Manchester City leave it late once again, Liverpool get bullied by West Ham and god damn, Chelsea really are back. Here’s 5 lessons we learned from this gameweek:

1 West Ham well placed to continue challenging top sides

The only downside in the Hammers’ 2-0 victory over Liverpool was that they’ve surely used up their annual ‘Andy Carroll has a good game’ card. Indeed the pony-tailed brute rose up from Liverpool’s nightmares to crash home Mark Noble’s cross, vaulting the club into the top 6. It’s been a bit of a smoke-and-mirrors effort in recent weeks, grinding out results with bench players sans Dimitri Payet.

But now the pirouetting Frenchman is back and it is highly recommended he goes back into fantasy teams. Payet came off the bench for half an hour and showed little sign of needing to acclimatize. It’s slightly amazing how much Bilic’s side already rely on Payet to create for them even though he was only signed in the summer. West Ham face the shoddy defences of Bournemouth and Newcastle after the FA Cup next weekend. Can you honestly turn down the prospect of a well rested Payet going up against Steve Cook and Fabricio Coloccini in consecutive weeks?

2 Liverpool suffering same chronic issues

Jurgen Klopp was a good appointment in the long-term for Liverpool, but it’s a fair expectation that he would improve the side some this season. Instead the performance Liverpool gave against West Ham – apathetic, soft and in the case of Roberto Firmino and Christian Benteke downright awful – was similar to the corresponding fixture last season, a 3-1 defeat. It doesn’t bode well for Klopp that despite his ranting, raving and long-haired presence on the touchline Liverpool are failing to deal with the same issues that have plagued them for years.

Good teams always have bogey fixtures, but Liverpool genuinely can’t be trusted to turn up against any frisky mid-table side and it’s been this way for years. This inconsistency as well as being average in both attack and defence makes their squad a terrible option in fantasy football for the most part. They have the arrogance and tempo of a team that possesses real quality despite showing the latter sporadically. There’s issues to be fixed that run deep through the team, perhaps deeper than a managerial switch can manage.

3 Leicester trying to adapt

0-0’s can often be meritless ordeals to watch but the Foxes goalless affair against Bournemouth was definitely not an example of such. The battle lines were drawn early as Eddie Howe opted for a sort of ‘death by central midfielders’ approach, lining up in a 4-5-1 that clogged up the centre circle and its surrounding area. Claudio Ranieri this season has cycled through Shinji Okazaki and Leonardo Ulloa to partner Jamie Vardy, but both have been ineffectual. It was Ulloa’s turn to start Saturday but the less said about his performance the better.

Ulloa was taken off at half time for Nathan Dyer, moving Riyad Mahrez into the centre. Ranieri knows that the league is starting to key in on Mahrez and Vardy, so the Italian is looking to unleash them in different ways. The space that Dyer provided allowed Leicester to beat Bournemouth’s midfielders. In the second half Vardy got in behind on several occasions, one time leading to a penalty and red card. It will be fascinating to see Leicester try to mold their team and sustain a top 4 challenge in the coming weeks, especially as it was announced on Sunday evening that Vardy was to have a ‘minor surgery’. Keep selecting Mahrez

for the next month and monitor the shots on target totals closely.

PS: Ulloa seriously sucks this season. Leave him alone at all costs.

4 Healthy Manchester City are serious threat to Arsenal

Before touting City as the best side in the league, it’s worth pointing out that Arsenal are topping the table despite not having their best player, Alexis Sanchez. But.

There’s always a but when Arsenal are top of the league. I can’t help it. Manchester City’s ceiling – with an engaged Yaya Toure, a fit Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany – is very, very difficult to top. Late goals come and go but with Manchester City’s 2-1 smash and grab outing against Watford, it felt like their quality just willed them not to lose. It wasn’t the first time such a late intervention has benefitted City this season either, really good teams find a way.

Can you count on their defence? Not really. Do they provide the same effort from game to game? Probably not. But even in this topsy-turvy season City have the pure talent that can override whatever the opposing team. Arsenal are clearly legitimate title contenders and quite rightly the current favourites. But it won’t stop them looking over their shoulders at all times, especially if Manuel Pellegrini can find a nice effective set of ankle braces for Aguero.

5 Academy Award Season is coming up

Excuse the dreadful joke, but Oscar is quietly starting to get it together under Guus Hiddink. Willian has been the individual highlighted by many this season but it’s reasonable to doubt that his goalscoring will continue. For Chelsea this season seven of the Brazilian’s eight goals in all competitions have come from outside the box. That rate of blasting absolute screamers into the back of the net rarely carries on for an entire season.

Oscar meanwhile looks to be driving Chelsea’s return to form. The team as a whole has had a little more ‘pop’ to them in recent weeks, dating back to their visit to Leicester when Mourinho was still employed. But Hiddink’s appointment has certainly been a catalyst for the improvement. Against a wounded Palace team, Costa made runs and Fabregas made passes that had simply stopped happening towards the end of the previous regime. Eden Hazard left the game early with some sort of injury which leaves some creative slack to be picked up by Oscar, increasing his chances of points.

Chelsea are definitely back which evokes mixed feelings for me, but if the fantasy manager inside of you wants to benefit, Oscar should be the Chelsea midfield pick over Willian.