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

Who's Hot and Who's Not

Blackburn, Chelsea, Fulham, West Brom, Liverpool and Manchester City all won their games with varying degrees of ease and efficiency. They all deserve a mention for differing reasons but there can only be one winner this week. I have been among the many who have hurled a great deal of criticism at Arsenal and it is only fair to give credit where credit is due. They were excellent against Manchester United and made them look a very poor side indeed.

It is fair to say that United were terrible but I think the way Arsenal went about their business had a great deal to do with that. From their confident keeper all the way through to the excellent van Persie, they were better than United all over the pitch.

Bolton, Tottenham, Sunderland, Aston Villa, Manchester United, Newcastle and West Ham all failed to pick up a point. Some of those have an excuse. Bolton are missing some key players, Tottenham were victims of some poor decisions, Sunderland have no strikers, Villa’s manager is in hospital and Newcastle were up against a newly rampant Liverpool. That leaves Manchester United and West Ham and it is tough to call between them. United were abject at The Emirates and deserved to lose. Having said that, they are still favourites for the title and likely to reach the Champions League final.

I’m afraid, therefore, it has to be West Ham who are simply not good enough for the top division. Jacobsen, Tompkins, Gabbidon, Da Costa, Sears, Spectre, Boa Morte. Any other side in the Premier League want to take any of those? No.

The ‘Hot keeper’ this week is West Brom’s Scott Carson. Those are ten words I never thought I would write! Once again, I must give credit where it is due. I don’t rate Carson as a keeper but he had a decent game on Saturday’s 2-1 win over Villa and has done well in the teams resurgence under Roy Hodgson.

Heurelho Gomes. I don’t really need to say much more than the man is having yet another personal nightmare.

Blackburn’s Martin Olsson had an absolutely storming game in their crucial 1-0 win over Bolton on Saturday and scored the only goal of the game. The Swedish full back spent the afternoon rampaging up and down the wing and gave Bolton a torrid time.

You really could pick any of Sunderland’s defenders as they were truly woeful against Fulham on Saturday. I’m going to pick Michael Dawson because although he looked decent earlier in the season, he is just starting to look as though he is a little out of his depth.

To come back from the horrendous injury he suffered and force his way back into the Welsh national team and the Arsenal first team was a fantastic effort from Aaron Ramsey. For the twenty year old to play so well against Manchester United and score the winning goal was the icing on the cake.

A season or two back it looked as though Anderson was going to be a replacement for Roy Keane. He was a strong, all action, box to box ball winning player. It looked as though Sir Alex had unearthed another gem. Apart from being cumbersome, wasteful and slow in possession, can anyone tell me what he brings to the team now?

What a great signing Peter Odemwingie has been for West Brom. His goal on Saturday was his fourteenth of a great first season and it was the fourth game in a row in which has scored. The twenty-nine year old Nigerian has rightly become a cult hero at the Hawthorns.

I won’t pick on Fernando Torres again, but it is true that Chelsea looked far more likely to score after he went off on Saturday. I won’t choose Javier Hernandez because he has been fantastic, but he had an absolute stinker at Arsenal yesterday. I’m afraid this week’s award has to go to Stoke’s Kenwynne Jones. I am a big fan of the giant Stoke front man but his open goal miss on Saturday was one of the worst I have seen. For that alone, he must get this award.