The League Cup marks the home stretch of the football season, when everything’s going to get even more enthralling. It proved so this weekend with Arsenal disappointing, Leicester scoring late winners and Louis van Gaal chucking himself to the floor. Oh Premier League, how we missed you.

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1 West Ham are embodying the Premier League

While Manchester City were busy with their Capital One Cup affair, whisperings of a race for the top 4 started over the weekend. Old Trafford hosted what was undoubtedly the biggest fixture, but it was in East London where another dramatic weekend kicked off. A visit from Sunderland was hardly a prospect to get pulses racing but West Ham made it so by taking the lead on the half hour mark before having to fend off an unprecedented surge from the Black Cats. The visitors were led by another solid outing from Wahbi Khazri that solidified his status as the main Sunderland player worth consideration in fantasy football.

Suddenly it became clear during this game that the team responsible for West Ham’s most successful season in recent times is representative of everything that English football is right now. It’s an athletic squad with one or two extremely talented and creative players creating for the rest and it all makes for attractive viewing at times. However the other side of the Premier League was showcased when they couldn’t control the game in the slightest and their defence looked increasingly permeable. It devolved into chaos in the latter stages, which wasn’t helped by the questionable decision from Slaven Bilić to replace Emmanuel Emenike with Andy Carroll. It left the Hammers struggling to find an outlet as attack after attack fizzled out with balls towards Carroll. They do indeed have a sniff of the top 4, but this defence looks set to run out of luck in its next few games.

2 Palace continue to get cooked defensively

If there’s one thing that a Premier League team should do, it’s not falling victim to a first half flurry of goals to a Tony Pulis managed team. A dire 2016 continued for the Eagles on Saturday night as a no longer moody Saido Berahino spearheaded West Brom’s attack, scoring 1 and hitting the post in a refreshing performance. Even so, the ease at which they got their trio of goals has to be alarming for Alan Pardew. His side are yet to keep a clean sheet in the league this year and they’ll still be looking for a Premier League level striker to start in the summer. The best news of the night for Palace fans was that it only took their manager 45 minutes in this game to decide that Adebayor is washed up. Nice signing, that one.

It’s been an exposing few months for Pardew. He continues to play Yohan Cabaye in midfield which is fine in some situations because he’s a nice player and he’s beneficial to an attack, but if there’s only one other central midfielder alongside him the backline are in for a rollercoaster ride. With James McArthur out, using both Mile Jedinak and Joe Ledley together with Cabaye might provide the protection Palace need to get out of this slump.

3 Koeman losing his mind a little

Recently, Southampton have had a enjoyable surge towards the places that can bring the dizzying heights of the Europa League and all the Thursday night glory it holds. It has come off the back of a renewed defensive effort with Fraser Forster back between the sticks, which has been Southampton’s main strength for 3 years now. Chelsea came to town this weekend and now that they’re back to a respectable level, some managerial caution would have been understandable. But managerial caution does not comprise of playing zero attacking midfielders and benching Sadio Mane, that’s just excessive. That’s Pulis-esque.

Who does Ronald Koeman think Chelsea are, Leicester? Saints won the reverse fixture 3-1, so it wasn’t as if there had been some previous thrashing that caused Koeman to think twice. Mane is having a down year with his goalscoring but he’s still deserving of a place in Southampton’s starting XI . Although the ‘Shane Long and chill’ plan gave them the lead, the 2 shots on target is indicative of how they fared going forward for most of the game. This rather unperturbed Chelsea team can be got at and it’s reasonable to think that a mildly more adventurous team selection would have seen Southampton take home a share of the points.

4 Throw away the Spurs stereotypes

It takes a good manager to improve a solid team into a title contender. It takes an even better one, a brilliant one to erase the embarrassments and failures welded deep into a team’s culture and establish a new order that showcases everything the previous one didn’t. Mauricio Pochettino is most certainly brilliant. If Leicester keep up their title contention to the final throes of the season then Claudio Ranieri will be the likeliest candidate to win Manager of the season and the Italian has had his shining moments this season tactically.

But no one has completed a steeper task than what Pochettino faced with this team’s identity and if it makes you feel better you can call them the Tottenham Pochettinos because there’s nothing ‘Spursy’ about them this season. In these games they’re just grinding away all the time . Perhaps unlike Arsenal, if Spurs don’t win the title this year it won’t be the fault of their manager. Coming from behind to beat Swansea was the manifestation of all his work to give this club an edge in which it’s lacked for so long.

5 Injury crisis may have been a blessing for United

Young players are a curious prospect. The inexperience is palpable sometimes and they hurt the team’s performance, as they get ran ragged by their footballing elders on the opposing teams. But in other cases, such as Manchester United this season, their lack of enlightenment serves them well. We’ve seen van Gaal anaesthetize this squad to the point where goals have been a genuine struggle despite the millions of pounds lavished on recruitment. It took a rash of injuries – and Wayne Rooney’s was especially important – and the resulting injection of youth for this United team to get going.

Marcus Rashford’s form is reminiscent of Anthony Martial’s prosperous beginnings in the Premier League. Safe to say that the ‘score with every touch’ plan doesn’t sustain for long, but he’s looked sharp. Memphis Depay decided to wake up and now that he has, he’s quickly become one of the more exciting players to watch with his unexpected touches of flair and Jesse Lingard’s continuing improvement is encouraging. He’s one more name to add into the mix for England’s Euro 2016 squad, which looks increasingly difficult to predict. All good news for United, but don’t anoint van Gaal as the savior just yet, let’s see what his team selections look like when United have more than half of their squad fully fit.