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Who's Hot and Who's Not?

United were great in their 5-0 win but I can’t give it to them because I reckon my Wilton Town side could beat Portsmouth at the moment!

We could go for Burnley, who got their first win for Brian Laws, or Liverpool who battled their way to a derby day win. Birmingham deserve a mention for making it just one defeat in seventeen games and Chelsea were excellent in going back to the top of the league.

I’m actually going to give this award to a team who have won my ‘Not Hot’ team award on more than one occasion. To follow upo a draw against Chelsea with a win over Manchester City was a really fine performance by Phil Brown’s Hull City. They are worthy winners this week.

West Ham were rubbish, ManchesterCity were not much better. Despite that, how can this award go to any team other than Portsmouth? It is difficult to kick someone when they are down but that was a truly pitiful display. I worry that Pompey might pick up this award a few more times before the season is finished.

Fulham’s Mark Schwartzer is one of the most consistant keepers in the Premier League. He rarely makes a mistake and Fulham’s rise to being a top half side is in no small part down to him.

He kept another clean sheet on saturday and he deserves this award for his decent saves in that game and because I just think he deserves some recognition.

Can anyone explain why David James didn’t come to catch the cross from which Wayne Rooney gave United the lead on saturday? Can anyone explain why he was so slow to react to the deflection on Nani’s cross for the second goal? I know I can’t, so I’ll just have make him this week’s ‘Not Hot’ keeper.

Burnley signed left back Danny Fox in the transfer window and the news hardly made a splash on the back pages. In his first game, however, he made a goal with a long through ball and then curled in a brilliant free-kick for a second goal. Those two goals gave Burnley their first win under Brian Laws and lifted them out of the drop zone. Debuts don’t get much better for a defender.

Liverpool could have done with eleven men on the field in their titanic battle with city neighbours Everton. They really didn’t need their centre half to put in a two footed studs up tackle in the first half to get himself sent off. Of course, the tackle was no worse than Everton’s Fellaini put in on him in the same 50-50 challenge, but the man with the weird hairdo got away with it. (Please see not hot midfielder.)

The fact that Fellaini was bad as well doesn’t excuse Sotirios Kyrgiakos.

I’ll be honest, I had never heard of Mohamed Diame. I certainly have now. How hard did he hit that shot for Wigan’s goal at Sunderland? What a great goal that was.

I’ve given Marouane Fellaini the ‘Hot’ and ‘Not Hot’ award this season and I have to say that his recent performances have begun to win me over. On saturday he reverted to type and put in a horrible potentially leg breaking tackle. He should be ashamed.

Wayne Rooney continues to score but this week the award is between two players.

The evergreen Kevin Phillips gave a masterclass when he scored two late goals to give Birmingham their win after coming on as a substitute. He is one of the most underrated strikers of the last decade.

Just ahead of Phillips however is the brilliant Didier Drogba. His two against Arsenal yesterday made it twelve goals in ten starts against the Gunners and they must be sick of the sight of him.

I was going to give this award to an Arsenal player as they drew ablank at Chelsea but then realised they didn’t actually have any strikers so that would be difficult!

Instead, I am going to give it to Pompey’s Danny Webber. He didn’t play any worse than anyone else at Old Trafford but I just think he is a ‘Not Hot’ striker. I’m a Watford fan and when he played for us he only ever played well if the TV cameras were there and he has failed to keep a regular place in Championship teams since then. Whoever thought he should be signed at a Premier League club needs to have a serious look at their understanding of football.

Last 5 posts by Graham Fisher

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