This just has to be Manchester United. For seventy of the ninety minutes in their game at Derby yesterday they were sublime. The passing and movement were as good as I have seen all season. They destroyed a Derby side who would have been half fancying their chances after victory over United in the Carling Cup.
In United’s 4-1 win, Cristiano Ronaldo had a very poor game. OK, he scored a great header but he was well below his best. Also, Van der Sar, Neville, Vidic, Carrick, Scholes, Berbatov, Tevez and Rooney weren’t even playing!
They are the best team in England by a long, long way at the moment.
Aston Villa were way below their best in their defeat at Everton and Blackburn, West Ham, Fulham and Hull could all only manage draws in games they probably should have been expected to win.
Despite all those poor performances, the award this week has to go to Manchester City. All the hype, all the great players, all the money, yet only one away win all season. The 2-0 defeat at Pompey was as poor as it sounds.
Only Manchester United have won more home games than City, but away from home they have produced a string of unacceptable performances.
A few candidates this week. Ben Foster looked assured and every inch a future England regular for Manchester United and Mark Schwarzer was excellent for Fulham and saved them from defeat at Swansea.
I’m giving the award this week to Middlesbrough keeper Brad Jones. The Australian has only just got his place back in the team and he produced a faultless display in the draw at West Ham.
Maybe Middlesbrough fans could explain to me why Gareth Southgate seemed to rate Ross Turnbull more highly than Jones for most of the season so far?
Goalkeepers did themselves proud this week and I can’t remember any real errors by the number one’s. So this week, I give the award to Scott Carson. I know West Brom didn’t play, but it is true that he is not a ‘Hot keeper’! 🙂
This week I’m going to recognise the fantastic contribution a player who I had never heard of has made to Hull City in their first ever Premier League season. Kamil Zayatte scored the equaliser at Sheffield United on Saturday and put in another excellent performance.
The twenty-three year old Guinea international joined Hull in the Summer after having trials with Everton and Newcastle. He has made himself a crowd favourite and looks to be a great piece of business by Hull at £2.5 million.
Zat Knight is a giant of a man and has come on leaps and bounds as a footballer. He is a worthy part of what has been a great season for Aston Villa.
Having said all that, he was given a torrid rime at Everton yesterday by a team playing without any really recognised strikers. None of Villa’s defenders came out of the game with too much credit, but I think Knight just gets the vote.
He played up front for Manchester United yesterday but he is basically a midfield player. Once again, Ryan Giggs gave an absolute master class in the art of passing and moving and keeping possession of the ball.
At the moment, everything Giggsy tries seems to work. He is playing as well as he has done for a couple of years and is a joy to watch.
Michael Ballack has not impressed many people this season but he will have been keen to make a big impression on the watching Guus Hiddink in Chelsea’s cup tie at Watford on Saturday.
In all truth, he didn’t have that bad a game, but when he fired over an open goal from about three yards out, his whole season was summed up!
As a Watford fan and a constant critic of his, it pains me greatly to give this award to Nicolas Anelka for his hat-trick at Watford on Saturday. Those goals mean he has twenty for the season and can’t possibly be as bad as I think he is.
Those goals also mean that my beloved Watford are out of the Cup for another year. I hate him, but he is the ‘Hot striker’! 🙂
OK, he didn’t get much service and he has been out for quite a while, but just how ineffective was Aston Villa’s Jon Carew yesterday?
The answer to the question is, ineffective enough to get this week’s ‘Not Hot striker’ award.
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