The List | 10 Things From The Weekend - 10/02/2014 - Football News

This is always the best part of any season, with crunch games coming every couple of days and six pointers meaning much more than ever before. So it's no surprises the Premier League is getting better each week, with Chelsea being the third team to top the table in as many weeks.

Other European Leagues are really shaping up too with managers and players coming into their own and to top it off we are about to welcome the return of the Champions League. It does not get any better. Here are the top ten things we learnt from the weekend.

Jose Mourinho swapped Cristiano Ronaldo for Eden Hazard, and it’s going rather well – The man of the hour after the game on Monday night at the Etihad Stadium and the player of the weekend, again. Hazard has all the talent in the world and he is certainly showing it at the minute. The Premier League's star man, make no mistake.

Why does Arsenal’s season always derail in February? – Again, the Gunners could well find themselves out of the title race and indeed Europe by the end of the month. It's a familiar feeling that Arsenal fans know all too well. When your goalkeeper calls the performance a f***ing disgrace on twitter, you know there is a problem. Will they suffer the same fate this season or turn things around?



Is Manchester City’s squad as strong as we thought? – The former title favorites have three players out: Fernandinho, who was missed massively against Chelsea, Samir Nasri and Sergio Aguero. At the start of the season, we thought they would walk away with the title. Now it is no goals in two games and a single point. The start of a decline?



Liverpool will finish the top four – It is not only the form of the Reds, but also the lack of it from Manchester United that solidifies this opinion. The fact of the matter is, United cannot win at home or away, against the top or bottom of the league. Liverpool most certainly can and were sublime on the weekend. Top four this term, title the next?



Everton and Tottenham will be fighting it out for fifth – The three points Tottenham picked up at White Hart Lane on Sunday were lucky and Everton deserved more but what a season it has been for Roberto Martinez and his men so far. Tim Sherwood, the man who has come in from beanie hat exile isn't doing too badly for Spurs either.



The wheels are coming off for Hamburg – The Bundesliga side are not a happy bunch at all after losing 0-3 at home to Hertha BSC and dropping into the relegation zone. Following a fan protest after the match, players cars were attacked and pelted with eggs. Rafael van der Vaart claimed he was ‘shaken to the core’. Imagine if their form was as bad as Manchester United’s.



The Cashico ended even leaving PSG favourites for the title – Despite taking an early lead, PSG could not grind out at win away at Monaco, and the honors ended up even. A far better result for Ibra and co, given that Monaco are the ones doing the chasing. That aside, Claudio Ranieri and his men are edging ever closer. They'll likely be enjoying a Champions League spot next season and may even be favourites for the Ligue 1 title.



Jese is one for the future – The likes of Sergio Aguero and Luis Suarez are forever being linked with a move to Real Madrid, and given the way Karim Benzema sometimes performs, that is no shock. What is however is the form and displays coming from former Castilla player Jese, the boy is sensational. Goals, assists and an all-round performance is becoming the norm for the boy who has well and truly overtaken Alvaro Morata as the fans favorite academy graduate.



Juve may have drawn at Verona, but Pogba has some skills – Juve can afford to slip up a couple of times between now and the end of the season given their point lead in Serie A, but the real thing we learnt from this week was just how skillful Paul Pogba is. Pogba can manage to do some sensational tricks with a ball – blindfolded. There is a reason the video of him doing that is going viral; it is that good. His former club United meanwhile have Tom Cleverley.



Laudrup is gone and Monk managed to win a huge game – The massive and comprehensive win over Cardiff was the perfect start for Gary Monk, but we still think that Swansea could well get dragged into the relegation battle due to how tight it is in the bottom half of the table. Swansea currently lie tenth in the league but had they lost on Saturday, they would have been in the bottom three.

What did you learn from the weekend? Let us know. Join the conversation online, on Twitter and on Facebook.