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

Who's Hot and Who's Not

Great wins for West Brom, Everton and West Ham. Manchester City, Fulham and Bolton also picked up three points. Wolves and Tottenham deserve a mention for a great game of football and Sunderland got an excellent draw at Arsenal.

Despite all that there can only be one winner. Manchester United may have been poor, but Liverpool were top notch. Great football, great passion, great spirit and a thoroughly deserved win.

Arsenal were really poor in the draw with Sunderland and Stoke and Birmingham will not look back on this weekend with any pleasure either.

Once again though, there can only be one winner. Shaky keeper, dodgy at the back, no creativity in midfield and totally ineffective up front. Out played, out thought and out fought. I never thought I would say all that about Manchester United.

Arsenal were a long way from their sparkling best, but on the rare occasions they did threaten the goal, Sunderland keeper Simon Mignolet was more than up to the task. The Gunners managed seven attempts on target and Mignolet dealt with them all.

I’ve been really quite impressed with Wigan keeper Ali Al Habsi this season but I’m afraid it all went horribly wrong for him at Manchester City on Saturday. Wigan put up a sterling fight at the City of Manchester Stadium but they were undone by one absolute howler from their keeper.

A lot of top teams are having a close look at Bolton defender Gary Cahill as well as Fabio Capello and England. They are absolutely right to do so. Not only did he put in another exceptional defensive performance on Saturday, he also chipped on with two well taken goals.

It is hard to understand why Arsene Wenger hasn’t done what he could to get Cahill to the Emirates.

Stoke’s Marc Wilson had an absolute time torrid time at West Ham on Saturday. He simply couldn’t cope with the physical threat and presence of the West Ham strikers. It is rare to say that Stoke couldn’t cope with a physical threat but on this occasion it is true.

He is almost the forgotten man of Premier League football but Fulham’s Damien Duff showed that there is life left in him yet on Saturday. He may not be able to terrorise teams in quite the same way as he did at times in the past, but when he cuts in from the right wing on his left foot. He is still a serious threat.

His two goals against an admittedly wretched Blackburn team, his old club, showed that he is still a top player.

There was a time when I thought that Michael Carrick was possibly the best midfield player in England. That seems like a long time ago. He signed a new contract with United last week and I can’t for the life of me understand why Sir Alex would want to do that. Carrick is totally ineffective. He plays a hundred passes a game and not one of them affects the outcome in any way whatever.

There are a few candidates this week. Two great goals from Jermain Defoe and two from Kevin Doyle in the same game. Another goal from the exciting Demba Ba at West Ham as well. Despite that I’m going to give it to the hat-trick man even though I’m not sure he actually counts as a striker. OK, the total distance Dirk Kuyt scored his three goals from probably doesn’t add up to six yards, but you’ve got to be in the right place to score them.

I know he got shipped put to the left wing when Nani got injured but in the forty odd minutes prior to that I’m not entirely sure that Wayne Rooney touched the ball. He has shown flashes of his old brilliance, like the goal against Manchester City and the one at Chelsea, but overall he is not even a shadow of his former self. He was so poor at Anfield.