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

Who's Hot and Who's Not

Aston Villa, Sunderland, West Ham, Liverpool, Everton and Manchester United all picked maximum points, but their performances were all over shadowed by the quite wonderful performance given by Chelsea.

Many people thought that they may buckle under the pressure against a Stoke side who had only previously conceded sixteen goals away from home. What actually happened was that Chelsea started really well and then got better and better. The tally of twenty-four attempts on goal against Stoke’s one shows that the 7-0 scoreline didn’t flatter them in the least.

Birmingham, Hull, Wigan, Fulham, Stoke and Tottenham all lost. Stoke conceded seven goals and only managed one attempt at the goal. How can any team possibly be less ‘hot’ than them?

I’m afraid Burnley managed it. Talk about getting relegated without a fight and going down with a wimper. They really have been very poor.

Aston Villa keeper Brad Friedel is thirty-eight years old but still maintains such high standards that he is one of the best in the Premier League. He moved to Liverpool back in 1997 but didn’t really make his mark until he went to Blackburn in 2000. Since then, for ten seasons he has hardly missed a game and has been consistently excellent.

For Villa yesterday, in their derby game with Birmingham, he was unbeatable. He is a top quality keeper and is a big part of the reason that Villa have done so well.

Does anyone know why Hull keeper Matt Duke didn’t bother moving across his line in order to try to make it difficult for Darren Bent to score the goal that saw his club relegated? No, nor do I. I don’t think he and the rest of the players can blame that on Phil Brown.

I know he never trains and he can only play about one game a month because of his dodgy knees, but how good was Ledley King for Tottenham at Old Trafford? It is such a shame that he carries the terrible injuries he does because he would be a ‘shoe-in’ for the England team if he didn’t. I hope he goes to the world cup because if Rio Ferdinand is unfit he would be the best replacement by a country mile.

If Rio is fit, I would love to see him play alongside King. They would make an exceptional partnership.

Huth, Shawcross, Higginbottom and Collins. Sorry guys, the Stoke back four were given an absolute battering.

There a few candidates for this award this week but I am going for Ryan Giggs. The evergreen United player has scored in every season that the Premier League has been in existence. Unbelievably, before Saturday, he had never taken a penalty. When the opportunity arose, with no Wayne Rooney on the pitch Giggs stepped up and placed the ball confidently in the side netting showing all of his experience and ability.

After that another one came along and he placed the ball into the side netting on the other side of the goal. The man is quite simply a legend.

Talking of legends, Frank Lampard scored twice for Chelsea to yet again reach the twenty goal from midfield. Exceptional.

I have been a big fan of Jimmy Bullard over the years and he has been a great player to have in the Premier League. Few players these days play with a smile on their face and he is like a breath of fresh air. This season, however, he has been involved in training ground punch-ups and has played way below his own high standards.

Against Sunderland on Saturday he couldn’t pass the ball to one of his own team’s players. The home crowd were getting more and more frustrated with him and when he missed that crucial penalty you could see he wanted the ground to swallow him up. All in all it was a dismal forty-five minutes from a man I admire.

Brazilian striker Araujo Ilan seems to combine the unusual pairing of being Brazilian and average. Nobody thought he was remotely good enough for the Premier League but he has come in and scored some incredibly important goals. The four he has scored in his nine games have gone a long way to keeping his club in the top league.

Credit where it is due, he has had a great end to the season and West Ham owe him a lot.

Hull striker Jozy Altidore has played over twenty games and managed just two goals. That is bad enough, but to get sent-off in the first half of a must win game is even worse. To totally lose your rag because a player drops a ball onto your back makes him an absolute wally!