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

  • Hot team
  • The winning teams so far this weekend are Everton, Fulham, Stoke, Tottenham, Chelsea and Liverpool. With Manchester United winning the Premier League title with their 0-0 draw against Arsenal, they have a strong claim to this award. However, these are awarded on a week by week basis and in truth, United weren’t terribly good on Saturday.

    I’m giving this week’s award to Fulham. They continue to win games and keep clean sheets. They are still in pole position for the last Europa League qualifying place. They have been and continue to be, an absolute revelation.

  • Not Hot team
  • There are a few teams who could challenge for this award this week and controversially I’m going to go for a team that managed to get a draw. Middlesbrough are as good as relegated after they held Aston Villa to a 1-1 draw on Saturday. In the first half they didn’t play too badly but the second half was a different matter entirely.

    When Villa got back into the game and put the pressure on Middlesbrough, when the team needed to show some spirit and some fight and some passion to get the three points needed to have a chance of maintaining their Premiership status, all the players vanished. They had no spirit, no fight and no passion. With one or two exceptions like Tuncay, they should be ashamed.

  • Hot keeper
  • I’ve chosen Bolton’s Jussi Jaaskelainen for this award a couple of times before but I make no apology for picking him again. Hull battered Bolton on Saturday but Jussi stood firm. In amongst a few good saves he made one absolutely astonishing save.

    For my money, there are few, if any, better than him in the top league at the moment.

  • Not Hot keeper
  • There were no particularly poor goalkeeping performances over the weekend, although David James doesn’t play until this evening!

    I’m going to give this award somewhat harshly to Newcastle keeper Steve Harper. Teams at the bottom need their keeper to be at the very top of their game. On Saturday, Harper wasn’t. He made Fulham’s goal easy by committing himself too soon and then by not having a good starting position, he forced Bassong into making a challenge that led to him being sent off.

    Neither of these matters were mistakes as such, but they may cost Newcastle dear.

  • Hot defender
  • A couple of years ago when he was at Wigan, left back Leighton Baines looked like a serious challenger to Ashley Cole for the England slot. His form suffered a dip when he moved to Everton, but this season, particularly latterly, he has looked back to his best and a real international prospect.

  • Not Hot defender
  • From being an England prospect in his Reading days, Aston Villa’s Nicky Shorey has become a shadow of his former self since he move.

    I don’t know why he cannot reproduce the form he showed at Reading but his performances this season have been really poor. Maybe he can recover from this ‘lost season’ and get back to his best next time around. I hope he can, but he has got a long way to recover. One can only hope he recovers in the way that Leighton Baines has.

    Hot midfielder
    He was a controversial signing in some ways but Arsenal’s Andrey Arshavin looks to be worth every penny that was spent on him. Considering how little football he has played in England, his performances are of the highest standard.

    If Arsenal are going to be a serious threat next season, Arshavin is likely to be one of the main reasons why.

  • Not Hot midfielder
  • Can anyone explain to me why El Hadji Diouf is still playing in the Premier League? What exactly can he offer other than the occasional late challenge, spitting at people and generally walking around the pitch in a sulk?

  • Hot striker
  • When he was at Fulham he was, at times, simply unplayable. He earned a move to Manchester United where he scored a few goals but things didn’t really work out for him. Louis Saha was plagued by a series of injuries and was moved on to Everton.

    He has once again been unable to stay fit for any length of time but he still looks to be a handful on the rare occasions that he makes it onto the pitch.

    I was really pleased to see him bag a couple of goals on Saturday and hope that after a Summer break he can come back to pre-season in good health. If he does, he could still turn out to be one of David Moyes’ best pieces of business.

  • Not Hot striker
  • I have no doubt that thirty-three year old striker Diego Tristan was once a fine player. In his days with Deportivo when he was capped by Spain, he was obviously top quality.

    He isn’t now.

    Last 5 posts by Graham Fisher

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