Arteta will be happier when top defensive duo can return

Arsenal dropped points for the second successive away game with Sunday's 1-1 draw against Chelsea and they have been eased from 4-9 to 8-15 for the title, giving hope to the chasing pack, headed by Manchester City who needed a late winner to beat Leeds but are still five points behind.

Wolves' 11th defeat in 13 league games has left them eight points adrift at the bottom and 1-16 to be relegated.

Here’s what we learned last weekend:

Arteta will be keen for key duo's swift return

Mikel Arteta sounded mildly disappointed after Arsenal failed to see off 10-man Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Sunday - but the Gunners' boss had no need to be.

Neither side particularly deserved to win a largely tepid affair in which mutual respect trumped the desire to be gung-ho.

But when you play for more than a half with a man advantage you expect to win, even away from home.

With Manchester City just about pipping Leeds 24 hours earlier, trimming the Gunners' advantage from six points to five, Arsenal have been eased in title betting to 8-15.

Yet the reality is, this was a weekend we learned very little about any of the top sides that we didn't already know.

Except, perhaps, for the one thing that could worry Arteta and Arsenal fans, or at least have them clamouring for the safe and healthy returns of William Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes to the heart of their back four.

There are some admirable qualities about both Cristhian Mosquera and Piero Hincapie, who stood in for the injured first-choice pair at the Bridge, but boy they would get Arsenal supporters jumpy if they were there for any prolonged time.

Pacy, yes, powerful, certainly, but also chaotic and impulsive, and a really coherent, fluid attacking front line would have exposed them time and again. Luckily for them, Chelsea were a long way from that.

Defensive partnerships take time to build and maybe one day they will be talking about Mosquera and Hincapie in the same deferential tones they talk of Adams and Keown in those parts. Maybe.

For now though Arteta will be happier - and far more confident - when Saliba and Gabriel return to action.

Villa's six appeal way off the mark

There is a very good reason why Aston Villa, fourth in the Premier League and with better recent form than anyone bar Arsenal, are 150-1 to win the title.

That's because no one - punters or oddsmakers - thinks they will. And they are all probably right.

There is also perhaps a good reason why they are 13-8 to finish in the top six - but I, for the life of me, can't see what it is when Manchester United are 10-11 and Liverpool 1-6.

Villa were unimpressive on Sunday, producing a fairly tame performance against a disciplined, angry and battling Wolves side.

But they won 1-0. And, if I remember my I-Spy Book of Football Untruisms correctly, isn't there a lame one about title contenders knowing how to win games when they don't play well?

Oh, that's right, that one only applies to City, Arsenal or Liverpool. Which is why Unai Emery's Villa will continue to bowl along under the radar and why the savvy among the betting fraternity will have long since hoovered up fancy top-six finish prices.

Thomas Frank is having a rough first season with SpursCredit: Getty Images

Sterling Silva would be mad to be tempted by Spurs' gold

Without the protective arm of Daniel Levy around his shoulder, Spurs boss Thomas Frank must be feeling uneasy and three defeats in a week cannot have helped his cause.

The first two - at Arsenal and PSG - were hardly shocks, although the manner of their dismantling at the Emirates was beyond depressing for their supporters.

But there were no excuses on Saturday night when they crashed 2-1 at home to Fulham, beaten by the better side because Fulham are a better side. And it's entirely likely the league table will say as much at the end of the season, just as it did last season.

Inevitably, and given Marco Silva's contract will soon be up, the Portuguese is among those being touted as a candidate to turn Tottenham's fortunes around if Frank can't.

Now Silva's good, very good in fact, but surely even he would struggle to breathe life into this current Tottenham group.

Nonsense rule change is doubly perplexing

Is this deliberate? Do they actually enjoy winding us up?

That's football's rule-makers, by the way, and specifically those at IFAB who were on duty the day they figured the double-hit penalty rule needed a tweak.

And not just a tweak, but a tweak to the point where all we can do is laugh at them. Yet again.

You kicked the ball twice taking a penalty, it was an offence. It was simple enough, and no one queried it with any degree of seriousness.

Now you kick the ball twice from a penalty it might be an offence depending on whether the shot goes in or not.

Palace's Jean-Philippe Mateta double-kicked his penalty against Manchester United and it went in, so it didn't count - but he got to retake it. Had he missed, he wouldn't have been afforded that luxury. I despair.

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