Premier League gameweek 15: Major talking points

Bengaluru, December 6: The Premier League once again lived up to the excitement last weekend and produced its own set of twists and turns. It's December, the crossing point of the Premier League season where we get the first probable big hint of the final outcome of the long season. While a couple of struggling teams got their crusade back on track but a couple of too were left disheartened.

As of now, Liverpool are leading the table by a big margin, eight points adrift of second-placed Leicester while defending winners Manchester City are 11 points below. The race for top four is also hotting up with Chelsea having an eight points advantage over sixth-placed United while Arsenal are ten points below.

Here are the major talking points from the game week:

Liverpool marching on so are Leicester and Manchester City

Liverpool extended their unbeaten run to 32 games as in the Merseyside derby the red half drubbed the Blue one with a 5-2 thumping. The win have put them closer to their maiden league title but other two challengers Leicester and Manchester City seem to have not given up yet. Rodgers register their seventh win on the trot to keep Liverpool at hand while after a disappointing game last weekend, where Pep drew at away in St. James Park, again came back to winning ways against Burnley with 4-1 score to mount pressure on the top two sides.

Manchester United keeping top-four hopes alive but Arsenal are not

United have had underwhelming campaign prior to the Tottenham game in the midweek, winning just four out of 14 games. But they came back to track against their former boss Jose Mourinho in the last game where they outclassed Spurs with a 2-1 victory at home. The win somehow eases the pressure on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as United moved above Tottenham, to sixth in the table. Not only that, it's an important win regarding their top-four hopes as they now sit eight points adrift of Chelsea.

The loss, however, has marred the recent progress of Mourinho's side who won two back to back games and now have to make things work more quickly getting most possible points ahead of the new year to be in contention of a UCL spot. Arsenal, on the other hand, suffered yet another drubbing, this time at home versus Brighton who were yet to win any away games. After Emery's sacking and without any permanent replacement so far, the Gunners now look completely broken and they have to find a way soon to even be in the competition for a top-four spot.

Relegation battle heating up

Southampton have not had in as many as eight games on a trot but in last two weeks, managed to defeat two relegation battling side to be temporarily out of the relegation, placing 17th with 15 points, one point more than Everton. Norwich and Watford are finding it hard to obtain a win and things are looking more complicated for both the sides at the moment, but Sotton's two-win back to back surely have put further pressure on other sides like Brighton, Villa or Hammers who are also loitering around the bottom positions.