Here’s a look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly from week nine of the Premier League.

Cheers

  1. David Silva: The Manchester City midfielder has been one of the best players in the league so for this season.
  2. Queens Park Rangers:  They did enough to hang on against Chelsea and came away with three points.
  3. Mario Balotelli: The enigmatic Italian has worked his way into the City starting line-up and has become a constant threat on the pitch.
  4. Rafael van der Vaart: The Tottenham forward’s brace was all the scoring that the Spurs needed this weekend.
  5. Blackburn’s set pieces: One positive for Rovers was that they looked very organized and deadly when they lined up for a set piece.
  6. Arsenal: The Gunners continue their ascendancy up the table.
  7. Norwich: The Canaries have now played at Chelsea, at Manchester United, and at Liverpool and they have given a good account of themselves in each fixture.
  8. John Ruddy: The Norwich keeper delivered eight crucial saves in the draw at Anfield.
  9. Sunderland: A fine road performance for Steve Bruce’s side.
  10. Royston Drenthe: His long distance smash might have been the goal of the weekend.
  11. Bryan Ruiz: Not to be outdone by Drenthe, Ruiz put home a left footed chip shot to score one for Fulham.
  12. Wolverhampton: Down early, Wolves fought back to earn a point against Swansea. By doing so, it gave their fans a reason to cheer for the first time in a long time.
  13. Newcastle United: Very quietly, the Magpies are still undefeated.
  14. Scott Sinclair: The Swansea winger terrorized the Wolves’ defense and provided service for his striker Danny Graham all match long. 

 

Jeers

  1. The foul on Shane Long:  Alan Hutton’s tackle on Long was uncalled for and Long eventually had to be removed from the match with a knee injury (he’ll now be out for six weeks).
  2. Jonny Evans: I don’t know Evans can remain in the starting eleven for United as his sending off summed up his season.
  3. Manchester United: Not normally in the jeer column, but United has not played quality football in over a month.  During Sunday’s match, the Red Devils gave up during the second half of the match.
  4. Chelsea discipline: The foul that lead to the penalty kick was suspect.  But then they continued on with nineteen fouls, seven yellows, and two red cards.
  5. Steve Kean: The protesters are out in numbers. It seems that Kean should be renting not buying at the moment.
  6. Liverpool:  Norwich is playing better than most have expected, but this is the type of fixture is one that the Reds need to win if they want to compete for a Champions League spot.  A club with so many highly regarded scorers needs to find a way to put the ball in the net.
  7. Phil Dowd:  The referee made several dubious calls, as it seemed the match got away from him.
  8. The John Terry racism allegations: Another week, another claim of racism against a Premier League player. Much like the Suarez accusations, there is no room for any of this in football.
  9. Bolton: Statistically, it can be said that Bolton outplayed Sunderland, but it is still about results and a home loss to the Black Cats is not a good result.
  10. Bobby Zamora: The Fulham star could have given his side the lead in the match against Everton, but he missed a gaping-wide open goal.
  11. Swansea’s second half performance: Over the first thirty minutes, Swansea played outstanding football, but they let up and allowed the Wolves to come back and score two goals to tie the match.
  12. Barry Bannan: Luckily, no one else was injured because of Bannan’s drunk driving crash.  Hopefully, this is a wake-up call for the Villa midfielder to make sure his name is in the paper for his play on the pitch and not for his indiscretions off it.
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