Leicester City run away at top; Liverpool fans make a stand; Tottenham creep into title race; Louis van Gaal fights back

Seven things we learned in the Premier League: Fixture list about to bite for England's biggest clubs; Newcastle's spending pays off at St James' Park; Crystal Palace avert the slide with badly needed point in Wales

Leicester City's Riyad Mahrez celebrates his goal against Manchester City (Getty)

Leicester mind the gap

The emphatic and total nature of Leicester’s bulldozing victory at Manchester City marked yet another veering twist in this barmy, kaleidoscopic season. Captain Wes Morgan and Robert Huth, the towering German who scored twice, continued their transmutation from dead-enders to gladiatorial champions.

N’Golo Kante, plucked for just £5.6m from Caen, manipulated Yaya Toure and Fabian Delph into all manner of irregular positions like a sadistic puppeteer. Danny Drinkwater, too, was supreme while the bank of superlatives to describe Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez has long run dry. Maybe the time has come to borrow a few from foreign languages to tide us over until the end of the campaign.

In the bowls of a groaning Etihad Stadium, another Premier League ground conquered by this season’s most peculiar of top four settlers, Claudio Ranieri likened the title run-in to a mountain climb. “Like a climber, you need to look up. If you look down, you go: ‘Oooohh, my God, look where we are’.” It's quite a distance down now.

Liverpool fans unfurl a banner at Anfield (Getty)

Power to the people at Liverpool

The headaches at the epicentre of Liverpool’s walk-out drama this weekend share an existential common ground with the wider game in general. One wonders whether football clubs should complete their regeneration cycles and just call themselves brands more openly. Liverpool Football Brand. It would at least eradicate the misunderstanding which leads to unsavoury instances like this weekend’s mass walk-out at Anfield.

For a club built upon the socialist values of Bill Shankly, it seems remarkable that Merseyside should play host to a debate usually reserved for Stamford Bridge or the Emirates. The decision to market a selection of tickets in Liverpool’s new Main Stand extension at £77 shows little awareness that £8.3bn is about to gush through the English game.

Neither does it pay any particular type of cognizance to the fact that northern England, more acutely the North West, is still being rung dry by the country’s financial stagnation. If this weekend’s protests proved anything, however, it’s that corporate camouflage is no longer protecting the money men from condemnation.

Keiran Trippier celebrates his first Spurs goal (Getty)

Spurs quietly creeping to the top

Somewhere amid the chaos of City’s Etihad implosion and Liverpool’s Anfield surrender to Sunderland, there was a statistic missed by many. Tottenham Hotspur, who edged past Watford at White Hart Lane, clambered their way up to second in the table. The last time they were so high after 25 games was in 2012 – when they last squatted in the top four.

Unlike those halcyon times, however, this isn’t giddy head time for Mauricio Pochettino. There’s a focus about the Argentine’s men this season, an unnerving determination to strike while the established order squabble among themselves. If ever there’s been an opportunity to lift a first title since 1961, from under Arsenal’s noses, this is it. Spurs have been top of the Premier League for just 33 days since 1992 and haven’t touched the summit once this season, but the tide is turning.

“You can see in their eyes, the feeling, the energy, that they believe,” Pochettino prophesised this weekend. “Belief is the most important word. If we believe, anything can happen.”

Louis van Gaal watches on at Stamford Bridge (Getty)

LVG turns defence into attack

“What is your name?” asked Louis van Gaal in the Stamford Bridge media suite, mercifully refraining from adding “your name will also go on the list.” For the sake of context, the beleaguered Dutchman was accusing the journalists present of fabricating reports linking Jose Mourinho with his job.

“Now I have to say that you [a reporter] are getting the sack tomorrow. What is your name? Then I can announce your name also.” It was a light-hearted moment from an otherwise stern and calculating figure, making light of a scenario which will surely lead to his protracted Old Trafford exit in the summer.

Like his team in recent weeks, Van Gaal turned defence into attack. The 1-1 draw in the capital represented more on-field progress, despite the Diego Costa impaling a dagger through their hearts at the end. But an underlining feeling of 'too little, too late' persists.

Manuel Pellegrini watches on in anguish (Getty)

Fixture list about to bite for title chasers

Never mind Storm Imogen, the harsh winds of February haven’t even got started. The lingering feeling in dressing rooms across the country this weekend was a mix of dread and anticipation. If you’re fortunate, like City, Arsenal and Chelsea, you have the riches of the Champions League to at least look forward to.

For Spurs, Liverpool and United, meanwhile, trips to Florence, Augsburg and Midtjylland fall ominously in the footballing graveyard slot which is Thursday evening. Sandwiching FA Cup ties too, the fixture list is about to become an assault course for England’s biggest clubs.

City and Liverpool, in particular, have it rough. Manuel Pellegrini’s men travel to Stamford Bridge in the Cup between the two-legged European clash with Dynamo Kiev. Jurgen Klopp’s men, themselves manoeuvring their way through a similar regime, then await in the Capital One Cup final. Ranieri, in between lashings of free pizza and trips to Leicester Market, must be rubbing his hands together.

Aleksandar Mitrovic celebrates his goal (Getty)

Mapgies take flight

The renaissance many assumed would accompany Newcastle United’s January spending splurge has stuttered into life after two defeats by Watford and Everton. Steve McClaren’s £50m gamble this season carries a high-risk likelihood of relegation, ripping blame from usual suspect Mike Ashley and putting it firmly at the former England manager’s door.

The £12m fees splashed out on Andros Townsend and Jonjo Shelvey a piece, along with the acquisition of Henri Saivet and loan capture of Seydou Doumbia, have given the North East outfit a new impetus in the fight to avoid the drop. The 1-0 victory against West Bromwich Albion, while appearing a mere scrape, was perhaps the Toon’s best display of the campaign so far.

Aleksandar Mitrovic, the football equivalent of pouring Mentos into a Coca-Cola can, added to the positives by keeping a hold of himself to score the winner. “For 95 minutes we were relentless in attack, and we should have scored more,” McClaren said. “As a manager you do worry as the game goes on, but you just have to sit down and pray it's just your day.” Now back to praying it’s his year.

Alan Pardew punches the air (Getty)

Palace avert the slide

Rather staggeringly, Crystal Palace continue to tumble away from European contention and towards the relegation scrap. Alan Pardew’s men were everyone’s pick to do what has since been branded ‘a Leicester’. Five successive defeats have since contributed to a winless run which now stretches at eight matches and counting.

But there were signs of optimism in South Wales as Scott Dann hauled the visitors back into the match to secure an admirable point at the Liberty Stadium. Despite a limp first half, Pardew’s men came to life in the second and at least showed a baseline desire to arrest their slump.

“The point today is so important,” Pardew enthused afterwards. “We knew we had to get something today, so that was a very good result. It was really tough, with a lot of energy and a lot of commitment from both teams

“We were playing with our brakes on but we had a reaction to the chat at half-time. Swansea have been in good form and we came back, which makes it all the sweeter.”