Crystal Palace midfielder Yohan Cabaye believes not even the Premier League’s biggest clubs can afford to rest on their laurels any more in domestic action.

Following his return to England from French giants PSG in the summer of 2015, Cabaye has by no means been guaranteed a starting spot in the Eagles’ midfield, starting just as many games from the bench this term.

And the 30-year-old French international puts that down to the fact that every squad in the league is bigger and better than ever before, with no side enjoying the dominance that PSG possess across the channel.

“Every team now has a fantastic squad,” says Cabaye. “They can buy big players from every league. Every team improved themselves, now it’s more difficult than last season to win games.

“We spent a lot of money, a few teams also spent a lot of money. The levels are closer. The big six teams are up there, but the gap has reduced a little bit.

“We’re not far away from them and their quality. In one single game, we can of course win.

“Before, the big teams could play not at 100 per cent, they could think they could go easier, more relaxed and still win.

“But you can’t do that now. If you do that, you’re dead. Now, the big teams are ready to rumble against the smaller teams – that’s the main difference for me.”

Chelsea legend Pat Nevin insists the contribution of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois should not be ignored in the Blues’ recent run of form.

A fans favourite at Stamford Bridge during the 1980s when he made almost 200 appearances at the club, Nevin claims the 24-year-old Belgian stopper has not received the recognition he deserves.

The Blues have not conceded in the Premier League in five matches since Antonio Conte’s switch to a 3-4-3 formation, with defenders Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz and Gary Cahill and the men in front of them taking the plaudits.

But for Nevin, Chelsea’s transformation into Premier League contenders is also down to Courtois, despite the stopper having relatively little to do of late.

“Yes, he has been a tad under-employed but they often say that the best goalkeepers are the ones that can go from doing nothing to making a great save in the blink of an eye,” he said.

“He certainly has been doing that, he has been under-employed but not unemployed.

“There have also been the crosses he has taken that have relieved the pressure before they are turned into goal-scoring opportunities – these do not show up on the stats after the game.

“There is also a bit of marshalling to be done of those in front of him, and he has become more and more vocal the older he has got.

“Beyond that there is something even more subtle; defenders who have belief in the guy behind them tend to play with more confidence and more often than not a little higher up the field.

“If you believe your keeper is going to deal with anything over the top then you can get closer to the forwards and make more tackles, just as Cesar Azpilicueta, David Luiz and Gary Cahill have been doing.

“Defences who do not fully trust their goalkeepers tend to play very differently to those who do and modern managers are keen to underline this.”

Kyle Walker and Danny Rose have become vital for club and country in the last two seasons, and former Tottenham Hotspur captain Ledley King believes the full-backs are among the best in the game.

Right-back Walker and left-back Rose played a key role as Spurs battled for the Premier League title last season before narrowly losing out to Leicester City.

But their form has continued this season, offering width in attack and defensive stability – helping Maurico Pochettino’s men maintain the best defensive record in the league.

And King, who played alongside the duo in central defence, believes they are the complete modern-day players.

“The way they’ve developed is incredible,” he said.

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“Their speed makes them so difficult to beat in one-on-one situations and that means when you come up against quick players, for instance, Raheem Sterling in the City game, you don’t worry about that side of it as much.

“We’ve seen for the last couple of years the pair of them bombing forward, providing the width and they’ve taken it to international level now.

“They are two of the best full-backs around with everything modern-day full-backs need in terms of pace, very good one-on-one, energy to burn, high fitness levels and that ability to get up and down the pitch.”

Former Everton winger Andy van der Meyde believes the Toffees should make a move for the talented Memphis Depay with the Dutch star struggling to fulfil his potential at Manchester United.

Like Depay, Van der Meyde broke through as a teenager in the Dutch league, doing so at Ajax, while Depay made his name for PSV Eindhoven.

Despite spells with Inter and then Everton, he never reached the heights predicted when he was a youngster – admitting that drink and drugs derailed his career.

Depay is in a very different situation, and still only 22, but has so far struggled to live up to his £25million price tag at Old Trafford.

And Van der Meyde believes that a move to Goodison Park to work under Ronald Koeman could be the spark his career needs.

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He said: “His transfer to Manchester United he earned all through hard work himself, but now he is at an age where he needs to play more.

“His talent is never lost, but you have to play football to continue to develop.

“Memphis is too talented to sit on the bench. Everton has Ronald and Erwin Koeman, coaches who I know from the Dutch league. They know how he is. That can be a big advantage. Everton is the perfect club for Memphis Depay, but only because Ronald Koeman is there.

“Koeman will give him the confidence he needs that is necessary. Nice football, for which he can be good, it is clear.”

Swansea’s new assistant manager Paul Williams knows he has his work cut out for him this Premier League season but the former Forest boss is confident the Welsh side have the wherewithal to survive.

Williams was appointed earlier this week as the latest addition to Bob Bradley’s coaching staff.

The former Coventry and Southampton defender has been coach of England U20s most recently.

And he joins a Swansea side looking for their first league win since the opening day of the season and currently languishing down in 19th in the table.

But Williams is confident that there is sufficient quality under Bradley’s stewardship to beat the drop.

“Without a shadow of a doubt we can do well this season,” he said.

“It has not been an ideal start, but it is in situations like this where you find out about players and about the club.

“It’s our job now to dig deep and make sure we can make an impact in the Premier League.

(Pic: Ben Hoskins/Getty)

“The good thing is that there is still a long way to go in the season. We still have a lot of games in front of us so we have the opportunity to turn things around.

“I am really looking forward to getting started and one thing I can guarantee is that I will give my all to help the club succeed.

“I have had to work hard to get where I am in coaching and that is not about to change.”

Yaya Toure’s Manchester City career has completely gone off the rails in recent months and Kolo Toure has urged his younger brother to seek a change of scenery.

The City midfielder has made just one appearance under Pep Guardiola this season, back in August, partly thanks to his agent Dimitri Seluk publically criticising the Spaniard after he omitted Toure from his Champions League squad.

The Ivorian has since apologised for his agent’s comments – although Seluk remains steadfast in his disparagement of Guardiola – but any return to the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich boss’ good graces looks unlikely.

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And Kolo, who played for City until leaving on a free transfer in 2013, wants to see his sibling beat a hasty retreat from the Etihad Stadium – potentially to French side Olympique de Marseille.

“He [Yaya] still has talent and some things to prove,” said Kolo, now at Celtic “We have all been through that. You’re at the top at one moment, and then you go back down.

You have to understand that you need a change of scenery, go to a place where people want you.

“I haven’t spoken about it with him. He’s still at City, I respect that. But OM [Marseille] is a super club and he knows the French league well.”

Jamie Vardy ended a 14-game goal drought with a second-half strike for England on Tuesday night and his manager at Leicester Claudio Ranieri always knew the striker would come good.

Vardy was one of the key figures in the Foxes’ magnificent Premier League title triumph last season, breaking the league record by scoring in 11 games on the trot at one point.

But this season he has found the going tougher, indeed before his effort in Tuesday’s 2-2 draw with Spain, Vardy had not hit the back of the net for club or country since the Foxes’ defeat at Liverpool back in September.

And while the marksman admitted his relief after the final whistle and now hopes he is back on a hot streak, Ranieri knows football can be a fickle beast.

“Jamie is a goalscorer and all the goalscrers in the world have good periods and bad periods,” he said.

“You know sometimes goalscorers have to pay for what happened one season when the next one starts.

“Scoring 11 goals in a row is not easy to do. I think at the end of this season, he will have goals in double figures.

(Photo by Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

“When I speak to him, I say ‘Don’t worry, the important thing is the job you are doing for the team and sooner or later the goals will arrive.’

“I don’t tell him anything different. He came from the bottom and he’s arrived at the top because he’s a strong man.

“I have worked with some very fantastic strikers – Batistuta, Careca, Fonseca, Hasselbaink, Zola, Del Piero, big champions always know they can score. They all knew – it’s not possible to score 20 goals every season.

“In his career, Jamie has always scored a lot of goals. The important thing is his job for the team. He is not playing on his own.

“When you work well, the goals arrive sooner or later.”

If rumour is to be believed Jose Mourinho is having a hard time getting the Manchester United dressing room onside – but Michael Carrick insists the club have the ‘personalities’ to pull through a tough period.

United signed off with a morale-boosting victory over Swansea before the international period but a team that many expected to challenge for the Premier League title this term are eight points off the pace in sixth.

Mourinho has openly questioned the desire of several players since taking the reins over the summer – with Luke Shaw and Chris Smalling coming under fire after sitting out of the game against the Swans due to injuries.

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On the outside looking in Old Trafford does not seem like a happy camp, but Carrick is adamant the squad will turn a corner with Arsenal lying in wait this Saturday.

“We still feel we’re well in touch,” said the 35-year-old midfielder.

“I know people are looking at it [the table] and saying we’re drifting and we’re not right at the top but we still feel there’s more to come and we’ve got a great chance of being up there.

“I certainly believe that. It’s easy for me to sit here and say it. Time will tell. But I just feel we’ve got the personalities and the personnel – the manager, the coaches and the players. We just need to start building the momentum really and now’s the time to do that.

“There are some really good teams ahead of us and it is very tight. But we still feel that we’re heavily involved and we’ll have a big say in it.”

Liverpool’s defence may still look a little shaky with goalkeeper Loris Karius between the sticks but former number one Bruce Grobbelaar insists the German can become an Anfield great.

The 23-year-old joined from Mainz in the summer and quickly displaced Simon Mignolet as Jurgen Klopp’s number one.

However, though Liverpool may be top of the Premier League by a point from Chelsea, they conceded have 14 goals so far which is more than any other team in the top seven.

Karius has taken his share of the blame but Grobbelaar, who made over 400 appearances for Liverpool, says he sees some of himself in the Reds’ latest shot stopper.

Photo by John Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images

“I’ve been watching Karius since last season, when he was with Mainz,” he said. “He is one for the future.

“When you watched his highlights, you could see that he did things that reminded me of me when I was that age.

“It was the use of the ball with his feet, but also how he read the game. I saw some games where they were in the opposition box with a corner, and left only one defender back, not two.

“The second defender was Karius. While the defender was marking, Karius came over the top and headed the ball near the halfway line. That’s extreme but something that I thought was very good.

“I hope he can go on to do what I did – and I’m sure he definitely can step up to the next level, which is keeping clean sheets and coming for more crosses.”

More so than the millions in extra revenue every year, Aitor Karanka is grateful for the blessing of time that the Premier League has dished up since Middlesbrough’s promotion last term.

The 43-year-old Boro boss insists the lack of midweek fixtures means he and his coaching team can work just as hard whilst in front of laptops and TV screens reviewing footage as his players do on the training ground.

Middlesbrough’s return to the top flight so far has been impressive, and while they only have two Premier League wins to their name, they have notched up five draws – including valuable away points at Arsenal, Manchester City, and West Ham.

And Karanka is putting that kind of success to the preparation he has been able to do having made a step up behind the scenes.

“It means the players can go to the pitch on a Saturday knowing the opposition team player by player,” he said.

“We have improved a lot, but we needed to. We have added players who are used to these types of things so you have to be able to offer them the same here.

“We now have more programmes and we also have more time so we can analyse much more than we could last season.

“We can spend longer looking at the opponents and looking at our own games. Our analysis, and everything else, during the week is now much better.

“We have meetings every week to prepare the training sessions, to speak about opponents, to speak about and assess the last performance.

“If I want my players to play like a team, then I have to be a team.”