Tough choice this week between Tottenham and Chelsea. Tottenham’s last minute win over league leaders Liverpool following on from their last minute draw at The Emirates puts them well in the frame for this award.
Chelsea have bounced back from their defeat against Liverpool last week with two absolute master classes in their midweek 3-0 win at Hull and Saturday’s 5-0 thrashing of Sunderland.
On the basis that Tottenham’s win owed much to character and determination, rather than ability, because let’s be honest, Liverpool should have won comfortably, I give this week’s award to Chelsea.
I wrote yesterday’s article about the disappointing performance of Arsenal at Stoke. Sunderland went down 5-0, Manchester United conceded three at home to Hull, Portsmouth lost at home and Manchester City were pretty abysmal in their defeat at Bolton.
Despite all that, Arsenal are the clear winners of this title for me this week.
This one goes to Bolton’s unsung hero Jussi Jaaskelainen. He made his 400th appearance for the club yesterday in their 2-0 win over Manchester City and made three fine saves with score at 0-0. He has consistently been one of the best keepers in the Premier League and at the age of thirty-three and having completed over ten years at Bolton, he shows no signs of any drop in standard.
You have to go to North London to find the ‘not hot keeper’ this week. Gomez of Tottenham and Almunia of Arsenal are two keepers who do not appear to be good enough to be playing at this level.
Gomez has looked, at best, shaky, since he arrived at White Hart Lane, and he inspires absolutely no confidence.
Almunia needed to be strong and dominate his area against the threat of Stoke and he failed to do so in any way. On the basis that Gomez did make at least one very good save, the award this week goes to Almunia.
Tottenham without Ledley King are about half of the side of Tottenham with Ledley King. It is as simple as that. Spurs were absolutely battered by Liverpool on Saturday and King’s ability and organisational skills helped Tottenham to stay in the game, before completing an unlikely victory.
It is a great shame for Tottenham and England that Ledley has suffered so many injuries. I really believe he could have been one of the greats of the game.
I love Rio Ferdinand and have proclaimed him to be the best defender in the world. Having said that, he was dreadful at Everton last week and looked really suspect again on Saturday against Hull City.
He gave away a silly penalty that could have cost and embarrassed United. He is a wonderful player but he deserves this award on this occasion.
Frank Lampard has been criticised by just about everyone in football other than his club managers. They have each declared him to be the best as they know exactly what he brings to the team. Saturday saw him notch his 100th Premier League goal, a remarkable record for a midfielder.
Another wonderful player suffering from a loss of form is Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas. He was astonishingly good in the first half of last season, but fell away a little after Christmas. He then played a bit part in Spain’s European Championship victory and went straight into this season without much of a break.
He looks to be a shadow of the player we all know he can be and I wonder if he needs a rest?
I have named him as the ‘not hot striker’ on more than one occasion and have made my feelings about him simply not being good enough to play for Chelsea very clear indeed. Now that he has bagged a Premier League hat-trick on Saturday and gone top of the Premier League goalscorers table I suppose I have to recognise Nicolas Anelka.
I still don’t think he is good enough but I have to accept that the facts do appear to be speaking for themselves.
I’m not picking on Arsenal but this has to go to the wonderful talent but petulant personality of Robin Van Persie. What he did was nothing short of ridiculous, and for Arsene Wenger to say he shouldn’t have been sent off is equally daft.
Van Persie needs to lose this side of his game because he has all the skills to be one of the best in the world.
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