Key thoughts and analysis from Saturday's Premier League action

theScore examines the most important developments and biggest talking points from Saturday’s slate of action in England’s top flight.

Chelsea are a mess no manager can clean up

Make fun of him all you like, but Frank Lampard isn’t the reason Chelsea are without a goal in three games or a win in four. Their issues predate his admittedly peculiar return to the dugout and even Graham Potter’s appointment in September. The reason Chelsea find themselves in 11th place is more complex than that.

The hundreds of millions Chelsea have spent since Todd Boehly’s consortium bought the club last year have gone to utter waste. Boehly’s scattergun approach to team building has produced nothing less than a Frankenstein amalgam of parts that loosely resembles a starting formation. Chelsea often play without a singular approach or idea of how to function as a group. They can’t create chances with any regularity or play a full 90 minutes. They’re not incisive with the ball or compact without it. They’re the definition of mid-table mediocrity. They deserve to be where they are.

Saturday’s 1-0 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers proved as much. What can Lampard possibly do to change it? He’s got eight more Premier League games as interim manager, and then Chelsea will move on to the next poor sap who dares to inherit such a bloated squad of underachieving players.

Lampard did what he could to get his team firing at Molineux, fielding at one point or another a combination of Kai Havertz, Joao Felix, Raheem Sterling, Mykhailo Mudryk, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Christian Pulisic. Even with so many attacking players taking their turns up front, Chelsea managed just a solitary shot on target. There’s a lack of zip and drive in this team, and no amount of cheerleading can make this group of strangers work together.

Lampard told BBC Sport afterward that this team must first “get used to winning.” That’s a cop-out. Many of these players have won. Many know what it takes to win. Havertz scored the winning goal in the Champions League final. Sterling won multiple Premier League titles with Manchester City. Joao Felix helped Atletico Madrid become La Liga champions. The players have to take responsibility for their inadequate performances, and Boehly has to issue a similar mea culpa for his irresponsible approach to recruitment.

Moyes’ management reeks of desperation

West Ham United’s second away win of the season was precious. Anything less could’ve marked the end of David Moyes’ reign at the club – a sorry conclusion to a stint that’s partially restored his reputation in management.

What preceded this sorry season was undeniably impressive. Relegation fears and widespread turmoil at the club were replaced by consecutive Premier League finishes of sixth and seventh. A hoard of artful or daring attacking midfielders and wingers, led by Jarrod Bowen, made the Irons fun to watch. Last summer’s considerable transfer outlay appeared set to maintain or improve the club’s standing this season.

But Saturday’s crucial yet fortuitous 1-0 victory at Fulham showed how desperation, rather than an actual scheme, currently dictates Moyes’ management of West Ham. Loyal servants from Moyes’ second spell at the club – Lukasz Fabianski, Aaron Cresswell, Angelo Ogbonna, and Tomas Soucek – started at Craven Cottage when recent costly errors or overall poor form suggested none of those players deserved that opportunity. Newer members of the squad like Emerson Palmieri, Nayef Aguerd, and Flynn Downes may have felt aggrieved to be on the bench while Moyes pinned his hopes on the players he knows best to save his job.

And his management isn’t much more than hoping right now. There can’t be any clear plan in place when Danny Ings, a veteran of almost 200 Premier League appearances, is signed in January with little thought of how to use him. Ings has played the best football of his career with a striking partner – like alongside Che Adams at Southampton or Ollie Watkins at Aston Villa – but it was only last week that Moyes seemed to realize he wasn’t using Ings correctly.

“We’re only just getting to know him. He’s probably someone who might need more people around him,” Moyes said after West Ham’s unconvincing 1-0 win over Southampton.

The Scotsman’s issues with Ings are eerily similar to those he’s encountered with Gianluca Scamacca. The £35.5-million summer signing has been similarly stranded in east London after thriving in a two- or three-man strikeforce at Sassuolo. Moyes has tried to replace Michail Antonio’s lone-striker role when he could’ve found a new and more effective way for his new attackers to succeed. He should’ve known how Scamacca and Ings preferred to operate before they arrived at the London Stadium.

Moyes deserves to start another season at West Ham if they survive, but his blind loyalty and reluctance to devise new game plans don’t bode well for his future in the dugout.

Green shoots for Southampton

It’s normally difficult to find positives in a 4-1 defeat, but Southampton should enter the final eight matches of their Premier League season believing they can scramble out of the bottom three after falling to a clinical Manchester City.

The Saints troubled the reigning Premier League champions in the first half. Romeo Lavia, a former youth-team player for the visitors, was strong in the middle, evading challenges and keeping possession well. Carlos Alcaraz worked hard off the ball and could’ve been utilized more by his teammates while he continually found space when Southampton had possession.

And the remarkably fast Kamaldeen Sulemana could’ve been the hero of a famous smash-and-grab victory with more composure in the final third. He should’ve opened the scoring twice. First, he darted down the pitch after a City corner, with Nathan Ake unable to catch him, before a poor touch allowed Ederson to hastily clear. Then, shortly before Erling Haaland’s header put Pep Guardiola’s side ahead, Sulemana was plagued by indecision when he seemingly failed to shoot on goal or cross for Mohamed Elyounoussi from a good position, instead harmlessly rolling the ball past Ederson’s post.

“I give a lot of credit to Southampton. Their game plan was really, really good. Sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition when you’re not at your level. We were fortunate to be ahead at halftime,” Guardiola admitted to the BBC’s “Match of the Day.”

“They always play good, they just sometimes miss a striker. … They press well and are compact. They are a good side,” Kevin De Bruyne told Sky Sports in a separate interview, according to BBC Sport.

The praise after such a one-sided scoreline will do little to lift the mood of the players before they reconvene at the training ground. But they should instead take confidence from their performance and how Ruben Selles has instilled greater discipline and intensified the team’s press since succeeding Nathan Jones’ disastrous 14-game spell at St. Mary’s.

The odds are stacked against Southampton in this relegation battle, but at least the club’s sterility in recent seasons seems to be lifting.

Quick free-kicks

Martial gives Manchester United some relief

Erik ten Hag said earlier this week he was concerned about Manchester United’s reliance on Marcus Rashford. The sight of Rashford hobbling off the pitch toward the end of Saturday’s 2-0 win over Everton would’ve amplified those concerns. But Anthony Martial’s return to playing and scoring has come at a particularly delicate point of the season. If Rashford faces any kind of absence, United can at least call upon a striker who can do what the Englishman does well: dribble in tight spaces, wriggle free of defenders, and maintain possession. Martial should also take confidence from Saturday’s cameo appearance, during which he appeared to put months of injuries behind him with his first goal since February. With United facing Sevilla in the Europa League quarterfinals and Brighton & Hove Albion in the FA Cup semifinals, they could really use a helping hand up front.

Haaland’s numbers are simply ridiculous

Few players do so much with so little of the ball than Haaland. He needed just 12 touches to score twice in Manchester City’s 4-1 win over Southampton on Saturday, and he did so in spectacular fashion, banging in the second of his two goals with an overhead kick that seemed far too easy for someone of his immense stature. He’s not the first to reach 30 Premier League goals, but he’s certainly the fastest, having played just 27 matches in the English top flight thus far. The Norwegian striker is also on his way to scoring more goals in all competitions than any other Premier League player in a single season, having matched the record of 44 goals set by Manchester United’s Ruud van Nistelrooy in 2002-03 and Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah in 2017-18. And guess what? Haaland could play an additional 16 matches for City this term as well. The audacity.

Spurs have a chance if Kane and Son turn up

Tottenham Hotspur aren’t going to tear teams apart with their football. Oftentimes, they don’t even counter that well. They rely on individual brilliance to win these days, and if their best two players continue to produce, they’ll get the results they need to stay in the hunt for Champions League qualification. Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son held up their end of the bargain Saturday, each scoring to secure a 2-1 win over Brighton. Outside of their two star players, though, Spurs didn’t do much to get the victory. They were outshot 17-9, outpassed, out-tackled, outplayed, and outhustled, and needed the video assistant referee to deny their opponents twice with the score still level. The referee even looked the other way when Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg fouled Kaoru Mitoma in the penalty area later in the second half. Brighton had several chances to take the lead, but Son’s stunning goal from distance and Kane’s composed finish in the 79th minute changed the narrative.

Stat of the day

Manchester United decided to let fly in the first half of their eventual 2-0 win over Everton:

Tweet of the day

Manchester City fans joke with Haaland in chant referring to former Southampton striker: