5 Truths: City don't care about the title; are West Ham Champions League-bound?

The Premier League should be Manchester City’s to lose, but once again this season they've served up a display of such astonishing mediocrity that it gave the impression the players don’t even care about winning the title. That may well not be the case, but something is very wrong within the squad and they have consistently struggled to cope with teams that press them high and flood the final third with clever, fleet-footed creative players. Even the presence of Vincent Kompany in the side couldn’t save Man City, albeit against an admittedly excellent Liverpool.

The performance by Manuel Pellegrini’s side was encapsulated in one moment: Joe Hart’s attempt at saving Adam Lallana’s first-half opener. Hart had time to see the danger coming, but did nothing; he saw Lallana prepare to have a shot, but didn’t prepare himself; he watched the ball leave the midfielder’s boot, but failed to react; and then he made a half-hearted show of getting across his goal as the ball dribbled into the bottom corner from 30 yards. Sluggish, slow and ineffective – it encapsulated City’s display in less than five seconds.

With strikers Enner Valencia, Diafra Sakho and Andy Carroll often having to squash up to make room for each other in the treatment room this season, it seems remarkable that West Ham are just one point off the Champions League spaces with 10 games of the season to go.

Slaven Bilic's side are flying again, after a blip in form following a fine start to the season that saw them beat Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester City in their first three away games of the season.

They still lack goals, but with three clean sheets in their last three Premier League matches at Upton Park, and five in their last seven, they could sneak into the Champions League places on the basis of their strong home form.

They pulled level with Manchester City on points thanks to Wednesday night's win - but on this form, Louis van Gaal’s army still have their work cut out to reach the Champions League via the Premier League. The Watford result disguises a poor performance by United, who had Odion Ighalo to thank for a host of missed chances. United gave Watford every opportunity to have wrapped the game up by half-time.

So don't be fooled by the headline, or the fact that they were the only one of the top five to win last night - even Van Gaal admitted that they were lucky to win having not played good football, and that he almost hauled a limping Juan Mata off minutes before the Spaniard's winner. United are still a side with many flaws, despite the continuation of a winning run that has somehow put them back in contention for a top-four finish. Yet despite everything here they are, having survived. Will LVG see out the final year of his contract after all?

Arsenal's players and manager have let the club down again. They had an easy tie against Manchester United and they blew it, and now they have done the same against Swansea. Swansea dropped six players, with one eye on their relegation clash against Norwich at the weekend, and their manager was in hospital. Yet still Arsenal crumbled in the face of having to sort themselves out.

They couldn't, and it wasn't any surprise. At the end of the match, the home fans booed their manager. They might want to consider why they supported him for a decade before they turned on him.

There's little to say that is new about Arsenal. That is not the writer's fault, or the fans, it is solely to do with the players and the manager.

Short on creativity and lacking passion and fight, the Magpies look destined for the drop. Norwich looked up for the fight and were unlucky against Chelsea whilst Sunderland are at least scoring goals.

They have games they are capable of winning in the form of fellow strugglers Villa, Bournemouth, Sunderland, Norwich City but must also travel to Leicester, Southampton and Liverpool before rounding off the season with what may be must-win home games against Tottenham and Manchester City.