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With the calendar year nearly over and the January transfer window looming, the race for the Premier League title is hotter than ever. Liverpool currently lead the table, but Manchester City are hot on their heels and Tottenham, Arsenal and Chelsea are still within touching distance too.
Manchester United – the other club in the ‘Big Six’ – are currently 8 points away from the top 5, but a turnaround isn’t impossible just yet. But of course, all 6 of these massive clubs could probably do with some strengthening in certain areas to really make sure of their title push.
Here are the positions that the Premier League’s ‘Big Six’ should probably look to strengthen in January.
#1 Manchester City: Holding Midfield
It’s almost hard to identify an area for improvement when it comes to Manchester City; Pep Guardiola’s team is chock-full of world-class talent in all positions, and losing a key player would hardly be a disaster for them. If David or Bernardo Silva goes down, they’ve got Ilkay Gundogan and Phil Foden to come in; if they were to lose Raheem Sterling, then Leroy Sane and Riyad Mahrez can easily pick up the slack.
The one player who might be indispensable to the reigning champions? Holding midfielder Fernandinho, who provides the steel that allows the likes of the two Silvas and Kevin de Bruyne so much freedom to attack. The Brazilian has played in all 16 of City’s Premier League games thus far and has been an ever-present in their Champions League campaign too.
Fabian Delph is a solid replacement but given his status as a complete utility man, it’d probably be a smart idea for Guardiola to look to pick up a backup holding midfielder should Fernandinho be unavailable.
Ruben Neves of Wolves would be an excellent signing but the likelihood of getting him in January – given his club’s own push for Premier League solidarity – would be slim. Ajax’s Frenkie de Jong would, therefore, be the best bet for Pep – he’s got a pass success rate of 91.4% in his 13 league games this season and at 21 years old, Guardiola could mould him in his own image as a long-term successor to Fernandinho while also shoring up his squad in the short term.
#2 Liverpool: Creative Midfield
Liverpool had an excellent season in 2017/18, finishing 4th in the Premier League and reaching the Champions League final. Jurgen Klopp’s men weren’t perfect though; despite scoring freely they had defensive issues. The last two transfer windows appear to have solved those woes though – the signings of Alisson and Virgil Van Dijk have provided them with a defensive toughness missing before.
For their current title charge then, what’s the missing ingredient? I’d argue it’s some creativity in the centre of midfield, something that’s been missing for the Reds since the sale of Philippe Coutinho. The midfield combinations Klopp has used thus far in 2018/19 have been somewhat effective, but any combination of Jordan Henderson, James Milner, Georginio Wijnaldum, Fabinho and Naby Keita seems to lack the classic ability to unlock a defence.
With one of the most dangerous forward lines in Europe in Mo Salah, Sadio Mane and Roberto Firmino, finding a player to pick key passes to them would make Liverpool absolutely deadly. Liverpool attempted to sign one in the form of Nabil Fekir in the summer, but the move fell through for a myriad of reasons.
Klopp could definitely go back in for the Lyon man, as he’s started the season relatively well, chipping in with 4 goals and 4 assists in all competitions. Another option could be a man who Liverpool once let go for just £1m; Suso, a product of the Reds’ academy, is playing excellently for AC Milan right now and the Spaniard has 4 goals and 8 assists to his name in just 15 league games. He’d cost more than he was sold for – but he could well prove to be worth it.
#3 Chelsea: Striker
New boss Maurizio Sarri has proven to be a success at Chelsea thus far, and their big 2-0 win over Manchester City last weekend seemed to prove theories that his style had been “found out” after losses to Tottenham and Wolves to be false. Despite this though, it’s pretty clear that the Blues are lacking in a major area – and that’s in terms of goals.
Sure, they’ve scored 33 goals thus far – a return up there with the rest of the top 5 – but first choice striker Alvaro Morata still doesn’t really look like the real deal up front, and it appears clear at this stage that Sarri simply doesn’t view Olivier Giroud as anything more than a good impact substitute. And Chelsea simply can’t rely on Eden Hazard for all their goals.
How to solve this issue? The Blues could choose to bring back youngster Tammy Abraham from his loan at Aston Villa – the England international has been on fire, scoring 11 goals in 15 appearances in the Championship, but questions still abound over whether he’s ready for life at the top of the Premier League.
If Abraham is not to be trusted, then Chelsea could move for a man who Sarri would’ve come up against during his time at Napoli – Inter Milan’s Argentine striker Mauro Icardi. A deadly finisher who’s been described as an “animal in the box”, Icardi already has 8 league goals in 12 appearances and 4 Champions League goals too. He’d be a big upgrade on Morata – although it’d probably cost the Blues a lot of money to get him.
#4 Tottenham Hotspur: Creative Midfield
Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham didn’t sign a single player in the summer transfer window but thus far, it doesn’t appear to have had much of an effect. Fringe players like Moussa Sissoko and Juan Foyth have stepped up admirably and Spurs currently sit in 3rd position in the league. They have looked somewhat fragile against their fellow ‘Big Six’ sides though, and so strengthening their squad would help.
Many people would point to a need for a backup striker to support Harry Kane, but realistically, it’s always going to be hard for Spurs to find a top player who’s likely to spend much of his time on the bench, and Kane doesn’t miss many games anyway. A bigger miss – and it’s been notable on occasion this season – would be Christian Eriksen.
The Dane is one of the best creative midfielders in the world right now and has already made 6 Premier League goals this season. Midfielders like Sissoko, Harry Winks and Eric Dier clearly offer a lot, but none of them can unlock a defence quite like Eriksen. So who could Spurs sign to back the Dane up?
Aston Villa’s Jack Grealish was rumoured to be signing in the summer and he’d still be a solid signing, but with a new contract now signed at Villa Park, prising him away could prove to be tricky. Given their relatively tight budget and a need for a homegrown signing, a shock move for Wolves youngster Morgan Gibbs-White could work – he’s raw, but learning from someone like Eriksen could do him the world of good and he’s clearly got huge talent that someone like Pochettino could do great things with.
#5 Arsenal: Central Defender
Arsenal have undoubtedly been resurgent under Unai Emery thus far in 2018/19; they’re currently on an unbeaten streak of 14 Premier League games and defeated their bitter rivals Tottenham in the North London derby, and strikers Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette have both been in excellent form. However, not everything is as rosy as it seems at the Emirates right now.
Arsenal have conceded 20 goals thus far – more than any of the other teams in the current top 5 and also more than 7th place Everton and 10th place Wolves. That’s largely been down to the fact that the centre of their defence still doesn’t seem quite settled and fully up-to-scratch.
Emery has used a combination of Shkodran Mustafi, Rob Holding and Sokratis at the back thus far and while they’ve performed decently at times, none of them really display the same kind of power that say, Virgil Van Dijk or Aymeric Laporte does. Worse still, Holding has now been ruled out for the rest of the season with a serious knee injury – leaving the Gunners with even fewer options.
It’s a proven fact that a title challenge is often built on a solid defense and so Arsenal should probably leave nothing to chance when it comes to this position, but the Gunners still operate on a relatively tight budget – so making a move for someone like Lewis Dunk at Brighton – who have only conceded 22 goals despite sitting in 13th place – might make sense in order to shore things up.
#6 Manchester United: Central Defender
As everyone knows, Jose Mourinho’s Red Devils are way off the pace at the top of the table; they currently sit in 6th place, but they’re 8 points away from Arsenal in 5th and a massive 16 points from the top. They’ve also conceded 26 goals – far more than any of the other top sides – while scoring less, too. But realistically, United still have the shell of a strong attacking side should their players hit form.
Their defence is a different story, though. The fact that Mourinho and Chief Executive Ed Woodward butted heads numerous times in the summer on this subject is no secret, but in hindsight it’s hard not to agree with Mourinho – the likes of Chris Smalling and Victor Lindelof simply don’t look up to the job of helping United to a proper title challenge, and Mourinho shouldn’t have to play the likes of Scott McTominay out of position there either.
A move for Toby Alderweireld of Spurs – who is out of contract this summer – has been talked about plenty of times, and a recent report suggested that United have given Mourinho the “go ahead” to sign the player, but that assumes that Tottenham would be willing to sell the Belgian to a rival. If they can’t bring him aboard, then who else is available?
United are no strangers to splashing big money and so players like Kalidou Koulibaly or Harry Maguire remain in the realm of possibility – but it may not be as easy as it once was for the Red Devils to attract top players to Old Trafford. We shall see, but undoubtedly to make the top 5 this is the area that Mourinho needs to sort out.
