Manchester United needed victory at Swansea on Sunday afternoon. They needed victory desperately, as Jose Mourinho began to resemble the rugged, stressed third season version of himself rather than the excitable, positive, scheming first year incarnation.

His tenure at Manchester United could be rather short if his team continue to perform as appallingly as they have for the majority of this season. Letting opposition teams expose them defensively and failing to finish chances, the vulgar amount of money spent last summer is look pretty laughable at the moment. Mourinho, even in his most stubborn of moods, would admit that things are at an almost disastrous level at the moment.

Fortuitously, Swansea have been having a woeful campaign of their own. Their own struggles, which were added to by defeat at Stoke on Monday, have been well documented. Victory for Manchester United might not have been quite a shock, but it certainly was not a guarantee before the game.

Pogback?

Paul Pogba was destined to face a lot of criticism after moving for a world record fee and the Frenchman may have calmed some of the critics a little with his stunning goal.

Performances must improve for Pogba, but this was a start.

Zlat attack

Having been through one of the worst goal droughts of his career, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was desperate for a goal.

Scoring the second for United, to almost kill the game, in the first half, the towering Swede is set to go on a goal scoring run from here onwards.

Absent friends

As Ibrahimovic netted his second, and United’s third, Bob Bradley cut a dejected figure. Rui Faria, however, was less upset by the events on the field.

Jose Mourinho was stuck in the stands as part of a touchline ban (very unlike him, of course) and Faria was there barking the orders from the touchline. Luckily Faria avoided the sort of controversy that has crept up in his career.

Silly moment

When you are on four bookings and winning a game comfortably, it is pretty damn stupid to make any sort of challenge that could possibly see you scribbled into the referee’s notepad again.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic clearly didn’t get the memo about five bookings equalling and a suspension and he will not miss the game with Arsenal as a result.

Crumbling defence

Van der Hoorn managed to grab a consolation for Swansea, but it was too little, too late for the Welsh club.

Sitting level on points with Sunderland at the bottom of the table, this result only puts more pressure on Bob Bradley – even so early in his tenure.

Defeat will hurt for Swansea, who defended poorly throughout, but they will have plenty more winnable games than this.

Everton are planning to add a new goalkeeper to their squad when the transfer window reopens in January, according to the Liverpool Echo.

What’s the story?

The Merseyside outfit signed Maarten Stekelenburg just last summer as a replacement for the outgoing Tim Howard.

However, it is understood by the local media that manager Ronald Koeman has drawn up a three-man shortlist as he is not currently satisfied with the goalkeeper situation.

Stekelenburg has taken the number one spot this season, while Joel Robles is below him in the pecking order.

Koeman said in August that he wanted an additional shot-stopper to challenge the duo, but a transfer never materialised.

The report suggests that the Dutchman wants a recruit who can come in as the club’s new first-choice keeper.

Who does Koeman want?

The Toffees were rumoured to be interested in snapping up Joe Hart when the Manchester City player was shunned by manager Pep Guardiola.

At the time, Koeman insisted that he had no interest in signing the England international, and the 29-year-old ended up joining Serie A outfit Torino on a season-long loan.

Would Everton consider making a summer move? Well, in a recent interview with Sky Sports, Hart suggested that when his loan stay in Italy comes to an end he will not return to City but rather keep his options open.

Hart would be a great signing for the Merseyside outfit as his experience and ability would tighten up a defence that has conceded seven goals in the last three Premier League games.

Elsewhere, Southampton shot-stopper Fraser Forster has been touted as a potential option.

Koeman knows him well having signed the Englishman while in charge of the Saints in 2014, but considering that the Dutchman left the coastal club rather abruptly at the end of last season, a deal is unlikely to go smoothly.

Not only that, Forster is a crucial member of the Southampton team under boss Claude Puel.

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As reported by The Sun, Tottenham Hotspur have identified their next big signing target, highly rated German midfielder Max Meyer of Schalke.

What’s the word?

Max Meyer is about to enter the last year of his contract and according to The Sun, that’s renewed Spurs’ interest in the midfielder after they tried to sign him in August.

That summer move is said to have broken down due to Schalke’s inability to find a replacement in time and the fact they wouldn’t negotiate from their £45m starting valuation for the German.

Quoted by The Sun, Meyer acknowledged those rumours recently, saying: “I know that interest was there and the club was asked. But Schalke immediately put a stop to it. So the matter was settled. Of course, I have dealt with it. But I also know what I have at Schalke, and I like to play for this club.”

Given the circumstances of his contract, Spurs are willing to go back to the German club with a new £30m offer.

Worth it?

At the age of just 21, Max Meyer has already made quite the impact for club and country.

Already making close to 150 appearances for Schalke, he’s scored 20 goals in the process. That’s a lot of experience for an attacking midfielder so young, perhaps showing that he’s ready to play first-team football from the off at Tottenham Hotspur.

He’s made that transition from club football into the German national team, winning 4 caps and scoring his first international goal just this August.

Part of the Olympic team that won silver in Rio, he scored 4 goals across the 6 games he played, including one in the Final.

All of this certainly demonstrates he has a bright future in the game and at the reported £30m, could be a bargain in the grand scheme of things if he reaches his potential.

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When Leeds United made a disappointing start to the Championship season, their supporters may have felt that it was going to be another one of those dismal years in England’s second tier.

However, following a home defeat to Huddersfield in the Yorkshire derby in September, the Whites have turned their season around and are now well in contention for promotion after a fine run of form.

The Yorkshire outfit moved up to fourth ahead of the New Year’s Eve action and Garry Monk is quickly showing what a brilliant job he is doing – especially when you look at the predicament his former side Swansea are in at the bottom of the Premier League.

While they have picked up a number of impressive results over the course of the campaign, there are still things that Monk will want change over the coming weeks and months to keep his side in the race for the top flight.

Here are THREE things Leeds must improve on in 2017…

Scoring

Despite the fact that they are firmly in playoff reckoning, Leeds will need to improve their goalscoring if they are going to make a push for automatic promotion in the second half of the Championship season.

While the top two of Newcastle United and Brighton and Hove Albion had scored 48 and 38 goals respectively before NYE, Garry Monk’s men have only netted 31 and the manager will want to see that total increase significantly in the coming weeks.

Not relying on Chris Wood

Of the 31 league goals they have bagged this season, striker Chris Wood has scored more than a third of those – with their second top goalscorer being Souleymane Doukara on four.

Garry Monk will want his side to spread the goals around the team a little more in the second half of the campaign, and they showed that they can in the 4-1 win against Preston North End – when their midfielders chipped in with three of the four goals.

Picking up points against the sides around them

While they have been on an impressive run of results since that defeat to Huddersfield in September, one area Garry Monk will want to improve on in 2017 is Leeds’ inability to take points from the teams around them in the table.

The Whites were beaten 2-0 at home by Newcastle and then by the same scoreline away at Brighton earlier in the season – a record that they will need to rectify over the coming months if they are to stay in contention for promotion back to the Premier League.

“New year, new me” I vowed to the grizzly figure looking back at me from the mirror of my Persian-inspired terracotta en-suite.

I fired up my Panasonic Stubble Master and set about my new grooming routine. Keeping my facial fuzz to a uniform ½ inch length is one of many New Years resolutions I have set myself for this year. Others include evolving my tactics from a “2016-chic” 4-2-3-1 counter-pressing system to a 4-3-2-1 obversive-pressing game plan. Resolutions that didn’t quite make the cut in accordance with my PA’s advice was to ban MP3s in the dressing room in favour of cassettes and insisting the media only portray me in courtroom-style easel drawings.

The biggest change I am determined to make is to curb my seemingly untamable bad manners. I know what you’re thinking, dear reader, but don’t let the cameras deceive you into thinking that I’m the jovial court jester Sky Sports would have you believe. No, compared to my compatriots, I am one of football’s bad boys like Diego Maradona or Joe Kinnear.

In Germany, it is customary to hand out Bratwurst-based nibbles to journalists prior to every press conference and at the full-time whistle, the likes of Tomas Tuchel and Joachim Low will stride onto the pitch and direct a firm, congratulatory slap to the rump of every one of the opposing players. Do I do any of those things? Only sometimes.

I have also been experimenting with some new motivational techniques for my boys. I was due to attend a course on motivational speaking over Christmas but instead opted to stay at home and share a Robin Williams marathon with Ulla and James Milner. Milly abandoned ship after Flubber citing the film’s themes as being “a bit gritty” for his tastes. Looking back now, it’s clear which of those options bore the most fruit as I was able to recite the entire speech from the final act of Dead Poet’s Society prior to our victory over Man City.

Furthermore, Good Will Hunting gave me the tools to cut through the melancholic fog that descended upon the dressing room after our 2-2 draw with Sunderland. Sadio Mane blamed himself for our opponent’s second penalty but I was able to effortlessly glide towards him whilst uttering the words “It’s not your fault” over and over again in an increasingly pithy fashion until he burst into tears. I’ve already added that one to my Football Management 101 manual I hope to publish next year.

I have a genie outfit and an eleven-man-strong brass orchestra ready for my rendition of ‘Friend like me’ when we emerge victorious against Manchester United on Sunday.

It’s these little changes that I hope will put us in good stead for our forthcoming engagement with Mourinho. Master of mind games, he is oft painted as the villain of the piece in these occasions but I actually regard Jose as a dear friend. Hence, why I decided to put my resolution to be more “chillaxed” into practice last night when I decided to play a devilishly mean practical joke on my Portuguese counterpart.

I had it on good authority that every night, Jose has a bottle of 2008 Ne Oublie Port delivered to his hotel room. Much to his potentially match-changing dismay I had the concierge change his order to a Chateauneuf Du Pape! Not even Sir Alex could have Derren Browned his way out of that battle of wits. However, due to my aforementioned desire to be more courteous, I am about to draw up a full and frank written apology to Jose ready to post after Sunday’s match.

Oh, and to the eagle-eyed fans that have written to me over the last week, you are indeed correct in spotting that I have switched my spectacles from RayBan’s RX6925 model in moonlight chrome to the RX6926 model in timber wolf silver.

#NewYearNewMe

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According to reports from Mirror Football, Bournemouth are keen on a deadline day transfer swoop for promising Chelsea youngster Nathan Ake.

The Dutchman began the season on loan at the Vitality Stadium but was recalled by the Blues at the start of January – a combination of their fixture schedule heating up, injury concerns and Ake’s impressive form for the Cherries.

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Indeed, although the utility man struggled to claim a starting berth at the beginning of the campaign, he quickly fought his way into Eddie Howe’s plans, operating alongside Steve Cook at the heart of defence.

As our infographic shows, in addition to chipping in with three goals, Ake hugely impressed for Bournemouth defensively, registering 18 tackles, 19 successful aerial duels and a staggering 73 clearances.

Antonio Conte is clearly fond of the Netherlands U-21 and utilised him as a left wing-back during the 4-0 win over Brentford in the FA Cup last weekend.

But he certainly wouldn’t be the first Chelsea youngster to find himself moved on for a decent fee after impressing on loan – with Romelu Lukaku and Kevin De Bruyne the other prime examples.

So, should the Blues cash-in on Ake, or would they be wise to hold onto the youngster?

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Wow, that was some game. The Championship is known for offering thrills and spills, but Norwich vs. Newcastle last night was quite the showing. The Magpies stole a point late on through Jamaal Lascelles after surrendering a first minute lead via an Ayoze Perez goal to the Canaries, who raced to a 2-1 advantage before 20 minutes had even been played with goals from Jacob Murphy and Cameron Jerome.

The point keeps Rafa Benitez’s boys from the North East clear at the top of the table and may well be looked back on as a vital result in their charge for the title or automatic promotion, with Brighton and even Huddersfield gaining on the Tynesiders.

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Although Lascelles has been praised for his heroic late contribution, Newcastle’s player of the night may well have been DeAndre Yedlin, who was amazing from right-back…

The American had more touches of the ball (91) than any other player on the pitch and created six chances – again, an on-pitch high – across the 90 minutes, while throwing in four tackles, which was the highest return of any Newcastle player. The formerÂSeattle Sounders defender also made 80% of his 51 passes stick, while completing six clearances to help keep his side in the game.

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Spanish giants Real Madrid have joined the race for Bayer Leverkusen ace Julian Brandt and will rival Liverpool for the youngster’s signature, The Daily Mail reports.

What’s the word?

20-year-old Julian Brandt is one of the finest prospects currently within German football and, with Jurgen Klopp’s connections within the Bundesliga, it’s unsurprising to see Liverpool linked with his services. However, they now face competition from Real Madrid.

Zinedine Zidane’s side are looking for a restructure in the coming years as a number of their most crucial players, like Luka Modric, are approaching their twilight years, whilst there is continuous speculation regarding the future of young duo James Rodriguez and Isco.

Both James and Isco have found first-team opportunities difficult to regularly come by at the Santiago Bernabeu and Brandt, due to his young age, may be a bit more patient when waiting for chances- and that could work in Real Madrid’s favour.

What about Liverpool?

Julian Brandt could perhaps expect more openings at Liverpool for first-team football but the young German has become accustomed to playing Champions League football, so any potential lack of involvement in Europe’s elite competition could be detrimental to Liverpool’s plans.

That said, Real Madrid’s first-team offerings may not be enough to Brandt, as the young midfielder has made four senior appearances for Germany’s national squad and will be keen to keep his spot in the side ahead of the World Cup next summer.

With both Bayer and Liverpool both facing a battle to seal a top-four finish in their relevant leagues, and Real Madrid perhaps not having enough football to offer Brandt, the youngster has a huge decision to make this summer.

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Chelsea continued their march towards the Premier League title with a fine win over spirited and determined Swansea City side at Stamford Bridge on Saturday afternoon.

Goals from Cesc Fabregas, Pedro and Diego Costa sealed a 3-1 victory that means the Blues are now a massive eleven points clear of second place. It’s looking increasingly likely that Antonio Conte’s side will have the honours wrapped up sooner rather than later.

Swansea will feel they may have got something from the game having equalised at 1-1 after a Fernando Llorente header found its way past Courtois.

That hope eventually faded with the Blues eventually showing their class to pick up the win.

These are the FIVE things we learned from Saturday afternoon’s action…

Cesc Fabregas is as good as ever

Fabregas was one of the team’s top performers, showing again why he is still very much a key member of Antonio Conte’s squad. He got on the scoresheet and could have had another after pinging a powerful shot off the woodwork in the second half. In fact that was his only chance, he was a constant goal threat in the final third from midfield, giving the Blues an extra dimension in possession.

On his 300th Premier League appearance he showed he’s still as good as ever.

Pedro is having a much better season

Having now scored 11 goals and contributed another 6 assists for Chelsea this season, it’s clear that winger Pedro is having his best season at Stamford Bridge. He’s already way past his milestone of 7 goals for the season last year having moved from Barcelona.

He was in lethal form against the Swans scoring one and setting up Costa’s too.

The Spaniard now has 7 goals in his last 9 appearances for the club and there seems to be no stopping him when he gets in the mood.

Antonio Conte has worked wonders with him, another sign the manager is destined for greatness at the club.

Costa cannot be stopped

Having gone his previous three Premier League appearances without scoring, Diego Costa will have been delighted to contribute with a goal, something he doesn’t appear to be able to stop doing.

That effort was his 17th of the season, highlighting just how effective he has been this season for the Blues.

He’s perhaps been the key influencer in their Premier League title bid and if he keeps banging in the goals then the trophy will surely by lifted by Chelsea in May.

Chelsea should sign Llorente

With 9 goals already this season, someone like Fernando Llorente would add serious depth to Chelsea’s squad in the summer. They only really have Diego Costa to call upon in the strike areas with Michy Batshuayi yet to prove he has what it takes to succeed at Stamford Bridge.

His header past Courtois was his 9th goal of the season, all set to break into double figures for the first time in his career since the 2013/14 season which was actually played under Antonio Conte at Juventus.

Should Chelsea move for him in the summer and spark that productive relationship with the Italian manager once again?

Conte is on his way to becoming a great

No manager has quite had the impact Antonio Conte has had in his debut Premier League season. His team just can’t stop winning and they appear to be getting better and more solid by the week.

With Champions League football next season a certainty, he’s all set to become a Chelsea legend by competing on that front too. Who’s to say he can’t take on Europe’s best if he keeps dominating English football the way he has been.

Aitor Karanka’s departure from Middlesbrough has given Sunderland fans a reminder that they still have their manager in place, despite a torrid campaign.

David Moyes took over the Black Cats in the summer, but has struggled to impose a positive impact on the club.

From the start of the campaign, the North-East outfit have been in and around the lower echelons of the Premier League table.

The team have won just five of their 27 top-flight fixtures, picking up 19 points so far, and they seem destined for the Championship given that they are six points clear of safety.

Today, Middlesbrough announced via their official website that Karanka will leave his job with immediate effect.

Boro are second from bottom and three points above Sunderland, which has left some fans wondering why the axe has not yet fallen on Moyes.

Five of the clubs in the bottom six have had managerial changes this season, with Leicester City, Swansea City, Crystal Palace, Hull City and now Middlesbrough taking action.

Sunderland are the only club not to do so, and now some fans want Karanka to replace Moyes.

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