Stoke try to stamp their authority on Eden Hazard, Manuel Pellegrini shows smarts and wide boy Lukas Podolski impresses

1) Stoke try and fail to stamp their authority on Hazard

Eden Hazard is illuminating this campaign for Chelsea, with opponents now pre-warned of his excellence. Panic sets in earlier in contests these days. It is unlikely Stoke City had a pre-determined plan to crunch the Belgian early, but such is his pace and skill that defenders feel they have to stamp some kind of authority on him to try and force him into his shell. Both Geoff Cameron and Marc Wilson were booked after leaving him crumpled in a heap on the turf at Stamford Bridge. “You could feel at the beginning of the game it was go ‘on’ him,” said José Mourinho, thumping his fist on the desk for effect. Yet the problem is the tactic rarely works. Hazard is stronger than he was, and tougher than he might appear. He tends to roll with the tackles, pick himself up and spring at full-backs with even greater velocity and intensity. “Hazard is small but is a very strong boy and resists a lot,” added the Chelsea manager. “Opponents are coming very strong on him, but he just carries on.” It seems increasingly clear opponents are going to have to come up with other ways to nullify the Belgian. The strong-arm approach is not coming off. Dominic Fifield

• Match report: Chelsea 1-0 Stoke City
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2) Pellegrini shows tactical nous to reverse City’s fortunes

Manuel Pellegrini showed a flash of his managerial smarts as Manchester City walked off at the break 2-0 down to Watford at the Etihad on Saturday. The move he made was to take off a right back, Micah Richards, for another, Pablo Zabaleta, which was regulation enough, but he also introduced Vincent Kompany who took up Martin Demichelis’s central defence berth and moved the latter into midfield for Jack Rodwell. Here Pellegrini ignored bringing on the specialist in the position, Fernandinho, for Rodwell, in a decision that might have backfired especially as Demichelis had been culpable for both of the visitors’ goals. Instead, the Chilean saw his side dominate and turn this possession into four unanswered goals as his apparently counter-intuitive halftime decision was rewarded. Jamie Jackson

• Match report: Manchester City 4-2 Watford
• Video: Pellegrini praises Man City’s second-half effort
• Video: Sannino proud of Watford’s FA Cup defeat

3) Bournemouth brave in trying to ‘out-football’ Liverpool

There are different interpretations about the meaning of bravery in football. For some, it is about throwing yourself into tackles, winning your headers and playing with full-blooded commitment – John Terry is the bravest man who ever lived in this scenario – but for others, courage is about sticking to your principles and attempting to playyour brand of football, even there is a danger of that leading to embarrassment against superior sides. Few teams were as admirable as Roberto Martínez’s Wigan Athletic, simply because of their belief that they could beat anyone on their day – and although they eventually went down, their approach did bring them an FA Cup and what Wigan fan will ever forget that victory over Manchester City?

Brendan Rodgers and Eddie Howe both fall into the second category, the pair belonging to a new breed of managers who are resolute in their belief that a football belongs on the floor. For Howe, it would have been easy to ask his Bournemouth side to go route one against Rodgers’s Liverpool but that is not the Bournemouth way. Instead the Championship side played some lovely football in the first half – Rodgers was not being patronising when he praised them afterwards – and with a greater cutting edge, they could have given their illustrious opponents a bigger scare.

“I think the difficult thing if you don’t get instant results is to stick with it,” Howe said. “That is one of the things I have admired about Brendan. Every day, every game, regardless of the result, to be truly successful you have to do it. That is why we played the way we did today. We knew it as going to be very difficult to out-football Liverpool but we attempted it.

“The thing is, you can’t have it both ways. Because if you do go route one and you don’t get results, you’re out the door quicker than you can think. So this way, it does buy you more time, but you do have to generate results, and obviously that’s the aim for us: to be competitive at Championship level and hopefully move forward one day.

“Some [players] will pretend that they want to play football, but ultimately when you ask them to do it in a pressurised environment, they can’t do it or they won’t do it. So I think everyone’s got different mental strengths. Some players want that escape clause, if you can call it that, to go long. And there’s nothing wrong with that, but that’s not how we do things, so it wouldn’t work for us.”

Losing didn’t work for Bournemouth either but they could still take heart from their performance and Rodgers disagreed when it was put to him that the hosts had been “too nice”. As he pointed out, it is no use relishing blood and thunder one minute and then wondering why the England team is technically deficient the next. It can only be a positive for English football if managers are willing to take risks and allow their players to make mistakes, while the game will surely improve if that philosophy spreads in the lower leagues. Jacob Steinberg

• Match report: Bournemouth 0-2 Liverpool

4) Will Osvaldo find a new home?

Spot the odd one out: Luis Suárez, Wayne Rooney, Mario Balotelli and Dani Osvaldo. England’s World Cup group contains four of the most volatile strikers this side of a French picket line but one of them does not fit. Suárez, Rooney and Balotelli have all shown that they can be sufficiently deadly to opponents to compensate for the damage that they sometimes cause to their own teams. Osvaldo has not. At least not at Southampton, who paid a record fee to sign the Italy international last summer and must now be trying to figure out how much of that they could make back if they flog him pronto. Three goals has been a paltry return on their investment. It is not impossible that Osvaldo could come good if given more time to settle, assuming he is capable of settling, but that must be in doubt following his training ground tete-a-tete with José Fonte. Many of his team-mates are angry. Mauricio Pochettino must decide whether team spirit and his own credibility can survive an attempt to reintegrate Osvaldo, or whether the striker should be sold or loaned out before the transfer window closes. It should not be too difficult to find another manager who believes he can get the best out of the player. And leaving may be the player’s best hope of securing a place for the trip to Brazil. It would be a pity if Osvaldo missed out on the World Cup – though the pity would be for Italy or England is not clear. Paul Doyle

• Match report: Southampton 2-0 Yeovil

5) Is Everton’s squad better than Liverpool’s?

In terms of quality, does Everton’s squad now have more depth than Liverpool’s? It is a conclusion that could be drawn from the approach of Brendan Rodgers and Roberto Martínez to potentially tricky Cup ties away at lower league opposition on Saturday. As Martínez noted – dispassionately, rather than with any note of surprise – the Reds were at pretty much full strength against Bournemouth, and while this says much about their determination to win a trophy this season, it surely also says something about Rodgers’s confidence, or lack thereof, in his fringe players. As it happened it was Everton, losing Bryan Oviedo for the rest of the season, who suffered another injury blow, and so in terms of availability Rodgers’s selection has not had an effect on the outcome of Tuesday evening’s Merseyside derby. In both the short and long-term however, his limited options must make fitness an issue. Richard Rae

• Match report: Stevenage 0-4 Everton

6) Podolski jostling to be Wenger’s answer for goals in 2014

A recent theme of Arsène Wenger’s has been praise of Lukas Podolski’s unerring eye for a finish. It may not be coincidental that he is expressing such confidence in what the German attacker can bring to the party, as Podolski might just have a critical part to play as the challenges become increasingly serious over the second half of the campaign. It remains risky for Arsenal to rely on Olivier Giroud and Nicklas Bendtner up front – Wenger does not hide his view that Podolski’s performances in the centre are ‘less convincing’ than his foraging from the left flank. But there is genuine hope he can add a considerable contribution in the goalscoring stakes from wide. The reliability of his hammer of a left foot, and a poacher’s header, set the tone for victory over Coventry in the FA Cup but also increased the player’s confidence. Last season, Podolski scored 16 goals, a very respectable return from a first season in a new league, and a campaign in which he perhaps hoped to play more. He currently has more goals than he has starts, and he is working his way back from a four month injury lay-off. With Theo Walcott out, Podolski is Arsenal’s most prolific option when it comes to offering goals from a wider starting position. Amy Lawrence

• Match report: Arsenal 4-0 Coventry

7) Could Sunderland do without being in the fifth round?

Sunderland’s big day out at Wembley against Manchester City on 2 March threatens to be a distinctly bittersweet occasion unless they pick up some Premier League points from impending games against Stoke and Hull at home and Newcastle, City and Arsenal away before the League Cup final. Gus Poyet does not want to lead an all but relegated side out at the national stadium but it looks an extremely tough, somewhat congested, month ahead for his gradually improving but still worryingly inconsistent side who could probably do without being in the fifth round of the FA Cup. After entertaining Stoke on Wednesday night, Sunderland travel to St James’ Park on Saturday where Newcastle will have been refreshed by a winter break in Abu Dhabi made possible by being knocked out at home to Cardiff in the FA Cup’s third round. Cup runs are usually wonderful but, privately, Poyet probably suspects you can have too much of a good thing. As Birmingham and Wigan would surely tell him, winning trophies and being relegated in the same season is not a desirable double. Louise Taylor

• Match report: Sunderland 1-0 Kidderminster

8) Can the Blades replicate their Cup form in League One?

Sheffield United will kick off their next league game, against Peterborough on Wednesday evening, in League One’s relegation zone. Anyone who watched their performance against Fulham, particularly after being reduced to 10 men early in the second half, would find that slightly incongruous. The Premier League were undoubtably the classier side throughout at Bramall Lane, but the Blades might well have had a penalty and always carried a threat on the break despite their shortage in numbers. Nigel Clough needs to find a way to replicate his side’s Cup form in the league. The debutants on Sunday – John Brayford, Bob Harris and Stefan Scougall – all showed enough to suggest that they will be upgrades on those they replace, and when the transfer window closes on Friday, Clough will be desperately hoping that Harry Maguire – superb in defence and the creator of United’s goal – remains at the club despite reported interest from some very big names. John Ashdown

• Match report: Sheffield United 1-1 Fulham

9) Pulis could do worse that to become a loan shark

It is no secret that Crystal Palace manager Tony Pulis is on the hunt for January signings and following a poor performance in their 2-1 defeat at Wigan – in which the Premier League outfit ceded 62% of possession to their Championship opponents – it appears the south London club do need new blood. However, the size of Palace’s squad – they have the biggest in Europe – and a reported wage cap imposed by the club’s chairman Steve Parish, has restricted Pulis, who is “desperate” to add quality to quantity. “We’ve had targets and we’ve tried to sign those targets, and it’s disappointing,” Pulis said after Saturday’s game. “I was hoping to do it earlier in the window because it takes time for them to come in and gel. There are four or five days to go; we’re desperate to bring new players in.”

With the transfer window nearing a close, and on a tight budget, perhaps Pulis’s best option is the loan market. Not only does this give him more time, with the loan window extending into February, but it gives him the possibility to sign players relatively cheaply, who are often hungry to prove a point to their parent clubs. Moreover, Pulis can use the system to loan out superfluous squad players and free up the wage bill for any potential new recruits. Michael Butler

• Match report: Wigan 2-1 Crystal Palace

10) Bony can keep Swansea up

For the second FA Cup tie in a row, Swansea prevailed 2-1 away at Birmingham City – and as at Old Trafford, Wilfried Bony was the difference. Swansea are without a win in eight league games, but Laudrup will be optimistic that the club’s record signing can become as decisive in the league as he has been in the Cup. Bony’s quickfire double turned Saturday’s game on its head – and showed the versatility required to succeed as a lone striker in the Premier League. After poaching the first from a Roland Lamah cross, the Ivorian seized on a half-chance to put Swansea ahead with a delicate chip. Bony was slow to start this season, struggled to form an understanding with Michu. In the Spanish forward’s absence, the £12 million signing has begun to offer a return on Swansea’s hefty investment. Bony’s two goals from the bench on Saturday brought his total for the season to 13 in all competitions – six of which have come in January. Swansea’s next highest scorers – Michu and Nathan Dyer, with four goals apiece – are both injured. If Swansea are to survive in the league and thrive in the Cup, Bony will surely be the difference. Niall McVeigh

• FA Cup roundup: Laudrup praises value of Cup

• FA Cup

Dominic Fifield
Jamie Jackson
Jacob Steinberg
Paul Doyle
Richard Rae
Amy Lawrence
Louise Taylor
John Ashdown
Michael Butler
Niall McVeigh

theguardian.com