EPL wrap: United's defeat underlines need for new signing

A run of six wins in all competitions, including four in the Premier League. Then bang – 2014 begins with another major letdown for the Manchester United of David Moyes. A home defeat to Tottenham Hotspur to sit alongside those other bad, bad days at Old Trafford when West Brom, Everton and Newcastle also came away with victories.Midfield, the area where United sparkled so brightly in the Alex Ferguson years with players like Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Roy Keane, Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Nicky Butt, has shrunk into a shadow of its former self.Against Spurs, Antonio Valencia crossed to no-one, Tom Cleverley turned into Mr Invisible in the second half and Michael Carrick was subbed off with half an hour to go as Moyes desperately sought a creative spark. Wayne Rooney, who as we all know isn’t a midfielder at all but is often forced to play there to ignite a sense of urgency, was not quite fit. Of the five of them, Adnan Januzaj was the notable exception – playing with pace, skill and an appetite to unhinge the Spurs defence. But it wasn’t enough.So out comes the virtual chequebook again with the January transfer window currently active. It’s no surprise that of the many players rumoured to be possible United acquisitions a bunch of them are creative midfielders: there’s Inter’s Fredy Guarin, Wesley Sneijder of Galatasaray, a couple of decent Atletico players, Real’s Angel di Maria and two already playing in the Premier League, Adam Lallana of Southampton and Everton’s youngster Ross Barkley.[caption id="attachment_1318843" align="alignleft" width="380"] Manchester United were brushed aside by Tottenham on Wednesday. Reuters[/caption]The thinking appears to be that Moyes would be prepared to pay over the odds for a really good midfielder in the next few weeks given that a top-four finish will be hard to achieve from the current squad of available players. Liverpool must fancy their chances to squeak a top-four spot as things stand, while Everton and Spurs are the other two possibles in what has quickly become a familiar desperate scramble for that important final Champions League berth.That’s because Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea have all hit a streak of consistency that suggests they are the ones playing for the title itself and thus have no worries about actually qualifying for Europe’s premier club competition.Arsenal, whose injury list has been an issue all season and currently stretches to seven players out, had to wait until the 88th minute to break the deadlock at home to Cardiff. They relied heavily on Jack Wilshere and Santi Cazorla to crank the gears with Mathieu Flamini and Lukas Podolski pretty disappointing.City beat Swansea 3-2 away, Yaya Toure bringing up his tenth goal of the season to demonstrate what a so called “defensive” midfielder can do, but neither he nor Fernandinho protected their defenders quite thoroughly enough. Jesus Navas had a brilliant game, on the other hand.Chelsea travelled to Southampton and had to produce some stout defending for the first hour. But Jose Mourinho needed goals and hauled off Juan Mata and Andre Schurrle to bring on his boys from Brazil, Oscar and Willian. The opening goal duly arrived with an outrageous slice of fortune, Oscar’s cross deflected off a defender and then bounced off a post onto Fernando Torres’s head and into the goal. It should be added that the Blues did well to go on and win by a convincing 3-0 margin.