Wins for Tottenham, Manchester United and Chelsea. Great comebacks from Aston Villa and Bolton. A first point for Shearer’s Newcastle and fine wins for Middlesbrough, Liverpool, Arsenal and Fulham. Plenty of candidates but there can only be one winner.
For me, the ‘hot team’ was Liverpool. OK, Blackburn are not a great side and they were missing several key individuals, but to bounce back from their European disappointment in this style was exceptional. It was 4-0 but it could have been 24-0. Torres was great and the team were, once again, on fire.
What a shame for them that the one game they failed to show up for recently was such an important one.
Defeats for West Ham, Sunderland and Bolton and bad defeats for Blackburn, Wigan, Hull and Manchester City. If Bolton’s last minute effort at Stamford Bridge had gone in rather than being cleared off the line, Chelsea would definitely have been in the frame for this award as well. To throw away a 4-0 lead at home would certainly come under the heading of ‘Not Hot’.
The award this week goes to Hull. They had such a great start to the season but I believe they are now likely to get relegated. They have given the Premier League a great go, but any team that loses to the current Middlesbrough side has to be the ‘Not Hot’ team.
He has had his critics since he moved to Fulham and I have been one of them. However, he is now looking like the keeper who did so well at Middlesbrough for so many seasons. He had little to do at Manchester City yesterday but when Mark Schwartzer was called upon he showed great reactions and made a fine double save.
I believe he is one of the best in England but things haven’t gone too well for Wigan’s Chris Kirkland over the past couple of weeks. He has conceded eight goals in his last two games and whilst he was hardly to blame for either defeat, he looks like a man short of confidence and that is rubbing off on his team-mates.
At Tottenham he was very poor. In many ways, since he moved to Portsmouth, Younes Kaboul hasn’t been a great deal better.
Credit where it is due however and he looked the part in his side’s 2-2 draw with West Brom on Saturday. To top off a good performance he scored an excellent goal as well.
Last season, Manchester City captain Richard Dunne was one of the best players in the Premier League. He was Mr. Reliable. This season you can also rely on him, but this time around it seems you can rely on him to make a mistake.
He does not look half the player he was twelve months ago and his terrible effort to intercept a pass to Fulham’s Bobby Zamora that led to Fulham’s third goal summed up the way he is playing.
He has been excellent for a couple of seasons now and once again in their 3-3 draw at Aston Villa yesterday, Tim Cahill was Everton’s best player.
He is a constant thorn in the side of his opponents and is a player unlike any other in the Premier League. There is no doubt that you would rather have him in your team than be playing against you!
Tony Adams was not a great success as manager of Portsmouth. He managed to turn them very quickly from European challengers into relegation candidates. Perhaps the quality of his tenure in charge was best demonstrated by the signing of Hayden Mullins.
It is very difficult to see how that signing was going to improve the side. Having watched him on Saturday, I still can’t see it.
If there was any doubt as to whether Liverpool’s Fernando Torres was back to his best or not, he answered the question with an emphatic yes on Saturday.
One great goal with his foot and another great goal with his head. If there is a better striker in the world than Torres at his best, I haven’t seen him.
Alan Shearer joined the long list of Newcastle managers to play Shola Ameobi in the side. I guess they look at Ameobi and see a tall, strong, quick player who is good in the air and good on the ground and think they have a seriously good striker in their ranks.
After Saturday, I would imagine that Shearer has joined the long list of Newcastle managers who have realised that they have made a mistake.
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