FA Cup and Premier League – Who’s Hot and Who’s Not

Who's Hot and Who's Not

The two Manchester clubs have to be in the frame for this. United win the Premier League and City win the FA Cup. However, this is a weekly award and I have to give it to whoever performed the best. United, in truth, were pretty average in their draw at Blackburn and City didn’t need to get out of second gear to beat a desperately disappointing Stoke.

So that leaves Blackpool, Wolves, West Brom, Aston Villa, Tottenham, Fulham and Wigan. Villa, West Brom and Fulham did really well but had nothing riding on how they did in the game. The same could really be said for Tottenham as well as a fifth place finish seems to be more of a punishment than a prize. The three teams needing a win at the bottom, Blackpool, Wolves and Wigan were magnificent. I bet the fans wish they had been that good during the rest of the season! I’m going for Wigan. 2-0 down and it was all over. What fantastic spirit to fight back from there.

It would be very harsh to give this to Stoke because although they failed to turn up for the Cup final, they did have injuries and they did do well to get there. If it’s not them, it has to be Bolton, Sunderland, Everton, Arsenal, Liverpool, Birmingham or West Ham.

There were some pretty poor performances amongst them, but the worst has to be West Ham. You can’t throw away a two goal lead in a game like that.

I know he had hardly anything to do, but how much more confident and comfortable do Tottenham look with Carlo Cudicini in goal than they do when Gomes is there?

If Sir Alex Ferguson wasn’t trying his hardest to get Edwin van der Sar to sign on for another season before Saturday he surely must be now! Tomasz Kuszczak was abysmal in the draw at Blackburn. I know it is difficult for keepers who only play very rarely to immediately find their form, but that really was a horror show.

Obviously this award could and probably should have gone to Rob Green. I just don’t think it’s fair to kick a man when he is down.

I’ve been impressed by him every time I’ve seen him this season and yesterday was no exception. Newcastle left back Jose Enrique simply oozes class. I wouldn’t be too surprised if one of the ‘bigger’ Premier League clubs takes him off Newcastle’s hands in the Summer.

He is one of the tallest players in the Premier League but if his performance at Blackpool on Saturday is anything to go by, he is a long way from being one of the best. Zat Knight probably should have been sent off for a silly petulant reaction and then he found himself regularly out of position as Blackpool scored four goals past an increasingly dispirited Bolton. If Bolton sell Cahill in the Summer and they are relying on Knight to step up to the mark, he will need to be a whole lot better than this.

Manchester City have made some good buys and they have made some bad buys. One of the best they have made is Yaya Toure. Not only is he consistently one of their star performers, he has now scored the only goal of the game in the FA Cup semi-final and the FA Cup final. That is a decent return on an investment.

You could pick any of Birmingham’s midfielders for this award really. They were totally out played by Fulham and when they had the ball they simply couldn’t keep it. It was woeful. I’m going to select Lee Bowyer. He was no worse than the others really, but it couldn’t go to a nicer bloke.

Two fabulous finishes and Aston Villa were 2-0 up at Arsenal inside a quarter of an hour. There was no way back and it didn’t matter if Darren Bent didn’t touch the ball again in the whole game. He had done his job. Quality goals from a quality finisher.

I’m really sorry to keep picking on him but Fernando Torres is having a terrible time. He looks lost and confused on the pitch and can’t put a foot right. Chelsea really should send him on his Summer holidays early and hope that they get back the superstar that he used to be when the new season starts. It is painful to watch him and I have started to feel really sorry for him.