• Home
• Archives
• Advertise
• Write for Us
• About
• Contact

• Latest News
• Soccer Stats
• Live Scores
• Transfer News
• Editorial
• Betting
• Tickets
• Football Kits

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

Despite not in any way being a Manchester United fan I am often accused of having a bias towards them. So today, despite the clinical performance in the drubbing of Chelsea, I am not giving them the award.

Earlier in the season they were playing some exceptional, fast, attacking and exciting football. At the moment they aren’t quite producing the same level of brilliance, but what Aston Villa are doing is continuing to pick up points.

On Saturday, West Brom were a little unlucky to leave Villa Park with nothing, but leave with nothing they did. Villa are starting to consolidate their place in the top four and are doing so without playing particularly well. In Gabby Agbonlahor and Ashley Young they have two match winners who are fast becoming the players of the season.

I’m afraid that on yesterday’s showing, this award does have to go to Chelsea. They looked disorganised and frankly disinterested at times. None of their big players looked up for the game at all. Terry and Carvalho were dominated by Rooney and Berbatov, Lampard and Ballack were out fought and out played by Giggs and Fletcher and Drogba and Anelka, when he came on, got absolutely nothing out of Vidic and Evans.

I’m not sure exactly what is wrong at Stamford Bridge but they better sort it out quickly or, if yesterday’s performance is anything to go by, they will soon drop out of the race for the title.

Edwin Van Der Saar has been good this season but I can’t give this award to him because I don’t think he actually touched the ball with his hands in the game yesterday at all! Apart from dealing with a few pass backs, he did absolutely nothing.

I didn’t think any goalkeeper particularly stood out this week so I have to give the award to one of the others who kept a clean sheet. That narrows it down to five. Kirkland for Wigan, Almunia for Arsenal, Howard for Everton, Sorensen for Stoke and Reina for Liverpool.

A look at the figures shows that Van Der Saar, Reina and Howard had no shots to save. Kirkland, Sorensen and Almunia had just two each.

I’ll give it to Sorensen as he hasn’t won it before!

I’m afraid this has to go to West Brom’s Scott Carson, not for the first time this season. He made some great saves in his team’s defeat at Aston Villa, but had a total horror show for the second goal. In the Premier League, keepers just can’t afford to make the number of mistakes that the hapless Carson makes.

He is undoubtedly a decent keeper but he has never fully recovered from the nightmare of the England against Croatia fiasco at Wembley.

I am a huge fan of Rio Ferdinand, Jamie Carragher, John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho but I am beginning to think that the best defender in the Premier League may well be Nemanja Vidic.

He was absolutely immense against Chelsea yesterday and didn’t put a foot wrong. He even chipped in with the opening goal.

In these days of £32 million transfers, the £7 million that Sir Alex spent on the Serbian back in 2006 looks like one of the best pieces of business the Premier League has seen.

As I’ve said, I am a huge fan of Ricardo Carvalho but yesterday at Old Trafford was not one of his finest games. He looked uneasy and hesitant. He fouled a lot and then had a go at the players he had fouled.

All in all, it was one of the worst games I have ever seen him play.

When a list is made of the best foreign players to play in the English Premier League it is rare that Everton’s Mikel Arteta gets much of a mention. He has been a loyal servant to the club and his consistently good performances are a huge part of the reason why David Moyes has turned them into a European qualification chasing team on a regular basis.

Another stunning free-kick from him on Saturday saw them home against a disjointed looking Hull side who are sliding alarmingly down the table.

Didier Zokora has become a regular in Harry Redknapp’s starting eleven for Tottenham. I watched the game at Wigan yesterday and thought that Zokora gave his team, as they say, the square root of f**k all!

I haven’t seen that much of him and can only assume that he is normally considerably better than that.

Many people, myself included, have said that Michael Owen is not half the player he used to be. England boss Fabio Capello doesn’t seem to rate him highly and it could well be that his international career is over.

He made his fiftieth league start for Newcastle on Saturday and scored his twenty-sixth goal. An average of more than a goal every other game. That is an average he has kept up throughout his career and he has done it recently in a struggling side.

Can anyone give me the name of another English striker who is so prolific in front of goal? No? He’s still the best we’ve got.

I think a worthy winner of this award this week is Chelsea’s Didier Drogba. I only realised he had been playing in the game at Manchester United when I saw his name on the teamsheet after the game had finished!

He looked like he didn’t want to be there. He looked totally unhappy and out of sorts. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him leave the Bridge over the next couple of weeks.

League Matches, Euro Competitions & World Cup Qualifiers - Tickets for all major teams in Europe!

Related Items from SoccerNews.com:

• Nancy’s Marc-Antoine Fortune targeted by West Bromwich Albion
• Redknapp writes off Arsenal’s title chances
• Droylsden’s appeal fails
• Ballack rules out Liverpool’s title charge
• Inter to rescind Adriano’s contract?

Written by Graham Fisher · Tags: Editorial, English Premier League 

| Subscribe to SoccerNews.com

Comments

Home | Best Online Casinos | Soccer Games | Mobile Stuff | Soccer Videos | Soccer Babes | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy | Partners | Contact

Copyright © 2006-2009 SoccerNews.com