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It’s advantage Tottenham in title race after Chelsea’s slip-up to Manchester United at the weekend. Well, at least that’s what a lot of people, none more so than Spurs fans themselves, will be thinking.

However, that could not be further from the truth.

The Blues’ loss to United on Sunday afternoon was no doubt a disappointment and frustrating for Chelsea fans. Antonio Conte’s men were tactically awash and were out-smarted in almost every area of the field buy a resurgent Manchester United.

Ander Herrera kept Eden Hazard completely out of the game; Marcos Rojo pestered and prodded a familiarly angry Diego Costa for 90 minutes; Marcus Rashford showed why he should really be leading the line for United as he caused Chelsea’s back three problems.

With six games remaining and with a four point advantage at the top of the Premier League table, the title is still very much Chelsea’s to lose.

So here are five reasons why Chelsea will not bottle the title despite their loss to Manchester United on Sunday…

Done it Before

The aftermath of Sunday’s result bares striking similarities to that of Chelsea’s 2-0 loss to Tottenham just after New Year where two Dele Alli headers either side of half-time bought the Blues’ 13 game winning streak to an abrupt end.

It was certainly a blow to Antonio Conte’s side, especially seeing as they were on the brink of making Premier League history with their winning run.

Chelsea didn’t lose again for three months after that defeat. They bounced back once and they will bounce back again.

Run-in

Manchester United was always going to be the toughest fixture of Chelsea’s last eight games, despite how un-captivating and unimpressive the Red Devils have been all season. Jose Mourinho was a man with a point to prove, especially having already lost twice to his former side this season, so it was all but inevitable the Portuguese boss would be the man to throw a spanner in the works.

The Blues’ remaining six games are as follows: Southampton, Everton, Middlesbrough, West Brom, Watford and Sunderland. It’s fair to say that is a kind end to the season for Conte’s side.

The only potential tripping point would be Everton away but considering Antonio Conte’s man thumped the Toffees 5-0 in the opposing fixture earlier in the year, it shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Strength in Depth

Much was made of the loss of Marcos Alonso just before the defeat to Manchester United and how that was the major factor in the Blues loss. Not true. While it certainly didn’t help, that was not where the problem lied this weekend.

Antonio Conte possesses a strong squad with plenty of experienced and young players who are more than capable of stepping in and doing a job.

The likes of Cesc Fabregas, Willian and Michy Batshuayi are fine options as back-up, while young faces such as Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Nathan Ake and Nathaniel Chalobah are both bright sparks for the future who will be keen to make an impression.

One-off mistake

Antonio Conte has admitted it was ‘his fault’ that the Blues succumbed to United at the weekend, stating he was unable to “transfer the right concentration, desire, ambition to win this game” onto his players, adding that “[United] showed more desire, more ambition, more motivation. In this case the fault is of the coach.”

The continual changes to formation and inability to shake things up when on the losing side also contributed to Chelsea’s downfall. Mourinho’s set-up was a surprise for Conte and his side and one they did not know how to deal with.

Expect the Italian to learn from it, not to ponder over it.

Proven Winner

Antonio Conte knows what it takes to win titles. You only have to look at his record at Juventus, with whom he won five consecutive Serie A titles.

That winning mentality followed him to the Italian national side, where given the lack of resources at his disposal, he by far over achieved with what was described as the ‘weakest Italy side in half a century.’

Part of being a winner is learning from a defeat, and there is no doubt the passionate Italian will do that. You don’t win title after title by wallowing when defeat inevitably strikes.

Leeds United supporters are not buying into Garry Monk’s latest rallying cry following a damaging defeat.

The Whites suffered their second consecutive loss at the weekend, which has poured doubt over their chances of securing a playoff spot.

Fulham occupy the final space and have a three-point lead with just two games left to play.

Leeds hoped to bounce back from a 1-0 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers when they took on 18th-positioned Burton Albion away on Saturday.

They were stung in the final quarter of an hour of the game when Marvin Sordell and Michael Kightly scored within three minutes of one another to put Burton ahead.

Kyle Bartley pulled a goal back for Leeds with 10 minutes on the clock remaining, but it was not enough to inspire a comeback.

It will be a tense end to the season for the supporters, with games against Norwich City and Wigan Athletic to come before the top six is decided.

Given that there is a seven-point gap between Norwich and Leeds in the table, the Whites are the only ones realistically pushing for a place back in the playoff section.

Monk has tried to improve the mood around the club with his latest comments, but some fans are already resigned to failure.

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According to reports on Foot Mercato, West Ham United are said to be interested in signing Leicester City centre-back Yohan Benalouane this summer.

The French-born Tunisian defender has been a bit-part player for the Foxes after moving to the King Power Stadium from Atalanta in 2015, and he failed to win a Premier League winners’ medal last season after making just four top flight appearances for the club.

His lack of playing time continued in the current campaign but with Wes Morgan missing out through injury in recent weeks, the 30-year-old has taken his opportunity by appearing in Leicester’s previous seven Premier League games, as well as both of the legs of their Champions League quarter-final tie against Atletico Madrid.

Those showings must have impressed Irons boss Slaven Bilic and West Ham fans were quick to have their say on the latest rumour via social media, with many not understanding why the club needs another centre-back.

Here is just a selection of the Twitter reaction…

Newcastle United fans have been giving their verdicts on the club’s new kit for the 2017-18 season.

The Magpies will be competing in the Premier League once again after sealing promotion at the first time of asking this season.

Rafael Benitez guided the team to the Championship title, and part of their preparations for the new campaign is creating a new kit.

The North-East outfit unveiled the strip on Wednesday, and this one will be extra special as it marks the club’s 125th anniversary.

The Puma-manufactured shirt will have ‘125 years’ stitched underneath the crest in gold and silver.

The classic black and white stripes remain, although there is more of them on the shirt this season, while the numbers and names on the back will be in red.

Plenty of fans are happy with the design, but some are disappointed that the club’s sponsor FUN88 is printed in light blue.

After Newcastle revealed the new design, fans flocked to Twitter to give their thoughts.

The talk around Alexis Sanchez and his future at Arsenal has been running for months now, however, with the season out the way after Saturday’s FA Cup final against Chelsea, the hope is that it will all end sooner rather than later.

The Chilean has a year remaining on his current deal at The Emirates, but with the club having failed to qualify for the Champions League next season the 28-year-old is now being linked with a £50m move to German giants Bayern Munich to join forces with international teammate Arturo Vidal.

However, according to reports from German newspaper Bild (via Sport Witness) the Gunners aren’t done yet and are readying an offer that those at The Allianz Arena will be unable to match.

The German red-top are claiming that the north Londoners are set to blow Bayern out the water with an offer of more than €20m-a-season, just over £17m, after it was claimed the Bundesliga outfit were set to offer a measly £10m-a-season.

Most Liverpool fans will be desperate to see Jurgen Klopp sign a proven left-back this summer, having relied upon James Milner doing a fantastic job at No.3 for the majority of the campaign.

Some sources claim the Anfield gaffer has already sourced one in the form of Andrew Robertson, with Mirror Football reporting last month that a summer switch was all-but official – although the Scotland international’s latest comments would suggest otherwise.

Regardless, the Hull City defender isn’t the most inspiring of options. He was amongst the better of the bunch as the Tigers plummeted out of the top flight, but didn’t exactly cover himself in glory either.

With that in mind and the full-back roles of ever-increasing importance in the modern game, we asked Liverpool fans last week who they’d prefer to see line up at left-back next season – Robertson or Milner.

And according to our poll, a slim majority would rather the 61-cap former England international continued in his No.3 berth rather than have Robertson brought into the fold. Reds fans clearly think Klopp can do better than the Hull City star.

According to reports in The Mirror, Southampton are ready to rival Liverpool and Real Sociedad in the race to sign Borussia Dortmund winger Emre Mor on loan.

What’s the word, then?

Well, the 19-year-old wants to leave Dortmund on a temporary basis having found first team football hard to come by in his first season in Germany following a move from Nordsjaelland last summer, and the English duo – along with La Liga outfit Real Sociedad – are keen to snap him up.

Even though Saints are yet to appoint Claude Puel’s successor, it is executive director Les Reed and Director of Scouting and Recruitment Ross Wilson that take care of transfer business with their targets often identified in-house.

How did he do for Dortmund last season?

The forward was brought to the club by former Dortmund boss Thomas Tuchel – who has turned down the chance to manage Southampton according to Sky Sports – last summer, but he struggled to win a place in the starting line-up.

The majority of his 19 appearances in all competitions came from the substitutes’ bench, and he ended the campaign with one goal and a further three assists.

How did he get his move to Dortmund?

Quick, skilful and with the ability to play on either wing or in attacking midfield, Mor impressed in the Norwegian league and was handed his debut for the Turkey national team at the age of 17, before being a surprise inclusion in their Euro 2016 squad.

The attacker picked up an assist in his nation’s group fixture against the Czech Republic, while he netted his first international goal earlier this year against Moldova.

Would he be a good signing for Southampton?

He certainly would be.

Emre Mor is an exciting and diminutive forward, and would certainly prove to be an exciting addition for a St Mary’s crowd that saw just 17 home league goals last term.

While Southampton have Nathan Redmond on the left-hand side, they have James Ward-Prowse on the right and the club may want a more attacking and quick option on the opposite flank – something the Turkey international would bring.

What’s the verdict, then?

Well, Southampton will know that they once again need to get recruitment right again this summer, and with their renowned ability for developing young players, a move for Emre Mor could work for both parties.

There’s no escpaing it, Rangers suffered one of the worst results in their history on Tuesday night. The defeat to Progres Niederkorn was certainly the most humiliating European result their fans have ever experienced.

The context of the 2-1 aggregate defeat is stark reading. Progres are currently the fourth best team in Luxembourg going on the most recent standings and before their victory over Pedro Caixinha’s match had never won a European game, scoring just one goal and conceding 41.

It’s sent shockwaves around the Rangers support but also around Scottish football. The performance of teams from Scotland from Europe continues to reach new lows and the entire country is at serious risk of falling even further behind in the country rankings.

For the Light Blues though the situation is more urgent with major work needed done before the start of the domestic campaign.

Here are THREE constructive steps we feel could help them massively before the Scottish Premiership kicks off…

Build a schedule of challenging friendlies

Rangers next competitive match isn’t until 6th August when they face Motherwell, which is over a month beyond the game in Luxembourg, meaning Pedro Caixinha has a struggle on his hands to get his team up to peak match fitness.

The Sun revealed in the wake of the Progres defeat that there are no scheduled friendlies for the Rangers first team between now and the league kick-off.

The club were clearly banking on making some sort of progress in European qualifying. Had they made it through, the fixtures would have been plentiful and the perfect warm up for the Scottish Premiership.

They now need to put together a strong set of friendly fixtures against testing opposition if they are to get themselves into shape.

Caixinha needs to know what his team are all about in adversity so securing matches against the highest standard of team possible would be ideal to really put his new recruits and the talent already at Ibrox through the gauntlet they need, without the pressure of competitive football.

Less signings, more team building

No-one would argue that Rangers didn’t need signings this summer but even for a team in need of reinforcements, the revolution at Ibrox has been quite extreme this early in the transfer window.

A massive nine players have arrived so far with five first-teamers from last term heading the opposite way either permanently or on loan.

Pedro Caixinha is certainly effecting change and stamping his mark on the squad but has it been too much, too soon? The argument for bringing in players early is so they can get up to speed for European football quicker but now that hasn’t panned out, it’s time to change it up a bit.

The performances against Progres Niederkorn looked like a team that had never played together before and although Rangers have been in pre-season for a few weeks now, that turnover of players is bound to create a unbalanced XI initially.

It’s time for Caixinha to focus on what he has instead of what he wants and build a cohesive team rather than a collection of talent he thinks can do a job. He has the talent there now and it’s time to mould that into a unit.

Forget the hubris and gimmicks

From Dave King criticising Celtic for not being further ahead than they are and Pedro Caixinha dictating that his players shouldn’t wear green boots and plastering slogans inside Ibrox, Rangers have been hitting the headlines this summer mostly for reasons off the pitch, Tuesday’s result aside. It’s time for that to change, button up and do the hard work on the training pitch.

A period of near radio silence is probably needed over the next few weeks. Fans don’t need to hear the latest Caixinha gimmick from the training ground or Dave King’s outlandish claims, they just want to see an effective team on the park going about their job in a professional manner. The hubris has come back to bite them this week and it’s not a great situation for anyone at the club right now.

If they start the Scottish Premiership campaign with a few wins, all of this will be old news and they can task themselves with having the season in the top-flight and cups they think they can, but actions speak louder than words and it’s time to get on with the business.

Everton announced their squad numbers for the 2017-18 season on Tuesday, and there was one name on the list that surprised a few fans.

Oumar Niasse was handed the number 34 shirt, less than a year after he was stripped of a squad number.

Before the 2016-17 campaign, the striker’s spell at Goodison Park seemed to be over when he was not allocated a place in the setup.

Niasse had only signed for the Toffees seven months prior in a £13.5m deal from Lokomotiv Moscow.

Instead of being offloaded by Everton last summer, the 27-year-old was sent on loan to Hull City halfway through the season.

Niasse went on to make 19 appearances in all competitions, scoring five goals and creating one assist.

Even though he has returned to Merseyside, it is unlikely that he will get much game time under manager Ronald Koeman given his recent signings.

The Dutchman has brought in Sandro Ramirez and Wayne Rooney, and widespread reports have suggested that he wants to recruit another forward player following the sale of Romelu Lukaku to Manchester United.

Despite uncertainty over Niasse’s future, he has been given a squad number, which has caught the attention of the fans.

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It is has been an unusually quiet summer transfer window for Southampton in terms of ins and outs, despite Premier League rivals such as Everton and West Ham United being extremely active within the market.

Considering new Saints boss Mauricio Pellegrino was only appointed towards the end of last month it is hardly a surprise, as he needs time to assess his squad and the areas that might need strengthening.

While young Poland centre-back Jan Bednarek has come in and Jay Rodriguez has left for West Bromwich Albion with a number of other youngsters also departing on loan, the south coast outfit have so far stayed firm with the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Ryan Bertrand, with the former telling the club he wants to leave.

One area that Pellegrino may be looking at is the lack of goals from the midfielders last season, with Oriol Romeu, Steven Davis, Jordy Claise and Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg netting just one Premier League goal between them.

There would be few better options to add to the rectify that problem before the start of the new season than buying Swansea City’s Gylfi Sigurdsson, despite the fact that the Welsh outfit are demanding £50m for the attacking midfielder, who is a target for Leicester City and Everton.

Here are three reasons Southampton must break the bank and sign Sigurdsson this summer…

Incomings

While in previous summers Southampton have often lost some of their best players, they seem determined to stand firm this year and if they don’t lose anyone else from the current first team squad, then they don’t really need to strengthen in too many areas.

Considering they were missing Van Dijk and Charlie Austin for the second-half of last season, only had Manolo Gabbiadini from January and with the likes of Hojbjerg and Sofiane Boufal yet to make a real impact yet, the fully fit squad is looking strong ahead of the new campaign.

If Saints only need to bring in one or two players to the squad, then they should be able to go and spend £50m on one player, considering they didn’t spend too much less on Hojbjerg, Boufal, Nathan Redmond and Alex McCarthy last summer.

He can make a difference

Southampton’s problem last season was a lack of goals – they scored just 41 times in their 38 Premier League matches – and the addition of Sigurdsson could be the difference between the qualifying for Europe or not considering the goal threat and creativity he brings from an attacking midfield position or even out wide.

The 27-year-old netted nine goals and provided a further 13 assists from a range of different positions for Swansea in 38 top flight outings last term, and his expert set-piece ability and leadership could help Saints significantly boost their goal tally.

Statement of intent

If Southampton want to progress and convince their best players – such as Van Dijk and Bertrand – that they want to push on up the Premier League table, then there will come a time when they need to seriously invest in the squad and bring in individuals that will help them do that.

This summer would seem to be an ideal opportunity to bring in quality over quantity as they don’t need to strengthen in many areas at all, and the rest of the division would certainly sit up and take notice of the south coast outfit if they signed such an influential and impressive performer in Sigurdsson.

Do you agree, Saints fans? Let us know below.