Premier League – Who’s Hot and Who’s Not? *Hot team Manchester United won 4-0 away from home with a makeshift defence yet I’m not giving this award to them. This week it must go to their city rivals who followed up their Carling Cup quarter-final win over Arsenal with a league win over champions elect Chelsea. Mark Hughes’ men ended a run of seven straight league draws with a fine win that may have just announced their arrival as a top four team. *Not Hot team Bolton are on the slide. They are playing poorly and it is difficult to see how they can stop the rot. They were poor in their defeat in the six-pointer at fellow relegation strugglers Wolves and they are starting to look doomed. I would guess that Gary Megson’s days as the boss are numbered but I don’t think a new manager could get much more out of the current group of players. *Hot keeper Young Pompey goalkeeper Asmir Begovic was excellent in their 2-0 win over Burnley. Manchester United’s recently third choice keeper Tomasz Kuszczak also performed well in his side’s win at West Ham. They both deserve a mention but the award this week, not for the first time, goes to Manchester City’s Shay Given. He is the best keeper in the Premier League and it is a terrible shame that Henry’s hand cost him a chance of showing the world how good he is in South Africa next summer. *Not Hot keeper Just a couple of weeks I said that Petr Cech is getting back to his best. I think I may have been wrong. Manchester City’s winning goal came from a well hit Carlos Tevez free-kick, but it went two yards inside the post on the side of the goal Cech was covering. It was poor keeping and if Chelsea are going to win things this year they can’t afford to lose games due to goalkeeping errors. *Hot defender Michael Carrick has never played at centre-back in his life. At least he hadn’t until he came on as an early substitute at West Ham on saturday. He settled into the role as though he had played there all his life. With the defensive injury crisis at Old Trafford he may well get another chance to show that he can do it. *Not Hot defender Stoke’s Abdoulaye Faye must have been thrilled when he saw that Arsenal were playing only one up front and that one was Andriy Arshavin. Ninety minutes later he would have been less pleased. The little Russian gave him the absolute run around for the entire game. *Hot midfielder Three stunning goals in a week and Darron Gibson has finally arrived at Old Trafford. He has been on the fringes of the first team for quite a while in much the same that Darren Fletcher was. Many people questioned whether the Irishman was good enough to make it at the top but Sir Alex obviously saw something worth persevering with. It looks as though the manager may have got it right and with the wonderful Paul Scholes talking of retirement it has the feel of the old master handing over the baton to his young replacement. *Not Hot midfielder I’ve given him the ‘Hot’ midfielder award several times over the past couple of years so it is only fair that I acknowledge when he has messed up. Frank Lampard had a chance from twelve yards to get a point for his side and keep Manchester City in their place. He failed miserably with a really poor spot kick. *Hot striker After a slightly barren spell Manchester City’s Emmanuel Adebayor has started finding the back of the net again. He started the season in fine form but after his suspension due to his bizarre behaviour against Arsenal he had failed to recapture that form. Now he is back and he scored again in the win over Chelsea. He is a real handful when he is at his best and he will be crucial to City’s attempts to try to break into the top four. *Not Hot striker Liverpool’s Dirk Kuyt. It was nothing specific in their poor blank firing performance at Blackburn. I just think that Kuyt is a ‘Not Hot’ striker for a side who have pretensions to win the title.
