Premier League talking points: Rui Patricio injury, Arsenal questions, Mourinho side show
It was another action-packed weekend of Premier League football and Matthew Dunn has all the talking points as Manchester United won and Manchester City closed in on the title.
Rui Patricio suffered a worrying head injury as Wolves lost to Liverpool and Manchester City moved closer to winning the title. Here's all the latest Premier League talking points column from Matthew Dunn.
Premier League talking points: It was another busy week in the top flight (Image: GETTY)
WE KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN, 'ARRY
Liven up. Stop giving the ball away. Stay f***ing onside.
If Harry Maguire chatting to fans over a railing at the 2018 World Cup became a “thing”, so should some of his more audible communications to fellow players during this period with fans.
It shows that even at its highest level, football is a very simple game, perhaps something we should all reflect upon when agonising over the latest conspiracy theory as to why our team's season is going so badly wrong.
And perhaps the fact that multi-million pound-earning egos will allow Maguire to shout such obvious basic instructions at them is a sign that they are respect him as a true leader.
After all, that sort of approach never did Tony Adams any damage.
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Sorry, Jose, but you cannot treat Tottenham fans like mugs who can be bullied into his way of thinking.
Take his outrageous comments about the penalty decision in the north London derby that only an Arsenal season ticket holder would have been blinded enough by his passion to give it.
Actually, no. At best it was 50-50 decision – most people around the Emirates seemed to think it was a fair shout.
His diatribe made great copy, though, and were the headlines of the following day. Not Tottenham's woeful performance.
But Spurs fans are not stupid and if he continues to send out the most exciting attacking force the club has assembled for decades to play like mice parking their little mouse bus, they will not make do with unfairly blaming Michael Oliver for long.
Arsenal have had a season to forget so far (Image: EXPRESS)
The face of thunder worn by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang all afternoon was a sure signed of the portentous decision made by Mikel Arteta for dropping him from the north London derby.
But having decided to stand up to Mesut Ozil, Arsenal have tended to struggle with a lack of invention. What Arteta can ill afford right now is for the goals to dry up completely.
It is okay for the Arsenal manager to draw a line under the matter and let bygones be bygones – the question is will Aubameyang?
That will be the real measure of whether the Arsenal players are behind Arteta on his journey back to the top of the game again or if he is relying on integrity that went out with Gunnersaurus.
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SHOW SOME STEEL
Well, a 5-0 drubbing certainly put straight anybody in the “it couldn't get any worse” camp. But Chris Wilder deserves better than that.
Historically, Sheffield United has never been a club that has treated its managers particularly well and the way they have bundled Wilder out of the door is shocking.
Certainly, it seemed to get to the players ahead of their uncharacteristic capitulation to Leicester.
Wilder, though, brought them up better than that and I am sure the best tribute his charges can pay to him over the rest of the season is to stand up and face the path towards their inevitable fate with some of his trademark Yorkshire pride.