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

Who's Hot and Who's Not?

This has to be between Stoke and Birmingham. Alex McLeish’s men are on a fantastic run at the moment in the Premier League and they continued that form in the FA Cup with a great win at a resurgent Everton.

However, although Birmingham had a great result I am going to give this award to Stoke. They were outstanding against Arsenal gave a performance of passion, determination, pace and no little skill.

I’m really struggling to decide between Sunderland and Wigan. Both sides are playing pretty abysmally at the moment and they were both worse than that on Saturday. Wigan got a draw whereas Sunderland lost. However, Wigan were playing a League Two side and Sunderland were playing a Premier League side, albeit the worst one.

Sunderland took the lead and threw it away whereas Wigan did at least show some character to come back from 2-0 down.

I’m going to give it to Sunderland. They could be in real trouble unless Steve Bruce does something quickly. It is difficult to see how they are going to win a game.

He may have been slightly at fault for Notts County’s second goal but Wigan keeper Vladimir Stojkovicwas exceptional other than that. His string of fine saves meant that Wigan have a second chance to avoid total humiliation.

There was a time earlier in the season when Arsenal were not entirely sure who their number one keeper was. Manuel Almunia was being challenged by Lukasz Fabianski.

Having watched the Polish keeper for Arsenal in their defeat at Stoke yesterday I can answer the question. It is Almunia.

I’m not the biggest fan of John Terry. Yes I can admire his leadership skills and his ‘never say die’ attitude, but I have never really accepted that his actual footballing ability makes him a world class defender.

I am starting to change my mind. He didn’t put a foot wrong against Preston on Saturday and on the very few occasions Preston managed to threaten the Chelsea goal it was John Terry who got in the way.

Michael Dawson has had an up and down career. He arrived at Tottenham from Nottingham Forest with a glowing reputation. In his time at Spurs he has regularly switched around from looking like a world class defender to making Titus Bramble look like a world class defender.

On Saturday all was going well for him until he decided to put in a ridiculous, unnecessary lunging tackle in injury-time with his side 2-1 up and give away a penalty that could end up knocking them out of the tournament.

I’ve always thought he was a decent player but each time I see him now I think he is truly world class. Bulgarian midfielder Martin Petrov was the star man for Manchester City in their win at Scunthorpe and he put on an excellent display.

His first touch is exquisite and he is constantly looking for ways to open up the opposition.

How bad was Theo Walcott at Stoke? Did he actually do anything right?

He is a great young talent and England are better side with a fit and firing Theo Walcott in than they are without him, but my goodness, he was poor yesterday.

There were some fine striking performances this week but clearly one stood out more than any other. In the only Premier League game played Wayne Rooney scored all four goals as Manchester United beat Hull.

All four finishes were neat and showed great reactions, calmness and even some heading ability. That was the first time he has scored four in a game and he looks as though he is going to have a wonderful season.

Tottenham had enough chances to put the game out of the reach of Leeds in the first half on Saturday. Unfortunately for them Jermain Defoe had an off day. His finishing was poor and the less said about his penalty the better.

I still think he is the best goal scorer in England and I wouldn’t bet against him getting a hat-trick in the replay, but for Saturday’s performance he deserves this award.