Premier League Preview: Does Anybody Want to Win the Title?

Bowed, in hands, on a block. Mauricio Pochettino, Manuel Pellegrini, Arsene Wenger. The position of managers' heads has never been more telling.

The only group of people that will have enjoyed dissecting Wednesday night's Premier League far more than body-language experts will be members of the Heimlich Maneuver society.

Even in a season that has devoted the middle finger of either hand to rhyme and reason respectively, a hat-trick of chokes on the same evening is still quite something.

The two points Leicester City dropped at home to West Bromwich Albion on Tuesday must have felt a bit like a defeat in the home side's dressing room. Just 24 hours on, it suddenly felt like a huge point gained when Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City all had their title credentials laid bare in failing to pick up a point between them.

Manchester United's mini-renaissance in winning their last four matches in all competitions has got some people excited. Admittedly these are generally the type of people who put the champagne on ice and book an appointment to view at a Porsche dealership when they have the first number on a lottery draw.

That said, given United are now level on points with City, albeit having played a game more, it's hard to say which of the Manchester clubs is better placed to mount a serious title tilt over the final furlong.

Such was the level of careless ineptitude of City's performance at Liverpool on Wednesday that it has to raise questions over whether they will even secure a Champions League place. Leggy and lifeless, it looked as though celebrations for winning the Capital One Cup had only been curtailed that morning. Had they rolled off the coach at Anfield wearing "Kiss Me Quick" hats and carrying cans, it would have explained a lot. 

For now, 10 points shy of Leicester having lost three straight league games for the first time since November 2008, title talk is redundant. The last time City were this bad, Darius Vassell, Ched Evans and Benjani Mwaruwari were vying for a place up top. 

Add into the mix the fact City have now taken just 10 points from as many away games and it's feasible to give at least a smidgen of credence to the theory that the club are ready to give up on the title for an all-out assault on the Champions League. 

With his head in his hands at Anfield, Pellegrini looked less a manager devastated by the result and more one who genuinely didn't have a clue how to arrest the (relative, silverware already in the can) slump.

A charming man he may be, but whether the Chilean has the stomach to turn things around in the knowledge he won't be there next season remains to be seen.

Let's just hope Pep Guardiola isn't part of a Thursday night curry club. 

A nod to West Ham United, too, in sixth place. Slaven Bilic's men showed they have plenty left in the tank for the final 10 games as they out-pressed archpressers Tottenham on Wednesday to secure a richly deserved victory that propels them to within a point of the Champions League places.  

West Ham still have Manchester United, Arsenal and Leicester left to play, but given Bilic seems about as cowed by bully boys as Begbie in Trainspotting, his side's remaining fixtures will inspire rather than intimidate.

Sam Allardyce apologists, along with those who suggested West Ham could be hosting Championship football at the Olympic Stadium next season, seem to have quietened down of late. 

We've not even mentioned that no side has picked up more points than the 19 Chelsea have accrued since the turn of the year. Only Tottenham can match that total.

Tottenham vs. Arsenal, Saturday at  12.45 p.m. GMT

Tim Ireland/Associated Press/Associated Press

Bowed but far from broken perhaps best describes Tottenham's frame of mind heading into a north London derby that whets the appetite like a cold pint on a warm summer's day, having just climbed a hill, wearing an animal suit, carrying a piano on your back. 

In the immediate aftermath of seeing a run of six successive league victories halted by West Ham to scupper a first second-half return to the top-flight summit since 1985, Pochettino seemed deflated as he conceded his side had put in a flat and lifeless performance at Upton Park, per the Guardian: "We were poor, this is true. We know that and the players know that, and are disappointed."

The morning after the night before though saw a more measured Pochettino in far better spirits having watched the tape back.

Writing it off as a blip and dismissing the notion of nerves affecting his players, it was a punchy and cocksure address given by the Argentinian. 

"For me, it was an exception. When we analysed the game in the morning we felt happier," he said, per the Guardian. 

"I felt bad after the game but today, I am happy because the team showed that they want to fight."

What else he said was telling. It was as though he was trying to set the tone for his players to follow on Saturday.

His subsequent questioning of whether Arsenal's players have the necessary experience to win the title was the managerial equivalent of getting into the face of an opponent. It was Dele Alli leaving his foot in on Mesut Ozil before helping him up with a incredulous smirk.

Arsene Wenger isn't a man who enjoys being pressed on topics he doesn't want to discuss. Here was Pochettino doing the pressing he expects from his players:

"

It’s difficult to know if Arsenal have players with the experience to win the title.

Look at what happened to them in their losses against Manchester United and Swansea – and we were able to beat Manchester City away.

You never know, football is not an ordinary business. Everything can happen.

"

Compare Pochettino's front-foot musings with Wenger's, per the Daily Mail: "We just lost three games and that is always a very difficult moment for the team. At the moment we don't dream, we are realistic. We will not talk about titles tonight, I'm not in the mood."

Arsenal’s defeat to Swansea City was essentially the past 12 years since they last won the title played out as a 90-minute time lapse.

Missed chances, sterile possession, Twitter meltdown, false hope, lack of leadership, Piers Morgan being Piers Morgan to the point even Tottenham fans now want Arsenal to win the league, insipid defending, spilt blood guacamole, tactical inflexibility, Twitter meltdown, homemade moany placards, shallow squad exposed, ineffective substitutions, odd injuries, Wenger questioned, Wenger defiant, soft centre, supporter unrest, Twitter meltdown ad infinitum.

The sound of no hands clapping at full-time was eerier than the boos that punctuated the game. Petr Cech’s uncharacteristic error that allowed captain Ashley Williams to bundle home a winner, and complete Swansea’s turnaround from falling behind to Joel Campbell’s early opener, leaves Arsenal six points behind Leicester and three behind Tottenham.

Wenger pleaded ill luck post-match, per Sky Sports. Swansea’s woodwork being struck three times and a question mark over whether Wayne Routledge’s equaliser was offside were cited as evidence in his defence.

Given Swansea had waved a little flag the same colour as their home shirts on arrival in the capital by resting four certain starters as part of six changes in total, Wenger’s lament was, well, lamentable.

This should have been the proverbial home banker. Instead it was a coupon buster. 

Wenger's mood has only been exacerbated by the news Cech will be sidelined for the next three to four weeks with a calf injury. He suffered it as he raced back toward his own penalty area after coming up for a corner in the last minute. If that's not the most Arsenal injury ever, we don't know what is.

Laurent Koscielny will also miss out for Arsenal through injury. What price Harry Kane ending a four-game run without a goal?

The writer Will Self once opined: "A party full of likeable people doesn't bear contemplating." 

The same can be said of dressing rooms.

If you were picking a suitor for your daughter or looking for companionship for a night at the theatre, the home dressing room at the Emirates Stadium would be the first port of call. Probably less so if you needed someone to watch your back in a trench. The problem with gentlemen is self-explanatory. Gentle men rarely win titles. 

On Sunday, in the aftermath of a 3-2 loss at Manchester United, Graeme Souness, on duty for Sky Sports, said that he knew exactly what Arsenal lacked but had the good grace not to actually say it.

No such niceties from Paul Scholes in midweek. After watching Arsenal surrender to Swansea, he waded into the debate as only he can for BT Sport, via the Evening Standard.

In retirement, Scholes' punditry resembles his tackling: 

"

They [Spurs] can virtually put Arsenal away with a win. The question about Arsenal is—have Arsenal got the bottle to go there and win a game after the two results they've just had? I doubt whether they've got the bottle or the balls to go on and do it.

This season I think I was a little conned by Arsenal. I thought they'd added a bit of steel with [Petr] Cech and [Mesut] Ozil was really coming into his own and I had a slight feeling that they might go on to win it.

But once again they haven't disappointed, they always seem to, when it comes down to the crunch, lose their bottle and they can't produce in big games.

And [Arsene] Wenger, I think, if he gets to the end of the season and they haven't won the league this year then I think he has to be under big pressure now.

"

From a fuming Arsenal dressing room came back fighting talk, as Alexis Sanchez told Directv Sports, per the Press Association (h/t Fox Sports): "We lack self-belief, that we can actually be champions.

"I think we can win the Premier League with the players we have. That said, we lack a certain hunger."

Safe to say the Chilean will be using the old lost-in-translation line quicker than Bill Murray explaining to his wife why he’d spent the night with Scarlett Johansson in a Tokyo hotel room.

Watford vs. Leicester City, Saturday at 5.30 p.m. GMT

It's human nature to pose tests for things we don't understand. 

Leicester must feel like a council-estate kid trying to win a place at an esteemed private school. No sooner has one test been passed, another is set.

Jamie Vardy will be taking elocution lessons next while Danny Drinkwater learns to walk with a book on his head in the next room. Educating Leicester, with Michael Caine trying to explain to Vardy why "chat s--t, get banged" is not quite proper English.

A trilogy of fixtures in February was supposed to define their season. Such was the omnipresence of this hypothesis, it was as though "six-pointers" against Liverpool, Manchester City and Arsenal were to take on a literal value. More’s the pity they didn’t.

As a reward for taking six points from nine, Leicester’s players were granted a week off for good behaviour, while their rivals toiled with FA Cup and European exertions. Rome-born Claudio Ranieri returned to the Eternal City, presumably to advise Julius Caesar on the best form of counter-attack.  

Flip-flopped footballer feet had barely stepped on Dubai concrete, though, when football’s collective had a rethink. It wasn’t, in fact, results against top-of-the-table rivals that would define Leicester’s season.

The issue, apparently, is not whether they can exceed expectations—Spurs, Liverpool and Manchester City will testify that they can—rather whether they can meet them.

Games against Norwich City, West Brom, Watford, Newcastle United and Crystal Palace were the new barometer.

Two games into the quintet, Leicester are still top of the table. Although they needed a last-minute winner to see off Norwich and could only draw with West Brom, it's still a healthier return than any of Tottenham (three points), Arsenal (zero) or Manchester City (zero, albeit from one game) managed over the same period.

This shift in focus with regards to Leicester all seems a touch too neat, anodyne to the point of being little more than lift music.

Can they cope with going into games as favourites? Can they break down opposition who are happy to sit back and negate the threat of counter-attacks? Can they grind out results?

Even in their parlous at times state last season, would Leicester still not have been favourites to win at home to a side like Norwich? In what circumstances would the Canaries travel to the King Power Stadium and not adopt an approach with the primary aim to be hard to beat?

As for grinding out results—did seven wins from the final nine games of last season after being dead and buried at Christmas not demonstrate that largely the same set of players are more than capable of grinding like Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing (look him up, kids)?

A trip to Watford on Saturday is no gimme. They showed at Manchester United in midweek they are capable of creating chances against those that occupy the higher echelons of the division. Whether they can finish them is another matter. A failure to score in six of their last eight Premier League games is a major concern for Quique Sanchez Flores.

Odion Ighalo has gone from prolific to profligate since the turn of the year. So far in 2016, he has scored just one goal in nine league appearances despite attempting 27 shots. His downturn has coincided with Watford winning just twice in their last 11 Premier League games, beating Crystal Palace and Newcastle.

Given Leicester have won 10 and lost just two of their last 17 games away from the King Power Stadium, anything less than maximum spoils will be two points dropped. 
 
Heard that one before? Let's just wait to see how everybody else gets on at the weekend. 

And leave the final word to Ranieri, per BBC: "We are confident. Why not win it? Be positive."

 
Manchester City vs. Aston Villa, Saturday at 3 p.m. GMT

Everton vs. West Ham United, Saturday at 3 p.m. GMT

West Brom vs. Manchester United, Sunday at 4 p.m. GMT

 
Chelsea vs. Stoke City, Saturday at 3 p.m. GMT

 
Crystal Palace vs. Liverpool, Sunday at 1.30 p.m. GMT