Premier League Winners and Losers: Mourinho, Van Gaal and Liverpool

As GameweekAi??12 winds down, we look at the winners and losers of the Premier League this season.

Winners

JoseAi??Mourinho:

Call him arrogant or conceited, theAi??SpecialAi??Happy One gets it right 9 times out of 10. When he inherited the Chelsea team last season, he quickly saw what the deficiencies were andAi??declared that his team are not ready yet, and confidently foretold that Chelsea would be serious title contenders next season. Cue next season, and Chelsea sit top of the Premier League seven points clear. There was a ruthlessness about his business in the transfer window, where minimum fuss was made about the captures ofAi??DiegoAi??Costa,Ai??CescAi??Fabregas, Filipe, DidierAi??DrogbaAi??andAi??LoicAi??Remy.Ai??MourinhoAi??also left emotion at the door and did not offer new deals to Frank Lampard and Ashley Cole.Ai??Tactically astute – his Chelsea team beat both Manchester City and Liverpool, home and away,Ai??with limited resources last season -Ai??MourinhoAi??is yet to lose a game this season. And if he can manage to not lose games to the odd mid-table side, we might see a new ‘Invincibles’ team in the Premier League.

Southampton:

Saints fans who were dejected as top talent from the south coast left for the cold of the north, must be rolling around laughing now. Adam Lallana, Rickie Lambert,Ai??DejanAi??Lovren, Luke Shaw andAi??CalumAi??Chambers secured big money moves to the biggest clubs in the league, all of which are now below Southampton in the Premier League table. Comfortably sat in second place, the Saints are marching in to a new era under RonaldAi??Koeman, who has bought shrewdly in the transfer market, mostly from the Dutch league, and is now looking to fire his team into Champions League football for next season. What an achievement this could be for Southampton – Champions League football just one season after the backbone of their team was ripped apart.

NacerAi??Chadli:

A measly return ofAi??1 goal and 3 assists in 1452 minutes of Premier League football last season were suddenly forgiven and forgottenAi??asAi??ChadliAi??hit his 6th goal in his 10th Premier League game. A lot of the turn of fortunes is down to how Spurs line up under MauricioAi??Pochettino, withAi??ChadliAi??given more freedom to get forward, but the midfielder has applied himself well and gotten over the first season of adjustment to life in England. Spurs fans must be hopingAi??ChadliAi??can emulate a certain BobbyAi??PiresAi??who came to life down the road from White Hart Lane some time backAi??after a poor first season in the Premier League.

SamAi??AllardyceAi??and Alan Pardew:

Derided and heckled by their own fans for the better part of a year, Big Sam and Alan Pardew have proved their critics, most of whom were fans of their respective clubs, wrong. Results are key in the world of football managers, and as West Ham and Newcastle lie in 6th and 5th positions, Big Sam has shown that the faith David Sullivan and David Gold placed in their manager has been rewarded. Their style of play has improved with some smart signings and the results have started to show. Similarly, Pardew, who was being ordered by his own fans to get the sack, has overseen the Magpies’ climb to 5th in the table, much to the joy of club owner Mike Ashley. The question now is whether these two can sustain this run of good form for the rest of the season. The jury is out.

LaAi??LigaAi??Signings:

The Premier League might be the most competitive league in the world, but there is undeniable quality that has been imported from LaAi??LigaAi??this summer. Diego Costa, Alexis Sanchez,Ai??CescAi??FabregasAi??and Angel di Maria have all hit the ground running. With 23 goals andAi??18 assists between them, the high profile quartet brought in from Spain has fired on all cylinders, sweeping aside any suggestions of requiringAi??time getting used to life in the Premier League. Even lower profile signings like Ander Herrera, Filipe Luis, TobyAi??AlderweireldAi??andAi??AyozeAi??Perez have been more than decent signings and have settled in comfortably in the Premier League.

Louis vanAi??Gaal:

VanAi??GaalAi??comes into the winners’ section just as Manchester United finish aAi??gameweekAi??sitting in the top four. Although, the Dutchman has never been consistent or supremely confident about his team or the formations he puts in week in week out, there is this sense of assuredness about him that he will turn things around for the better Starting with his preferred 3 at the back formation, he changed it to allow four defenders and reverted again to a back 3 for the game against Arsenal. Some might say that VanAi??GaalAi??has delivered the top four finish on the back of the massive overhaulAi??this summer, getting Di Maria, Falcao, Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera and MarcoAi??RojoAi??in – a luxury not afforded to DavidAi??MoyesAi??- but the football has improved tremendously. VanAi??GaalAi??has also managed to bring out the best inAi??MarouaneAi??Fellaini, somethingAi??MoyesAi??clearly failed at.Ai??United have played well in all their big games too -Ai??against Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal. VanAi??GaalAi??has tactically outsmarted his colleagues in these big games and he must surely do better once a better crop of defenders comes into the team.

Losers

Brendan Rodgers and Liverpool:

A massive drop in the points table from 2nd last season to 12th currently, Liverpool have slipped further and further into the abyss since the departure of Luis Suarez to Barcelona. The unavailability of Daniel Sturridge hasn’t helped either, but the one thing Rodgers is being criticized for is his transfer dealings. No big players were signed after Suarez’s departure, with Rodgers preferring to add depth to his squad, perhaps with an eye on the Champions League. It has backfired to an extent, with the new boys not adjusting to life in the Premier League and signings like Mario Balotelli not performing to the levels expected of them. Rodgers has not been tactful about defending his transfers too.Ai??Admitting that Balotelli was the last choice for the club might not be the best way to deal with an under-fire troubled striker who is known for his insolence. Also complaining that the best players prefer the warmth of London to the cold of the north west sounds a little petulant, given that Falcao, Di Maria, Fernando andAi??EliaquimAi??MangalaAi??signed for the two Manchester clubs this season.

ArseneAi??Wenger:

Patience is wearing thin again around the Emirates as Arsenal stumble on in modest 8th position in the table. Yes, they might finish in the top four this season, butAi??ArseneAi??Wenger’s philosophy about running the club has been finding more and more opposition in recent times. Wenger has stubbornly refused to sign the big name players consistently in the past, but passing up onAi??CescAi??FabregasAi??this season was inexplicable. Wenger maintains that he believed a deal had already been struck with Chelsea, but if he wanted to bring the Spaniard back to the Emirates, he could have.Ai??FabregasAi??in a deep lying role thatAi??ArtetaAi??currently plays would have been a major boost to Arsenal. Some say Wenger holds a grudge against the players who left Arsenal in their prime, but why then did he sign MathieuAi??Flamini? An added source of irritation among the fans would also be the recent revelations that Wenger missed out on signing DidierAi??Drogba, Cristiano Ronaldo and even Leo Messi when they were all still fledglings. Credit, though, must go to Wenger for passing up on signing Balotelli. Alexis Sanchez may have eased tempers at Arsenal, but the fans aren’t too happy with Wenger, who might have to pull off another cup win to keep the Gunners happy.

Manchester City:

Although they sit third in the table, more was expected of City. The defending champions have allowed Chelsea to race into the lead and City’s title defense is under major threat. ManuelAi??PellegriniAi??has failed to build on last season’s Premier League win, with City falteringAi??in the Premier League, and more predictably in the Champions League, this season. YayaAi??ToureAi??threwAi??an embarrassing tantrum at the end of last season, underlining the unprofessionalism at the Etihad, and was then slow to get his season started, possibly giving the advantage to a resurgent Chelsea. Things have started to improve off late, but one still gets the feeling thatAi??PellegriniAi??does not run the show as authoritatively as he should be. Star power still rules the roost at City, which could threaten to destabilize their season like in the past.

Pochettino’sAi??Spurs:

The win at Hull may have eased some pressure on the Argentine, but MauricioAi??Pochettino’sAi??Spurs face an identity crisis. Before the Hull game, this was the worst start toAi??Spurs’sAi??season since 2008-09 underAi??JuandeAi??Ramos.Ai??PochettinoAi??has not been able to make his players embrace his ethos yet, that he brought from Southampton.Ai??PochettinoAi??has questioned the leadership (or the lack thereof) in the Spurs team – not an ideal way to endear himself to the new players. Questions have also been raised against Spurs’ transfer policy, with the astute Daniel Levy shouldering some of the blame. The six new signings are under 21 years of age and only one of them – EricAi??DierAi??- has consistently played this season.Ai??PochettinoAi??might be disadvantaged by the players already existing at Spurs from last season, but he will have to change things soon, or the North London club might be seeing another managerial turnover soon.