Premier League and FA Cup - Who’s Hot and Who’s Not

The candidates are Chelsea, Everton, Tottenham, Manchester City, Portsmouth, Stoke and Sunderland. They all won, but look at who they were playing. Tottenham beat a desperately poor Newcastle, City beat a desperately poor West Brom, Portsmouth beat a desperately poor Bolton, Stoke beat a desperately poor Blackburn and Sunderland beat a desperately poor Hull.

It has to be one of the FA Cup finalists but look at who Everton beat - Van der Sar, Neville, O’Shea, Evans, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, Scholes, Giggs, Berbatov, Rooney. That’s the United team that didn’t start the game!

Through the process of elimination, the Hot team have to be Chelsea who beat a pretty good Arsenal team.
# Not Hot team

Basically all the losing teams, together with Middlesbrough who could only draw at home, are in the frame for this award.

The winner for me, by a mile is the Hull City team who went down at Sunderland to leave them with just one win in seventeen games.
# Hot keeper

To make a couple of fine penalty saves for your team is great for a keeper. To make them at Wembley to put your side through to an FA Cup final is even better. To do so against your old team, the World and European champions is just the icing on the cake.

There is no doubt that this week’s Hot keeper is Everton’s Tim Howard.
# Not Hot keeper

The good news for West Brom’s Scott Carson is that someone had an even worse game than him this week. It can’t be easy for a young keeper to step into a team and play in an FA Cup semi-final at Wembley. At least, I imagine it can’t be easy after watching the pretty poor efforts of Arsenal’s Lukasz Fabianski on Saturday!

The first goal beat him at his near post and the second goal…well, where on earth did he think he was going!?
# Hot defender

He’s had a great season and received England recognition. He has become one of the best defenders in the Premier League and yesterday, he struck home the penalty that took his team to Wembley.

Whilst Nemanja Vidic was absolutely immense for Manchester United, this award goes to Everton’s Phil Jagielka.
# Not Hot defender

Poor old Newcastle haven’t really had the type of reaction that many of us, including me, thought they would have to the appointment of Alan Shearer.

A defeat to Chelsea, a draw with Stoke and a pretty tame defeat yesterday at Tottenham has hardly been what Shearer must have been hoping for.

In amongst that performance yesterday was a particularly poor showing from one of this season’s signings, Ryan Taylor. The way he played sort of summed up Newcastle’s season so far. He was all over the place.
# Hot midfielder

I have been his biggest critic since he came to the Premier League, but I truly believe he has deserved it. Florent Malouda has been the biggest waste of money since Shevchenko or Alves…OK, there have been quite a few, but he has been rubbish!

All of a sudden, under Guus Hiddink, he has started to look like an international footballer. He scored Chelsea’s first goal on Saturday and had an all round good game. At last, we are beginning to see what Chelsea paid for.
# Not Hot midfielder

I love Paul Scholes. He is a true legend of the game and a true great. However, when he came on a substitute yesterday I was really pleased because I thought we might see a bit of quality that had been sadly missing from the game. The one thing you know about Scholsey is that he will just never give the ball away.

Yesterday, and against Porto in the first leg of their European tie, Paul did very little other than give the ball away. Form is temporary and class is permanent, so they say, but Scholesy is suffering a terrible blip in his form. He will always be a class act but I wonder if his days are numbered.
# Hot striker

He has had a very poor season by his standards and he has never been far away from controversy. Didier Drogba has looked like a shadow of his former self for much of this season.

He has become another player who seems to have blossomed under the guidance of Guus Hiddink and his performances against Liverpool in Europe and against Arsenal on Saturday, where he scored the winning goal, were right up there with his best.

When he is in form he is a frightening prospect for any defender. Nobody will fancy marking him between now and the end of the season.
# Not Hot striker

I am fed up with defending Dimitar Berbatov. He is a great player with a wonderful touch and outstanding vision.

He came on as a substitute yesterday and offered his team-mates absolutely nothing. He then took a penalty in the shoot out that must have been one of the worst penalties ever taken by a so-called international footballer.