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

Who's Hot and Who's Not

Amongst those winners Manchester City were not great but they won at Blackpool through determination and hard work and they now sit as the most likely challengers to Chelsea.

Not Hot team
Birmingham, Stoke, Fulham, Liverpool and Blackpool all lost. Four of those played quite well and were a little unfortunate not to get anything from the game. The other one was Liverpool.

Hot keeper
No really outstanding performances from the keepers this week but I think the best was probably Birmingham’s Ben Foster. Although he was beaten twice and his side lost, the score could have been much worse if he hadn’t been so alert and made some decent saves.

Not Hot keeper
It is rare that you hear much criticism of Manchester United keeper Edwin van der Saar, but I’m afraid he had an absolute horror show on Saturday. It was almost inconceivable that he would not catch that gentle cross drifting across his six yard box. He didn’t and the rest, as they say, is history.

Hot defender
He was a doubt for the game but he performed admirably. Everton’s Phil Jagielka has become a top class Premier League defender and with the calls for the likes of Rio Ferdinand and John Terry to move out of the way in the England set-up, he could well step into their shoes and be part of a new team.

Not Hot defender
I really like Roy Hodgson and think he is a great manager and a great football man. I believe he inherited a weak and unsettled squad and he has to deal with such behind the scenes ructions that he has had little chance. I would feel completely sorry for him if it wasn’t for one thing.

He bought Paul Konchesky.

Hot midfielder
I know his team eventually lost the game but Blackpool’s Charlie Adam was, once again, exceptional. His energy, his shooting and his range of passing have seen him take to the Premier League like a duck to water.

Not Hot midfielder
Although Arsene Wenger goes on a bit about the way other teams tackle his players he has always had a decent point to make about the reckless and thoughtless challengers that have crept into the game. He must have been absolutely livid to see his own young midfielder Jack Wilshire make just such a tackle on Saturday.

I am pleased that Wenger has condemned the tackle and made Wilshire publicly apologise for it. His side were 2-1 up and the game was well into injury-time. Hopefully the talented young player will learn from it.

Hot striker
When your team is not playing well and are hanging on somewhat in an away game it is essential that you have a striker who knows where the goal is. It is a remarkable statistic that in Manchester City’s last nineteen Premier League victories Carlos Tevez has found the net in eighteen of them.

Yesterday, Blackpool were out-playing City. Then up pops Tevez with two goals. The first one was offside and the second one was a lucky deflection. It doesn’t matter.

Not Hot striker
Adebayor was pretty woeful for Manchester City but he had little service and was clearly lacking in match sharpness. On many days his performance would have been enough to pick up this award but the sad sight of an abysmal Fernando Torres, less than half the player we know he actually is, means it has to go to him.