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It's Hot or Not time again. A look back over the weekend's English Premier League action with my view on what was hot and what was not. Before I start, I just have to mention Stoke City's Amdy Faye...

Chelsea's Deco Hot But Arsenal's Adebayor Not

by Andrew McNair (Senior Writer)

41

1,091 reads

Game Recap

August 25, 2008


It's Hot or Not time again. A look back over the weekend's English Premier League action with my view on what was hot and what was not.

Before I start, I just have to mention Stoke City's Amdy Faye. I remember him starting twice for Glasgow Rangers last season.

Both times he was yanked off at half time! What was he doing back in the EPL?

Winning it appears!

Undoubtedly the hottest point to be taken from the first two weekend's is the total unpredictability of the results. My pools coupon was knackered by Stoke City, Fulham, Hull City and Sunderland to name just a few.

HOT

Ricardo Fuller - Did he really mean that? His flick before that perfect finish was superb and even better for a journeyman striker. The Jamaican had a blinder of a game and led the Stoke line perfectly.

Stoke City - The newly promoted side fought hard against Aston Villa and what makes this win even more impressive is the fact they were hammered last week 3-0 by Bolton. A 3-2 win over the side that hammered Manchester City 4-2 isn't bad at all.

Fulham - A wonderful win over Arsenal. Fulham were the better side on the day and were full value for their three points. I remember saying Fulham would be a better side this season.

Keane and Torres - The glimpses are there and it's going to get scary. These two will eventually form the EPL's most formidable striking partnership.

Liverpool's Luck - The Reds are grinding out results and neither were cup final's! The ability is a clear improvement for Liverpool and a bit of luck goes a long way. All the way up to a title challenge hopefully.

Steven Gerrard - As I mentioned in an article this week about the England captaincy. Can John Terry or Rio Ferdinand do that? Steve saves Liverpool again and again and it's inspirational.

Djibril Cisse - The Sunderland new boy returned to England with his usual dodgy haircut, an even worse beard, but a truly perfect header and a spot in every Sunderland fans' heart.

Chris Brunt - West Brom's Northern Irish lefty impressed me against Everton with some great touches. One to watch out for.

Leon Osman - I called him out last week after another energetic performance. This week he repay's me with Everton's opener. Love it.

Shay Given - In South Africa we called penalties "peanuts." Given saved Newcastle's blushes at home to Bolton with a fine save from Kevin Nolan's spot kick. Then cometh the hour, cometh the man, Michael Owen, to score the only goal of the game.

Stuart Attwell - The EPL's newest referee. Do you want to know how old he is? 25! Fair play to him though, he did well.

Jason Roberts - Another I told you, so same story again. I mentioned him last week and my faith has again been repaid. He was brilliant for Blackburn and opened the scoring.

Richard Garcia - A great looping far post header to earn Hull a point at Blackburn.

Deco -

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41 comments Last one added 10 months ago — Leave a Comment

  1. Khalid Shakran 10 months ago

    Nice article. I don't mean to brag here, but you forgot Mido. He's scored in both premier league games he played in, especially after not attending the full pre-season schedule Boro attended to.

    But other than that, you're spot on with your choices. I agree with most of them.

    Thanks for the article.

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  2. Salomon Gonzales 10 months ago

    I know you mentioned Wigans impressive game against Chelsea but im sure you didnt fail to notice that most of it was down to Palacious. He skinned Bosingwa time and again. An absolute thorn in our defence. But same as Mido I suppose, if he does well next week he'll probably be in..
    Enjoyed the read though....

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  3. Joe G 10 months ago

    Excellent read, Andrew. Is this going to be a weekly thing?

    You could make a case for Hull City being in the 'hot' column. Already, it looks like they'll surpass Derby County's mark for futility before too long. Four points from two games is a pretty good haul for a newly promoted club.

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    • Andrew McNair 10 months ago

      Thanks for the pick Joe. Yeah I'm going to try make it a weekly thing. Still working on the format and it'll take a few weeks to get it right.

      Hull have been great yeah but I felt it was a poor Blackburn rather than a hot Hull :)

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  4. Ismail Ayub 10 months ago

    And btw Mido was a SUB each time he scored...

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  5. Shyam Parthasarathi 10 months ago

    Ade played a lot better against Fulham.. unlucky not to score on that occasion.. let's hope he gets his tally up and running.

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  6. Dakota Rubin 10 months ago

    A fantastic weekly feature. Great work Andrew.

    The season is only two weeks old but already full of fun and intrigue.

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    • Andrew McNair 10 months ago

      Thanks for the Pick and edit Dakota. I love taking notes all weekend to write this piece and as I mentioned above I hope I can still improve the feature.

      Glad you enjoyed it.

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  7. John Ray 10 months ago

    I'm not sure if you actually have watched the Arsenal contests from reading this article. Adebayor was the best player on the pitch in both contests.

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    • Andrew McNair 10 months ago

      Adebayor the best player in both games? Well I suppose we all have our own opinions.

      He constantly ran into a brick wall against West Brom and couldn't score against Fulham.

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    • John Ray 10 months ago

      It reallllllllllllyyyyyyy seems like you didn't watch the matches. Nearly all of Arsenal's chances have gone through him.

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    • Andrew McNair 10 months ago

      And Arsenal have scored 1 goal in those two games against much weaker sides...

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    • John Ray 10 months ago

      Last time I checked one player cannot beat 11 no matter the circumstances (excluding Maradona and Messi)

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  8. Andrew McNair 10 months ago

    Oh and one more thing!

    HOT........Darren Fletcher (Man Utd's top scorer)

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  9. Salaar Arshad Shamsi 10 months ago

    Where is Fletcher?! enjoyed the read, Andrew.

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  10. Zahi Sahli 10 months ago

    nice article. khalid says you forgot mido, i say you also forgot amr zaki. he was amazing against chelsea. you don't like egyptians, do you? lol.. interesting series nonetheless. i agree with all your picks. that garcia header was astonishing!

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    • Andrew McNair 10 months ago

      Sorry mate...a goal would def have got him in....I do like Egyptians, they have a great national team. I must be honest and say I don't like Mido tho :P

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  11. Andrew Kearney 10 months ago

    re: Anelka dive.
    You're going to have to enlighten me here, I don't remember any incidents of Anelka diving in the match.
    I do remember him being clearly tripped in the box and not getting anything for it though.

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    • Andrew McNair 10 months ago

      Well we all have our opinions I guess....for me it was a dive.

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    • Yoosof Farah 10 months ago

      I'm sorry Andrew (Andrew Kearney) but that was blatantly a dive. I saw the game and Anelka did not get clearly tripped in the box, it was a blatant dive that should've got a yellow card. We all have our opinions but how can you say that wasn't a dive.

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  12. Thomas 10 months ago

    I love ur hot or not articles.

    I really think Stoke City will do well in the EPL.

    and yes, Fletch was hot this week.

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  13. Myles Cameron 10 months ago

    Great read man, I look forward to more through the coming weeks, Lets hope Rafa can get a decent left winger to support the Keane/ Torres partnership. Look out in the coming matches for the likes of Babel and Mascherano.

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    • Andrew McNair 10 months ago

      Thanks very much mate for the pick of the day. Yeah I feel another winger to compliment Babel would complete the side in an attacking sense.

      Hope to hear from you again next week.

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  14. Anders Edling 10 months ago

    I don't think Adebayor should be the not it should be the Arsenal midfield because they gave him no service at all. Let alone every Sagna cross went to the other touch line which was really effective for the Arsenal offense.

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  15. Stefan Vasilev 10 months ago

    Nice article but Kolo Toure played well vs Fulham. :) His hair maybe a side effect fromt he malaria.

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  1. Yoosof Farah 10 months ago

    Nice article mate. I agree with all of them there. Liverpool got lucky again, Wigan should've beat Chelsea, I'm glad you mentioned Anelka's silly little dive, Toure looks weird, and yes Fuller did mean to do that flick. Also looking from the other comments, there's no need for me to mention Mido's exclusion from the list. Apart from that, I agree with all of them, and I look forward to seeing whose hot and whose not next week.

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    • Andrew McNair 10 months ago

      Thanks mate. Appreciate the comments. Fuller used to play up here in Scotland so it's good to see him skinning the EPL.

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  2. illya mclellan 10 months ago

    nice article dude finally got around to reading it, great to see Cisse back in the league and in the goals, I think Keano's made a good move there as long as no-one breaks his leg in the next few games, fingers crossed. He could really mark his place as one of the best strikers to have played in this league. Pity he was so unlucky at Liverpool with the injuries and Benitez not liking Frenchmen(did I say that is that true?hahaha). I love watching the guy, he's a natural.

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  3. Andrew McNair 10 months ago

    Thanks bud. He might have liked him if his name was more spanish :P

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