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

Who's Hot and Who's Not

The winners this week were Wolves, Everton, Manchester United, Stoke, Wigan, Liverpool and Chelsea.

Wolves, Stoke and Wigan deserve a big shout but Chelsea‘s patient and efficient display in their win over Manchester City means that they are the best this week.

The losers this week were Aston Villa, Fulham, Bolton, Newcastle, Birmingham, Sunderland and Manchester City.

Villa and Newcastle would be front runners for this award most weeks but I’m afraid Birmingham showed why they are becoming favourites for the drop.

I’m still not convinced that he is an international goalkeeper but I have give credit where it’s due to West Ham’s Robert Green. He has bounced back from his horror show of a World Cup and is now displaying the form that got him there in the first place.

A series of good stops and one exceptional save earned his side a point at Tottenham that could be absolutely crucial come the end of the season.

The normally reliable Jussi Jaaskelainen deserves a mention for spilling a straight forward shot three minutes from the end at Old Trafford and losing his Bolton side a point that they had thoroughly deserved.

However, only one man can pick this award up this week. Arsenal have a goalkeeping crisis and nothing makes that clearer than the fact that Manuel Almunia is in the team. Just what on earth was he thinking when he came running out of his goal on Saturday? Only he will ever know.

It certainly wasn’t a classic at Goodison Park on Saturday but the one bright spark in Everton’s 2-1 win over Fulham was left back Leighton Baines. He has tightened up his defending and he now looks a real threat going forward. It will do Ashley Cole no harm to know that he has a serious challenger for his England place.

However, the award this week goes to Chelsea new boy David Luis. How good is he? He has an impetious streak that needs to be controlled, but apart from that, he looks like the real deal.

I was surprised to see Sol Campbell starting for Newcastle on Saturday because last time he played he looked as though he was way past his best and not up to it any more.

I was less surprised to see him substituted with his side 3-0 down. I hope he doesn’t play too many more games because I want to remember him as the great player he once was and not the shambles he now seems to be.

There have been many big money buys over the last few weeks and months but potentially the best piece of business done has been the loan signing of Jamie O’Hara for Wolves. He is making the side tick and he is helping them pick up results that might just keep them in the Premier League.

I don’t know how much that is worth financially, but it is certainly a better investment than the multi-millions Manchester City spent on Balotelli for example.

Much is rightly made of Arsenal’s problems in goal and in the centre of their defence, but they have an even bigger problem if they lose a couple of midfield players. That problem is that they put Denilson in the team.

It was a scruffy goal but it was his twentieth in twenty-seven league games. Sir Alex might be leaving Dimitar Berbatov out of the big games, but if United end up winning the title, that goal and his many others will be a major reason why.

The totally ineffective performance of Edin Dzeko for Manchester City is well worth a mention but I’m not giving the award to him.

I know Andy Johnson has had a terrible time with injuries and I am genuinely pleased to see him back playing again. Having said that, I haven’t yet seen him have a worthwhile attempt at goal. He looks to be a shadow of his former self and I was never convinced that his former self was quite as good as some people thought.

I may be being harsh, but football is a game of opinions, and in my opinion, Andy Johnson is no longer a Premier League quality striker.