Amitai Winehouse: Move over Gunners, it's time to hail new heroes for the neutrals

The narrative seemed to be with them. They have not won the title since 2004. Prior to two FA Cup wins in a row, they had not even won a trophy since 2005. They invested wisely in the summer, turning a problem area, their goalkeeper, into a positive, by recruiting Petr Cech. Arsene Wenger, like a wise old owl, sat on a perch above and afar from the rest of the Premier League nonsense. Winning titles seemed beneath them. Maybe they would finally deign to do it this season.

Then the inevitable happened. Amid all the discussion about how it might finally be their year, everyone seemed to forget that this was Arsenal. You know, Arsenal; the team for whom the declaration of readiness is their eternal Icarus moment. They do not so much fly too close to the sun as catapult themselves towards it, arms wide. They lost 2-0 at home against West Ham United on the opening day of the Premier League season to firmly shatter the belief. It took a while to build it back up.

As the Gunners were reassembling and rebuilding their confidence, another story emerged in the top flight. Tipped for relegation prior to the start of the season after just about escaping the drop and sacking their manager, Leicester City found themselves on top of the pile by November 23.

The unbelievable form of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez’s technical brilliance has put them in first. Most dismissed the possibility that the Foxes could actually do it. Even then, however, those who saw them frequently had a sneaking suspicion that they may actually be the real deal. Before long, people began to spot that, along with their attacking duo, Leicester have the best pure central midfielder in the division – N’Golo Kante.

Kante has developed into a sort of weird anti-hipster footballer. The people who liked him before it was cool tend to be fans who have watched teams play in the lower leagues. The Parisian is the player that everyone assumes the experienced clogger that their team signed in the summer is. He is not one for flashiness, but Kante can win the ball back better than anyone in the top flight and he dribbles past players as if they are not there. He does the hard work but makes it look easy, and makes the rest of the team look better.

Leicester’s holy trinity have inspired the best story in Premier League history, but there are other characters, too.

Wes Morgan and Robert Huth are so solid defensively that they have rejuvenated the age-old art of employing a very large man at the back. Danny Drinkwater is slowly developing into a potential international, right before a tournament. Claudio Ranieri is a breath of fresh air. He has also implemented some interesting tactical strategies. Morgan and Huth play the ball back to the goalkeeper very frequently. It allows Leicester to not overplay, the worst thing for a counter-attacking side to do.

As the Leicester story bubbled away, Tottenham Hotspur also sneakily became quite good at playing football. A loss at Old Trafford on the first day of the season hid a run of 14 games without defeat in the league that immediately followed.

That run pushed Spurs up the table, first into Champions League contention and then where they sit now, among the real title hopefuls.

Most impressively, Mauricio Pochettino has shown himself to be an elite level coach. They are not blessed with the best players in the division, at least not on paper, but they are collectively exceptional, much like Leicester.

A lot of it comes down to Pochettino’s footballing background and his time under Marcelo Bielsa at Newell’s Old Boys. Relatively unknown in this country when he took the Southampton job, it is easy to ignore the fact that under El Loco, Pochettino was an integral part of a team that won the Argentine Primera Division in 1991 and the Clausura in 1992. He knows the mental side of what it takes to be a champion.

Spurs play like a Bielsa side, but with sensible adjustments. They make tactical fouls in the opposition half to limit the amount of pressing they are required to do, which is a lot.

It is a sensible addition to their game, one that allows them to reset. It is no surprise that they have conceded the fewest number of goals in the Premier League, at only 20, while offering entertainment value at the other end of the pitch. They have scored 47 times, a figure topped by just Manchester City and Leicester.

Through the Spurs squad there are also just an exceptional number of likeable footballers. Roy Race look-alike Harry Kane went on a goal-scoring streak last season that seemed like a fever dream and has not stopped ever since. Dele Alli is nicely carrying the entire weight of the nation’s footballing expectation on his young shoulders ahead of Euro 2016. Hugo Lloris is subtly the best goalkeeper in the country.

In those two cases, we have clubs that would never have been predicted as champions at the start of the season. It is entirely reasonable, too – neither club spent hugely in the summer, and in the case of Spurs they have actually turned a net profit on transfer business during Pochettino’s entire time in charge.

People also seem to forget that Arsenal actually possess some players that have done great things at other clubs. The likes of Mesut Ozil and Alexis Sanchez are absolutely world-class, as is Cech, despite his low transfer fee in the summer. If the Gunners won the Premier League, it would not actually be a shock but simply a fulfillment of the promise that has been bubbling away at the Emirates Stadium for quite a while.

That is why, ultimately, it would be a disappointment if Arsenal did capture the crown. It seems odd to say it because for so long they were the top-flight’s perennial top-level underdogs. For a long time, there has been plenty to admire at Arsenal, too. They are, however, no longer the neutral’s favourite, a role they occupied for so long.

Instead, everyone across the country without a horse in this particular race will be backing Leicester or Spurs. Unfortunately, the closer they come to winning the title, the further from it they might actually be.

As clubs that have come nowhere near the crown before, there will be a sense that they could stutter once the reality of the situation dawns on them, as the swathes of former professionals have frequently pointed out.

With six games to go, they might realise they could actually win the Premier League, and that could be the thing that kills them and allows a veteran like Wenger to swoop.

For most neutrals, that would be nothing less than a shame, but it remains something for Arsenal fans to hold on to until the end.

Questioning if Mourinho is the right fit

It has been fascinating to see how Manchester United have handled Louis van Gaal’s tenure and his inevitable succession.

Comfortably the oddest aspect is how he has been judged by periods in which failure was never likely.

Last week, the games against Shrewsbury and FC Midtjylland seemed to decide whether Van Gaal would be kept on until the summer.

This is meant with no offence to either Shrewsbury or the Danish champions, but victories against that duo provide little indication of whether Van Gaal deserves to stay in the role.

Even worse is the manner in which Jose Mourinho has been allowed to dominate the conversation and essentially decide the manager’s job at Old Trafford is his own.

There is a lack of stability at that club that can be traced back to Alex Ferguson.

The Scot was allowed to build a complete autocracy, and as has been replicated in around the world throughout history, it is always hard to follow an absolute ruler with another, which the Portuguese would be.

There are also doubts over whether Mourinho would immediately bring success to Man Utd, and there should be a consideration over whether the club need to think differently when it comes to the next manager.