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

Hot team
Great wins for Stoke and Tottenham and wins for Arsenal, Wigan and Bolton. All of them did well, but the award can only go to the fantastic display put in by Sunderland in their 3-0 win at Chelsea.

The way this team has bounced back from the humiliation at neighbours Newcastle a couple of weeks ago has been astonishing and admirable. They had so many great performances yesterday and that will be reflected in the rest of the awards today.

Not Hot team
Liverpool put themselves up for this award with a return to the abject performances of earlier in the season. They were poor in the defeat at Stoke. In any other week they would have been the most suitable nomination.

However, all the talk of Chelsea having the best squad in the Premier League is once again brought into question as they had to use their squad players yesterday and were out-classed by Sunderland. Let us not forget that this was a Sunderland team who hadn’t won away this season and had only tasted victory once in twenty-four away games.

It might seem strange to award this to the league leaders but they were the worst team this weekend.

Hot keeper
I’d like to give this to Sunderland’s Craig Gordon but he didn’t have anything to do.

I was going to give it to Gomes at Tottenham but in the ninetieth minute he inexplicably jumped out of the way of a straight shot!

I’m going to go for Birmingham keeper Ben Foster. He has bounced back from the trials and tribulations and injuries he suffered at Manchester United and is starting to look like the top keeper he was when he played for Watford a few years ago.

Not Hot keeper
On the whole this was a pretty good week for the keepers with no major howlers from any of them. I’m going to take the rare step of not making an award as to do so would be petty.

Hot defender
He is on standby for the England squad in midweek and if Fabio Capello saw how easily Sunderland’s Michael Turner dealt with the threat of Didier Drogba, Nicolas Anelka and the rest yesterday, he will have been phoning him last night and getting him to come along.

Turner put in a near faultless performance.

Not Hot defender
Branislav Ivanovic has been brilliant for Chelsea at right back but his frailties as a defender were cruelly exposed in the centre of their defence against Sunderland. Add to that the fact that he should undoubtedly have been sent off in the first half and he could have made it even more embarrassing for Chelsea, and he deservedly gets the award.

Hot midfielder
I have given the ‘Not Hot midfielder’ award to Sunderland’s Lee Cattemole on a couple of occasions because he has a tendency to display a total lack of discipline at times.

In yesterday’s game, Cattermole channelled his aggression in exactly the right way. He harried and pressed the Chelsea midfield for ninety minutes and hardly gave them a second to breathe. When he had the ball, he rarely gave it away and looked like a player.

For the first time I could see why Steve Bruce thinks he is a genuine England prospect.

Not Hot midfielder
I am sorry to keep picking on him but I can only ask one question. Lucas Leiva – why?

Hot striker
Five goals in four starts isn’t a bad return from a striker who was the club’s record signing. Sunderland must be absolutely delighted with Asamoah Gyan.

His goal yesterday was precise and calm. His overall hold-up play and penetration was excellent. His team work and work rate were first class. It was an all round top performance.

Not Hot striker
I am the first one to stand up and defend Dimitar Berbatov as I think he is a world class striker. He started this season in scintillating form but he has gone off the boil.

On Saturday at Villa his team needed him to roll up his sleeves, work hard and give them an outlet. He failed to do anything. I hope this isn’t a return to the Berbatov of last season.