1) Lamela, Tottenham’s Secret Clogger

Not so long ago Érik Lamela was on his way to becoming a synonym for a certain kind of wastefulness. No one talks about The Bale Money at Tottenham now, and rightly. As scattergun summer splurges go Spurs 2013 hardly stands out these days. But on Sunday at White Hart Lane there was confirmation once again of how far both Tottenham and Lamela himself have come since that summer of 2013. Not only were Lamela, Christian Eriksen and Nacer Chadli – half a Bale combined – all on the pitch as Spurs beat Manchester United at home for the first time in some time. Lamela was also a profound influence, as he has been often this season, a player who has successfully transformed what seemed a startling transfer fee into something that seems fair enough these days. Lamela scored one and made one. He was also a key factor in the tourniquet Spurs applied to United’s flowing start, stepping back to double up with Kyle Walker as Anthony Martial threatened to make it a dicey afternoon, and generally niggling, snipping, sniping and – despite not drawing the referee’s whistle once – fouling Spurs back into parity on that flank. Lamela’s goals and assists stats are so-so. His foul stats (he started the game with 81 this season compared to, say, Juan Mata’s 25) are off the charts. For a player who has the stylings of a more lightweight creative influence he is in fact an expert at breaking up play, generally managing the flow around him. If any one player embodies the transition to tough, spiky and physically relentless, it is perhaps Spurs’ own Secret Clogger. Barney Ronay

2) Inconsistent Liverpool have genuine firepower

Only a single goal divided Liverpool and Stoke City in their first three meetings this season but the fourth, Sunday’s 4-1 stroll for the home side at Anfield, signalled a sea-change not only in the visitors’ defensive quality but the threat posed by Jürgen Klopp’s side. “It is still very early in Jürgen’s tenure,” said the beaten manager, Mark Hughes. “But there is a really positive feeling around the club and Jürgen has instilled that to some extent with his personality.” There is more to it than that. Klopp spent the early months of his reign lamenting Liverpool’s lack of goals, a consequence of Luis Suárez’s departure and Daniel Sturridge’s injuries and a flaw that contributed to Brendan Rodgers losing his job. In 2016, however, no team has scored more Premier League goals than Liverpool’s 28. Inconsistency may still infuriate the Liverpool manager but his team have few problems creating chances as they develop under Klopp and, with Divock Origi emerging as genuine, reliable striker to share the load with Sturridge, they have better options for taking them. Given Borussia Dortmund’s suspect defending at the Westfalenstadion last week, coupled with their combined effectiveness against Stoke, the Liverpool manager may be tempted to field both forwards against his former club in Thursday’s second leg. Andy Hunter

Divock Origi scores the third goal for Liverpool in their comfortable win against Stoke. Photograph: Darren Staples/Reuters

3) Iwobi impresses in new midfield role

While Arsenal’s defenders should be having a long hard look at themselves after they were monstered in the air by Andy Carroll, at least Alex Iwobi had another impressive game, creating goals for Mesut Özil and Alexis Sánchez with a couple of fine assists. Iwobi has been outstanding since breaking into the side last month and having mainly used him in attack until the barmy 3-3 draw with West Ham, Arsène Wenger took advantage of the 19-year-old’s versatility, positional awareness and intelligence at Upton Park. “I pushed him to central midfield,” Wenger said. “It was a very difficult game in the middle of the park but he was very influential. Look at what he has done at 19 years of age and it is very promising.” Jacob Steinberg

4) Benítez needs a new miracle to keep Newcastle up

Rafael Benítez smiled at the mention of the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’, then became glum again when asked whether Newcastle’s current predicament is more hopeless than Liverpool’s seemed when they were 3-0 down to Milan in the 2005 Champions League final. “It’s totally different because this is a different team,” he said following Newcastle’s anaemic defeat at St Mary’s. “When you are working with a team for one year, then you know what you can expect from them and they know what they can expect from you. In this case, you have players coming back from injuries and then you lose another player so you have to adapt quickly to different situations. But I still feel we have enough quality in the squad to do better than the other teams – we do not have to be the best team in the Premier League, just the best in the bottom four.” That has looked beyond Newcastle for quite some time and, in truth, there has been little sign of progress during four matches under Benítez. The Spaniard may be starting to fear that he has outdone even Rémi Garde, when it comes to walking into a situation from which it is nigh-on impossible to emerge with an enhanced reputation. Paul Doyle

5) Sunderland still have hope despite near misses

Football, and the Premier League’s integrity, needs Leicester to win the title and fingers crossed, they will – but the relegation struggle is much tighter than Claudio Ranieri’s duel with Tottenham’s Mauricio Pochettino. On performances, Sunderland could be out of it by now but, as Sam Allardyce well knows, no points are awarded for artistic merit – which gives his old, ahem, friend Rafa Benítez unlikely hope. With Alan Pardew having thrown the north-east a lifeline with his Crystal Palace side beating Norwich 1-0 on Saturday, Newcastle remain six points behind Alex Neil’s side and Sunderland four points in arrears. Crucially, both sides have a game in hand on the Canaries. Should Sunderland win at Carrow Road on Saturday, and Newcastle beat Swansea at St James’ Park, the relegation race will be wide open and too close to call with everything to play for. Are Sunderland set for their traditional last-gasp, 11th-hour survival bid? Or is Alex Neil about to trample all over Benítez’s and Allardyce’s hard-earned reputations? Maybe Rafa and Sam should cobble together to somehow hobble Norwich’s Robbie Brady for the run-in. Or maybe Allardyce will simply have sleepless nights about what might have been had Jack Rodwell not missed a sitter to make it 1-1 for Sunderland against Leicester, while Benítez dwells on the John Ruddy save from a Papiss Cissé header which could have given Newcastle victory at Norwich a week earlier. If, if, if … Louise Taylor

Rafael Benítez dishes out instructions during Newcastle’s defeat to Southampton. Photograph: Mercury Press/Rex Shutterstock

6) Martínez may need another FA Cup win to save himself

Roberto Martínez was his usual diplomatic self after Saturday’s draw at Watford, but the banners unfurled in the away end must have hurt a little. ‘Baines is one of us’ and ‘Martínez Out’ were held aloft before an even game, indicating exactly where supporter allegiance lay in the wake of a testing week for the Spaniard in which he claimed Leighton Baines’ comments about a lack of chemistry in the team were misinterpreted. All signs seem to be pointing towards a summer managerial change for Everton. John Stones put in a poor display at centre-half – his distribution particularly worrying with a needlessly heavy back pass leading to Watford’s equaliser – while Phil Jagielka and Ross Barkley will undergo tests for respective hamstring and knee injuries. For Martínez, everything now rests on the FA Cup. Both Watford and Everton are in the semi-finals, but it is Everton who have the tougher draw. They will play either Manchester United or West Ham later this month and, if Martínez is going to regain the support of fans whose patience has been severely tested in recent times, he surely needs to win a competition he famously secured with Wigan Athletic in 2013. James Riach

7) Nasri warns team-mates not to take PSG lightly

After ending strongly when beating West Bromwich Albion on Saturday, Manchester City had the perfect result ahead of the Champions League quarter-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain. The tie is poised at 2-2 and City have valuable away goals as Laurent Blanc arrive at the Etihad Stadium – but there was a warning from Samir Nasri, who is not part of City’s Champions League squad, to his team-mates about the French champions. “It’s going to be a dangerous game,” said Saturday’s match winner. “We have the advantage, but I know Paris and the way they played against us, I think they were on an off day. They made a lot of mistakes technically, that’s not the way they play.” Nasri believes that the 3-1 lead City held over Dynamo Kyiv from the opening leg in the previous round can serve as a lesson. “We just have to use the game that we played against Kyiv at home to not do the same thing [drawing 0-0]. When you have the advantage you don’t know what to do, if you have to attack or to defend, and don’t know how to play this kind of game. I know the lads are really hungry and it’s an opportunity to go into the top four of the best teams in Europe. So I know we are going to do a game that we need to be in the semi final.” Jamie Jackson

Samir Nasri celebrates Manchester City’s winner against West Brom. Photograph: Lindsey Parnaby/AFP/Getty Images

8) Struggling Bamford is not following the script

Alex Neil had already scripted the fairytale. This game would be tight with its fate undecided, the crowd increasingly edgy and irritated at the hosts’ shortcomings, when he would summon the fourth official and make the substitution that would transform the afternoon. “It was tailor made for him, wasn’t it?” the Norwich City manager said of his decision to fling on Patrick Bamford 24 minutes from time. “I hoped it was written in the stars: him coming on at a club where he’d a tough time. But it wasn’t the case.” Bamford will take precious little from his time at Selhurst Park this season, whether it was in the loan from Chelsea he described as “terrible” and chose to terminate at the end of December, or his return as a Norwich player on Saturday. He offered a rueful smile as the boos rang out whenever he trotted the touchline, and upon his introduction. His first two touches sent the ball spinning out for Palace throw-ins and, when he caught a glimpse of goal with Wayne Hennessey hopelessly out of position late on, his decision to find a team-mate rather than muster a chip himself perhaps reflected fragile confidence. He actually presented the ball back to Palace in the process.

It was difficult to watch. Bamford is clearly a player of considerable talent, as he showed most notably with Middlesbrough last season. He felt he was ready to showcase his talents in the top flight, and Chelsea were hopeful he would thrive, but he still awaits his moment. The 22-year-old has made as many appearances in the Premier League (six) in two-and-a-half months with Neil’s side as he did in six at Palace, and has even enjoyed a couple of starts. Neil praised his contribution at Swansea, and he struck the woodwork against Manchester City, but the cameo on Saturday, in a team torn between stubborn defence and a need to chase parity, was disappointing and rather summed up his campaign. There is still time for him to make himself a hero in Norfolk, if he can conjure crucial goals in the team’s remaining fixtures – it just feels rather unlikely at present. “He’s only a young lad and all this will have been a good learning curve,” offered Neil, but one wonders which club will benefit from that education. Is Bamford likely to make the grade at Antonio Conte’s Chelsea? And, if not, what happens next? Perhaps it is time to lay down roots with a permanent deal elsewhere; a gifted footballer may have to move a bit further down the pyramid to rekindle his career. Dominic Fifield

9) Bournemouth are in good shape with key men returning

Bournemouth’s achievement in retaining their top-flight status in their inaugural season in the Premier League is all the more remarkable considering they suffered serious knee injuries to three important players early in the season. They were able to reintroduce their leading striker, Callum Wilson, as a late substitute on Saturday and now – despite his seven-month absence – he has his sights set on finishing as the club’s top scorer. With Max Gradel back in the team, Tyrone Mings is targeting a return early next season, when Bournemouth could be even stronger. Having plundered five goals in his first six games at this level, after top-scoring with 23 in last season’s Championship title campaign, Wilson was being mentioned alongside Jamie Vardy as an England contender when he ruptured his anterior cruciate ligament at Stoke City in September. It is gratifying that Wilson, still only 24, can look forward to another season in the Premier League to prove his credentials. “I’m delighted the team got us where we needed to be,” he said, after coming on as a late substitute in Saturday’s 2-1 win at Aston Villa with a big smile and a rapturous reception from travelling supporters. “I had great faith in the boys – we won the Championship so the ability is there. I’m back in the hunt to finish leading goalscorer. I’ve been out [seven] months and I’m still only one behind [Josh King, who has six goals in all competitions]. The goals have been shared around to be fair so I haven’t given anyone any stick over that.” Peter Lansley

10) Sigurdsson the undervalued jewel in Swansea’s great escape

To say he has carried them would be a tad overblown but Swansea’s rise to safety has coincided with a rich streak of form from their star player Gylfi Sigurdsson. Four goals in the past five games (plus an assist) has seen the Welsh side reach safety with plenty to spare, after a fair share of worry earlier in the campaign. Only Harry Kane and Sergio Agüero have scored more goals in 2016 and, top flight status assured, the Iceland midfielder now has some personal records in mind. Sigurdsson’s goal to beat Chelsea saw him match Wilfried Bony’s record of 25 for the club in the Premier League – and he is only three off Eidur Gudjohnsen’s record of 14 for an Icelandic player in a season. “Hopefully I will get another one and beat [Bony] before the end of the season,” Sigurdsson said on Saturday evening. “It is a fantastic feeling to reach that milestone and for a midfielder to be up there is very nice.” As for Gudjohnsen’s mark: “I need three more before the end of the season, so that is my target.” Considering the difficulty of their remaining fixtures – all against teams with something on the line – that appears beyond him but extra credit is certainly due to one of the league’s more underrated players. Alan Smith