Another great weekend’s football in the Premier League and it is nice to be able to concentrate on the football itself rather than any bad, controversial decisions or dangerous tackles. Manchester City’s Pablo Zabaleta did his best with a pretty horrible tackle on Alonso, but the referee dealt with it well and his own manager accepted the decision.
So let’s look at who did well and who let themselves down:
I predicted that Chelsea’s long unbeaten home record would be broken by the exciting talent of Aston Villa over the weekend. Chelsea without Drogba, Carvalho, Essien and Deco and Villa looking as though they are ready to break into the top four.
What happens? Chelsea absolutely destroyed Villa. 2-0 was not a fair reflection on a game that Chelsea dominated from start to finish.
They played some scintillating football with Ballack and Lampard controlling the game. They were absolutely superb and looked to me like a team who truly believe they will be champions.
North London stakes a really big claim for this award this week. Tottenham can’t buy a win at the moment and it is painful to watch them. However, it would be easy to give them the award and I think it should go elsewhere.
It pains me to say this because I love watching them play football, but for a club like Arsenal, a defeat at home to Hull followed by a draw at Sunderland, only achieved through a last minute goal, is simply not good enough.
They play the game in the way that most football fans would love their teams to play. Unfortunately, they are just not good or clinical enough in the final third.
Not only have they had two poor results, that’s two weeks in a row that this site has predicted a heavy win for the Gunners and they have let us down!
Middlesbrough’s Ross Turnbull is never mentioned when people discuss the top keepers in the Premier League. To be fair, that is probably right. Many observers have felt that he is a weak link in the Middlesbrough side and not good enough to play in the Premier League.
Following the loss of long time keeper Mark Schwarzer to Fulham, most Middlesbrough fans were surprised when Gareth Southgate did not go out and buy a replacement. Instead, he decided that Brad Jones and Turnbull could fight it out for a first team place.
Brad Jones got the nod but was injured in the warm-up at Liverpool and Turnbull got his chance.
In the 1-0 smash and grab victory at Wigan on Saturday, Turnbull put in an exemplary performance and fully deserves this award this week.
He has many people calling for him to be called up to the England team, but West Ham’s Robert Green did his chances no good at all yesterday in their 3-1 defeat at home to Bolton.
Bolton’s first goal was a really embarrassing howler by Green when he inexplicably dropped a simple cross onto the foot of Bolton’s Kevin Davies. The second goal was a mistake by him again as he spilled a shot that he should have dealt with. The third goal, whilst being a wonderful strike by Matthew Taylor, was an awful long way out for a keeper to beaten.
Green is a fine keeper but he will want to quickly forget this game.
OK, how many of you had heard of Branislav Ivanovic prior to yesterday? He is a twenty-four year old Serbian centre-half who is some way down the pecking order of centre-backs at Stamford Bridge. With injuries to Carvalho and Alex he got his chance for Chelsea yesterday against the exciting talent of Agbonlahor, Young and Carew.
He played like he had spent an entire career at the top of the Premier League and looked immediately at home.
I know he is an experienced player with fourteen international caps, but to look so assured in only his second game for Chelsea was a remarkable performance.
Pablo Javier Zabaleta gets this award for his reckless lunge on Alonso which was deservedly given a red card.
In a weekend of great football, his tackle was one of the only ‘ugly’ incidents to be seen.
I’ve never been Frank Lampard’s number one fan. I’ve often failed to see exactly what it is that makes him such a great player.
Against Aston Villa Lampard controlled the whole the game. His clever little passes created both goals and his great first touch, accurate passing and fantastic movement drove Chelsea on to one of the best team performances you are likely to see.
At long last I know what all the fuss has been about!
Difficult title to award this week as there was so much good midfield play and so little poor play. I can only think of Newcastle’s Nicky Butt who is a great player and played his full part in helping his beleaguered team to come back from 2-0 down at Everton to gain a valuable and confidence boosting point.
The only reason he gets the award is because the ill-advised lunge he made in the penalty area to give Everton their first goal from the penalty spot could have signalled disaster for the team and the club.
When in the dire straights that Newcastle find themselves in you should be able to rely on your experienced pros and you shouldn’t expect them to give away needless penalties.
There’s a few contenders this week. Two more goals for Fernando Torres, a spectacular scissor kick strike by Peter Crouch, Nicolas Anelka finding the net and Jermaine Defoe justifying his England call up. All worthy contenders but this week’s award is going elsewhere.
Wayne Rooney now has three goals in three games having not scored this season prior to the first of those. People had started to question his worth for both Manchester United and England. It always looked as though he just needed a goal to get his season up and running and that is exactly what has happened.
His wonderful goal against Bolton last week was followed by a goal in Europe in midweek and then, on Saturday, he produced a quite sublime finish in the 2-0 win at Blackburn.
Going forward, United looked close to unstoppable and Rooney played a pivotal role in that.
This award goes to Newcastle’s Michael Owen. Not because he played particularly badly or missed any guilt edged chances at the weekend, but because once again he doesn’t make the England squad and is therefore obviously not a hot striker!
The twenty-eight year old striker’s record of one hundred and fifty two league goals at an average of a goal every other game, together with his forty goals for England and five goals already this season in a struggling team obviously do not add up to him being worth a place in the England squad.
I don’t understand it, but who am I to argue with Mr. Capello?
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