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It was a weekend of mixed fortunes for England’s top four sides and when we at Hot or Not say “top four sides” we mean Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and the fantastic Hull City...

Manchester United and Robert Green Hot But His is a Potato

by Andrew McNair (Senior Writer)

32

1098 reads

Rankings/List

October 06, 2008

Football, World Football, EPL, Liverpool, Manchester United, Wayne Rooney , Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres, Arsene Wenger, Robert Green, Rankings/List, Robinho

It was a weekend of mixed fortunes for England’s top four sides and when we at Hot or Not say “top four sides” we mean Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and the fantastic Hull City.

As you can imagine, it was another weekend filled with excitement, goals and controversy but what got Hot or Not’s tongue wagging.

 

HOT

4-5-1 is great for breaking attacking sides spirits but it can be just as depressing for that lone man upfront. Djibril Cisse and Roman Bednar gave everything for Sunderland and West Bromwich Albion with both sides getting great results (Sunderland drew 1-1 with Arsenal and West Brom beat Wigan Athletic 1-0) due in no small part to their contributions. Only Bednar though, was rewarded with a goal.

We’ve all had the dream. The game is level as you come off the bench with the coach telling you “if you get a chance then take it”. Grant Leadbitter wasn’t dreaming but he was in dreamland. To score the “winner” in front of your home support, against a side like Arsenal, in such fashion. Brilliant.

Now if this had been a movie, the trailer would have screeched to halt with a voice over saying that such dreams rarely come true. Oh well Grant you still scored a screamer and it still felt fantastic. And that was just in the Hot or Not studio. The party pooper on this occasion was Cesc Fabregas, with a header would you believe. It certainly was a surprising last ten minutes.

Manchester United didn’t have a particularly good start to the season but they seem to be up and running now. Funny how a great Wayne Rooney performance equalled a great United performance don’t you think?

Hot or Not predicted a successful 2008/09 for West Brom but they hadn’t strung two wins together in the English top flight since 2005. A 1-0 win over Fulham changed all that.

You’d usually expect the save of the week to be by a goalkeeper and Hot or Not must admit it that this week is no different but it so nearly was. Fulham’s Danny Murphy with a fantastic headed goal line clearance then Leighton Baines brave sliding block from a Charles N’ Zogbia point blank effort nearly stole the keepers thunder. That is until Jussi Jaaskelainen superbly tipped Carlton Cole’s deflected effort round the post and Hot or Not’s revolutionary idea’s were put to bed.

A quick mention for Middlesbrough who’s daylight plunder of all three points at Wigan Athletic ended a horrible run of 10 months without an away win in the Barclay’s Premier League.

What a comeback it was by Liverpool at Manchester City (3-2 after being 2-0 down) but forgive us at Hot or Not for not going ape but we’ve seen it all before you know but hey, at least it wasn’t Steven Gerrard with the winner. That might have been too much to stomach. Fernando Torres

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comments (32) write a comment »

  1. reply to comment by Anthony
    about 1 month ago

    Great title. Your right about Rooney. He's the best all round player in the world. Its gonna be fun watch all the people who wrote him off squirm this season. Nice read Andrew.

    1. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Thanks Anthony. Yeah and I dropped him from my fantasy side becauuse of the injury scare...what a chump lol. He was terrific and a much improved United.

    2. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      and thanks for the pick mate. Makes it all worth while.

    3. by Anthony
      from about 1 month ago

      I dropped him too!! absolutely gutted I've had him as my captain every week. 20 points down the drain. Oh well!

    4. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Luckily I have torres and scrambled 61 points :P

    5. by Simon
      from about 1 month ago

      Anthony come on mate, Rooney looks back to his best form but the 'best all round player in the world'?!

      H

    6. by Simon
      from about 1 month ago

      Oops, that is meant to say:

      He's done nothing to justify being called that. A top quality player on his day, potentially one of the best in the world if he makes the most of himself, but certainly not the best at the moment.

    7. by Steven
      from about 1 month ago

      I agree with Simon.

      Certainly not the best at the moment, and with players like Gerrard around it's hard to say best al round player in the world.

      HOWEVER, he had a fantastic game against Blackburn. He's definitely in the best form that I've seen him in for a long time, and he's showing his maturity in his runs and, more importantly, his finishing. If he keeps it up, I will definitely class him as having gone 'up a level'.

    8. by Anthony
      from about 1 month ago

      I knew you'd jump on that simon. I remember reading your "comparison to pele look more laughable by the day comment". Fully justified point of view considering his performances over the last couple of years. But i do really think he is the best all round player in the world. I watched him at old trafford about 3-4 years ago play Newcastle and it was the best performance I have ever seen. He was playing at right back, centre mid, on the wing, upfront, in the hole EVERYWHERE! whilst Ronaldo was losing the ball evertime he got it. I truely believe he's got it in him to be the best player in the world. I expect nothing but laughs from you on that statement which is fair enough with how inconsistant he's been but time will be the judge.

    9. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Not the best in thw world but I agree it was his best game in a United shirt in a long long time.

  2. reply to comment by Myles
    about 1 month ago

    Andrew once again great job with the overview, Liverpool did well with the comeback, despite Skrtel's late injury.

    1. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Thanks for the pick Myles. Yeah you have to hand it to them.

  3. reply to comment by Thomas
    about 1 month ago

    great job Andrew. I thought L'pool would lose that match for sure.

    1. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Thanks for the pick mate. Yeah it seemed destined for a home three points but as we know never count out Liverpool.

  4. reply to comment by Joe
    about 1 month ago

    Another great article in what's quickly becoming my favorite series.

    I'd be willing to wager that not even the most delusional, optimistic Hull City fan would have predicted that they would be sitting above Arsenal and Man United in the table after seven games. Or that they would have looked so good in doing it.

    1. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Thanks for the pick and the kind words mate. Appreciate that a lot.

      Yeah and all that without a Dean Windass goal :P I'd still put a few pounds on him scoring the goal that keeps them up lol

  5. reply to comment by Dev
    about 1 month ago

    Nice overview Andrew!

    1. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Thanks Dev. Glad you enjoyed it.

  6. reply to comment by Michelle
    about 1 month ago

    Great article , Andrew!

    I was changing channels when i saw Crouch's goal , at first I didn't recognize him and went "Hey, a Crouch wanna-be"

    I think not seeing him in a red shirt that confused me. Again. *sighs*

    1. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Thanks for the fan add Michelle.

      haha maybe you just don't recognize him when he is actually on the pitch :P just kidding but he's regaining some serious form and all Portsmouth need to do is sort out the rest of the side.

  7. reply to comment by Anon
    about 1 month ago

    "Hot or Not takes an international break next week but we’ll be back and hotter than ever in two weeks time."

    and how about Notter than ever?

    nice round up! id disagree about the Wes goal, but im just biased, apart from that great roun up. fun read as usual!

    1. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Thanks mate. Glad to know you keep coming back to read. It was a bit soft I admit but the other 9 refs that day would have blown it up and that's where all the frustration comes. United would still have won at a canter.

  8. reply to comment by Yoosof
    about 1 month ago

    once again great article andrew. hull city are definitely red hot at the moment, and so is geovanni. yeah crouch maybe s*** with his head, but with 4 goals in 3 games, he's looking pretty hot. tottenham on the other hand ... well they're just laughable. who knows, we could have the next derby county in the making.

    1. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Thanks very much mate. I can't believe their start...but neither can anyone I suppose haha

  9. reply to comment by illya
    about 1 month ago

    great writing Andrew, always enjoy your wrap-up. I imagine the old Hotspurs in 1912 were probably just jolly tired of the whole damn thing and went down to the public for a few pints and maybe a nice glass of port. It was funny thinking about them for a moment and what they would have been up to.
    Spurs are playing a bit like old Harry Hotspur used to when he went into battle I think, very badly and a little to hotheaded about it. Apparently he was one of the most terrible military tacticians to have been lucky enough to become a historical figure and that was only because of his association with King Henry. His luck seems to have really followed Tottenham this season.

    I could not believe that United's first goal stood, that was almost as bad in its own way as the peno against Bolton.

    1. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Thanks illya. I'm sure they took it just as seriously back then but their boss probably wasn't under fire lol

  10. reply to comment by Ricky
    about 1 month ago

    Juande Ramos putting David Bentley at right back should have made the NOT list as well! Nice write up!

    1. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      Thanks Ricky....Juande Ramos in general, even!

  11. reply to comment by Salomon
    about 1 month ago

    Crouch DID score a goal with his head the other day. Against Spurs!!!

    1. by Andrew
      from about 1 month ago

      haha yeah from 3 yards....and I still thought he'd miss it.

  12. reply to comment by Roberto
    about 1 month ago

    This was a great article to a great title. It sums up what I have said in football.

  13. reply to comment by Andrew
    about 1 month ago

    Thanks Roberto for the pick, the fan add and the kind praise.

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