Leicester hold their ground at the top, Tottenham solidify their title contention status and, hey, Aston Villa won! What a season. Here’s 5 things we learned:

1 Ranieri’s defence fueling 2016 surge

After Robert Huth scuffed in a goal 2 minutes in, Manchester City reluctantly started their barrage on the Leicester penalty area. Raheem Sterling got loose several times and there must have been roughly half a dozen occasions when pullbacks flashed towards the 6 yard box. No matter. Wes Morgan has some meaty thighs that were made to block shots. Leicester’s attack has been nearly as blistering as it was before the turn of the New Year but the defensive showings that Ranieri has eked out, the ones Nigel Pearson never could, have been the difference. By the way, the thinking that Ranieri has changed nothing after Pearson’s departure is completely wrong.

When defenders have to block endless amounts of attempts on goal, it’s usually not a sign of a good defence. Saturday’s matinee in Manchester didn’t see one of Leicester’s better defensive performances by any means. But they did enough. That should really be the motto of Leicester’s back 4, they do enough. Not many teams will hold Manchester City to one consolation goal at the Etihad. 5 clean sheets in 7 games now, and Huth’s brace led Leicester to be 6 points clear at the top. What a sentence that is!

2 Stoke looking softer as season progresses

Teams do have identities and look a certain way when playing well. When the Potters are firing on all cylinders their attack is fast and vicious, then backed up by a robust defence. Mark Hughes watched his team look the exact opposite of that against Everton. Cold, wet, windy cliches are nice and all but they mean nothing when the home team fails to perform in the same conditions. Suddenly, Stoke have morphed into a team that doesn’t truly thrive in their natural habitat.

Stoke signed 23 year old Giannelli Imbula in the transfer window and he might develop into a nice piece some day, but as of right now he’s not a good defensive midfielder for a Premier League club. He also looked absolutely freezing cold. Giving Lukaku and his friends a lot of space is football suicide and it happened over and over again. Ryan Shawcross has a slightly inflated reputation but his absence in recent weeks has been marked. The main fantasy implication from all this is Jack Butland continuing to fall behind in my fictional budget keeper rankings.

3 Chadli maintains his infuriating ways

Last season Nacer Chadli would float through a game and do nothing really of note in a comfortable Spurs win. Then the full-time whistle would blow, you’d look up and oh. Chadli would have notched a goal or an assist, somehow without you noticing. This season’s been much of the same, except without any of those goal things. Even for a neutral, watching Chadli is a tantalizing yet thoroughly unsatisfying experience.

He missed a couple of chances against Watford in a game Spurs dominated from the off. The main flaw for Pochettino’s men is that they have games where they can’t create anything but this wasn’t one of those times, as 8 shots on target would attest to. Still it was only after Chadli came off that Spurs were able to break the deadlock and it was the Belgian’s replacement Dele Alli who provided the pass. It was an extremely impressive win for Spurs going up against a packed defence and sets them up nicely for next weekend’s clash with Manchester City. Don’t expect to see Chadli start though.

4 Watford lacking firepower outside of Ighalo, Deeney

For their trip to White Hart Lane, Quique Sánchez Flores left all his attacking players outside of his reputed front two at home. Deeney didn’t even make the starting line-up as Watford tried to clog up the game up and, if we’re being cynical: played for a draw. It’s not an awful strategy against this Spurs team, but unfortunately for Watford, their hosts have just started to hit their stride in front of goal.

As they were getting torn apart in front of their own goal, it was no prettier at the other end. It was a tale of 3 defensive midfielders and Ighalo battling a very good defence, with predictable results. Considering their reliance on two players to score and direct style, Watford are sort of like a more extreme but less talented version of Leicester. They’ll be just fine for the rest of the season, but they might want to look at inserting some creativity into the side during the summer.

5 Arsenal need to prove their mettle – but they’ve done it before

It’s been another turbulent week at the Emirates. Fraser Forster’s palms held the North London club to a goalless draw on Tuesday night while Leicester and Manchester City picked up 3 points elsewhere. This was only a minor setback, but a setback nonetheless which only meant one thing: crisis. Arsenal apparently only deal in crises and sure-fire glory, even though they’ve had neither for years. Looking ahead, yet another vital spring period beckons. Sandwiched between fixtures against some Spanish side called Barcelona, they’ll face Man Utd (A), Swansea (H), Tottenham (A) and West Brom (H).

The narrative is that Arsenal suddenly transform into a wet blanket for games at this point in the season. But Arsenal historically have performed very well. Over the past 5 seasons in Premier League fixtures played between Champions League ties, Arsenal’s record is 9W-1D-2L. In other words, they perform a little above what they normally do during the season. Promisingly for all involved with the club, Alexis Sanchez is slowly resembling the same person who racked up points last year. Arsenal will face another chance to prove they’ve changed, now is not the time to desert your Arsenal representatives in your fantasy teams.

Harry Wallace is a Leicester City fan and Fantasy Football enthusiast. Both have been known to be unsuccessful at times. Keep track of his football related thoughts on Twitter.