Here’s a look back at the good, the bad, and the ugly from week nine of the Premier League.
Cheers
- David Silva: The Manchester City midfielder has been one of the best players in the league so for this season.
- Queens Park Rangers: They did enough to hang on against Chelsea and came away with three points.
- Mario Balotelli: The enigmatic Italian has worked his way into the City starting line-up and has become a constant threat on the pitch.
- Rafael van der Vaart: The Tottenham forward’s brace was all the scoring that the Spurs needed this weekend.
- Blackburn’s set pieces: One positive for Rovers was that they looked very organized and deadly when they lined up for a set piece.
- Arsenal: The Gunners continue their ascendancy up the table.
- 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.
- John Ruddy: The Norwich keeper delivered eight crucial saves in the draw at Anfield.
- Sunderland: A fine road performance for Steve Bruce’s side.
- Royston Drenthe: His long distance smash might have been the goal of the weekend.
- Bryan Ruiz: Not to be outdone by Drenthe, Ruiz put home a left footed chip shot to score one for Fulham.
- 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.
- Newcastle United: Very quietly, the Magpies are still undefeated.
- Scott Sinclair: The Swansea winger terrorized the Wolves’ defense and provided service for his striker Danny Graham all match long.
Jeers
- 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).
- Jonny Evans: I don’t know Evans can remain in the starting eleven for United as his sending off summed up his season.
- 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.
- 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.
- Steve Kean: The protesters are out in numbers. It seems that Kean should be renting not buying at the moment.
- 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.
- Phil Dowd: The referee made several dubious calls, as it seemed the match got away from him.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
Note: Readers can follow Matt @thehackreport
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