Wayne Rooney is on Hot Form, But Aston Villa's Looney Fan is Not The Norm

Whoever said the Premier League was the most competitive league in the world will have a tough time holding up that argument this week, after three easy wins for three out of the famous four.

Chelsea won 5-0 away at Middlesbrough, Manchester United hammered West Bromwich Albion 4-0, and Arsenal overcame Everton by three goals to one.

Sadly for Wigan Athletic, they couldn’t hold onto their advantage at Liverpool as they surrendered a 2-1 lead late on. Wigan shouldn’t be too despondent however, Liverpool did it to AC Milan too, and West Ham United, and Middlesbrough, and Sunderland, and…

HOT

We will get straight into it with the goal of the week, and you can not look too far beyond Amr Zaki’s fantastic bicycle kick while moving away from the goal at Anfield. It was a great goal on a great stage. The Egyptian striker won’t be at Wigan very long. In second place was Chelsea’s Juliano Belletti, with another long range screamer at Middlesbrough.

Who said Dirk Kuyt can’t score? Plenty of Liverpool fans over the last few seasons that is for sure. Two vital goals this week in the absence of Fernando Torres helped his side to a late comeback over Wigan, as well as silence some of the Anfield moaners.

Was anyone else impressed with Daniel Agger’s forward movement? The big centre back worked tirelessly after his early error and set up Liverpool’s first equalizer with a skilful run to the by-line.

Save of the weekend this week was in the same game. Chris Kirkland tipped Kuyt’s long range drive onto the crossbar while diving at full stretch. Paul Robinson’s touch round the post from a tricky bouncing Matty Taylor free kick during Blackburn Rovers' draw with Bolton Wanderers takes second spot.

So let us get back to that competitive league business. I always thought the Premier League was a highly competitive league. That is until I watched Chelsea’s substitutes, reserves, B team—call them what you want—thrash Boro 5-0 on their own patch. Even sadder when one realises that Middlesbrough are probably a mid table side. Only Frank Lampard, Jose Bosingwa, and a half fit John Terry who started yesterday are among Chelsea’s best eleven.

Hot or Not had a good chuckle while watching Match of the Day on BBC One on Saturday night. The Arsenal versus Everton highlights were on when the commentator said with regard to Everton: “A ground they haven’t won on since 1996.” Oh really, surprising, considering the stadium was only a twinkle in the Arsenal board's eye back then.

Where do we start when talking about Wayne Rooney? The often hated, often criticised England striker is making his critics eat their words with a series of worldclass performances. Yes, Hot or Not said worldclass. Eight goals in his last six games also while setting up more goals, terrorizing defences and tracking back.

Yep, sounds worldclass to us.

Why has Matty Taylor been warming benches for so long? The man with the wicked left peg fell out of favour at Portsmouth under Harry Redknapp last year after a tremendous season the year before. He found his way to Bolton but strangely not into the starting line up. Hot or Not rates the hard working midfielder and here's to hoping he keeps his place in the Trotters' first 11.

NEWS FLASH: Juande Ramos is now doing television appearances. His timing is not great though, ah well, once he has been fired he can at least mix with the locals in Ibiza and he would go down a treat in Gibraltar.

Hull City, Hull City, Hull City. Three times for third in the league, This time last year they were in the bottom half of the Championship, this year they are breathing new life into England’s greatest show. Did we say famous four? Make that famous five—Enid Blyton would be proud.

NOT

Daniel Agger or Pepe Reina? Who was at fault for Amr Zaki’s first goal at Anfield? Reina played the ball short to the centre back who then turned into trouble. Well Zaki to be more precise, who then tucked the opening goal past the Spanish 'keeper.

We at Hot or Not have a question. Is it too easy for referee’s to send off players against the newly dubbed famous four? Liverpool’s win was greatly aided by a sending off and it wouldn’t be the first time.

We are sure we are not alone here at Hot or Not in thinking that Florent Malouda is a fraud. We are sure he was switched at Heathrow Airport. Honestly, they picked the wrong player off the carousel or something.

No NOT section this week would be complete without Middlesbrough. What a shocking performance, with the only positive point being that it was ONLY 5-0.

So, time for gaff of the week. As if picking the ball out of the net four times wasn’t bad enough, Ross Turnbull decided to make it five thanks to a basic handling error, handing Chelsea yet another goal. You can’t blame him though, he was the hardest working player on the park. Chelsea were cruising, Middlesbrough’s attack were spectators with the back four just plain non existent.

Well, in all honesty that was just an excuse for a ramble. The real gaff of the week belongs to Zoltan Gera. Then again, is it really a gaff when you miss the ball completely? Fulham really needed the Hungarian to make contact against Sunderland. Maybe you preferred Jermain Defoe’s scoring touch deserting him at Villa Park? The Portsmouth striker failing to turn in a rebound from all of a few yards out.

It was not England’s top flights best weekend and three 0-0 draws did little to spice up the famous four's big wins.

What was Mark Halsey thinking when he disallowed Wayne Rooney’s first goal? He barely touched the defender and such decisions are an embarrassing freeze frame on modern football—aka the non-contact sport.

We at Hot or Not could be wrong, but we’re sure we saw a man wearing a Middlesbrough shirt at Old Trafford on Saturday. Okay we are never wrong and therefore what the hell is going on? Is Old Trafford now the ultimate tourist spot? I can think of no acceptable reason why a man should have been wearing a Boro shirt. Crazy, no wonder the famous ground can be so quiet, Manchester United’s fans can’t get in.

Kieran Richardson is now officially the unluckiest player in England, after hitting the post three times with the one shot. We know, yes it was impressive. The Sunderland striker’s free kick hit the right hand upright before bouncing across the line and hitting the other post. For just any old unlucky player that is where I would end but not for Richardson. The ball then hit the unaware 'keeper before once again rebounding off the post, this time back into the 'keeper's hands. Well worth a watch. Do it again Kieran.

Well it’s doubtful that Richardson could do it again but Stoke City have released their version. Ricardo Fuller’s penalty hit both posts with Rory “the arm” Delap smacking the rebound off the crossbar. You won’t see anything like that again for a while. Well, at least not until next weekend.

There was sadly one incident this weekend that was no laughing matter. Assistant referee Phil Sharp was struck by an object thrown from the peanut gallery. The coward who threw it walked away while Sharp was left with a rather nasty cut on his head. This has no place in football and Aston Villa’s fans should out the culprit so he can be banned for life and of course, charged with assault.

Is there anyone Tottenham Hotspur can beat? Another loss at the weekend, this time to second bottom Stoke City 2-1. There is a general opinion that Spurs are in a false position but it’s increasingly looking like they are stuck in the mother of all ruts. I bet a few Spurs fans would snap your hand of if you offered them a 17th place league finish today.

It doesn’t help having Martin Jol lauding over them from the top of the Bundesliga with Hamburg.

Heurelho Gomes isn’t a huge fan of his team mates it would seem. Actually, things took a turn for the worse this weekend when the Tottenham keeper Gomes fell out with Vedran Corluka and laid him out while coming to deal with a cross. Poor Corluka didn’t know what had hit him.

The Croatian was left dazed but found the strength to carry on even though he probably wishes he hadn’t. Another cross, Gomes came looking to finish the job and that’s exactly what he did, kneeing the shocked Corluka square on the chin.

Good night Vienna. And good night from us here at Hot or Not.