham goal this season and has been a shadow of the player who established himself as one of the Premier League’s best strikers last term.

Chelsea will be without the suspended Diego Costa following his antics against the Gunners, leaving Mourinho with a key decision to make up front: Loic Remy or Radamel Falcao. Mourinho has not been shy to compare Hazard to Cristiano Ronaldo, but, while the Portuguese has scored 81 Champions League goals, Hazard has netted just five times in the competition. And what about Kenedy, after an excellent 70 minutes at Bescot?

At half-time of Sunderland’s Capital One Cup defeat to City, Dick Advocaat feared supporters would stage a walkout – and no one would have blamed them.

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Louis van Gaal’s side have crept up to second in the table after last week’s win over Southampton.

Talking Points: Man Utd task, Liverpool crisis, Chelsea's bogey, Arsenal's