The New Season..

[Mossfinn]

Arsenal of course

Arsenal because..................

Jude

[redrus]

Thought this looked the best place for this....!

u]Manchester United Fly The Flag as Joey Barton Loses His Rag:[/u]

Welcome to the first Hot or Not of 2009 with me, Andrew McNair, celebrating 300 articles on Bleacher Report.

Manchester United have clawed there way to the top of the Barclays Premier League for the first time this season, thanks mainly to Liverpool and Chelsea misfiring but also ten clean sheets in a row.

HOT

Where else could we start this week but with the Man United defence? Ten shut outs in their last ten top flight games is just one clean sheet away from a new record. United’s form has been magnificent since their stuttering start and are surely favourites to push on and win the title.

United won their game 1-0 over Bolton Wanderers thanks to a late Dimitar Berbatov goal but Nemanja Vidic is my star of the last ten games. Rio who?

It was great to see Stoke City’s new striker, James Beattie, back in the top flight. The former Everton player didn’t look out of place in his new side’s late 2-1 defeat at the hands of Chelsea.

Stoke’s superman, Rory Delap, was in the headlines again but this time for a silky finish with his feet—who’d have thought he can kick the ball too?

The title race may not be such a forgone conclusion if Chelsea have anything to do with it. They showed real courage in overcoming the determined Stoke and it is wins like those that win clubs titles.

Winning was probably even more important for “Big Phil” Scolari as a loss would have put him under some serious pressure from a certain Russian. The fact the players chose to celebrate with their coach after their injury time winner says a lot I feel.

Lastly from Stamford Bridge, one must say “well done Frank Lampard“, who celebrated 400 games at Chelsea with the winning goal.

It was wins all round at the top of the table with 10-man Aston Villa coming from behind to beat Sunderland 2-1 at the Stadium of Light. The Villains have a bit of steel too.

Well one doesn’t often see Titus Bramble in the dizzy heights of the Hot section of Hot or Not but his goal line clearance from Robinho’s sublime effort was well worth a mention.

Manchester City won the game over Wigan Athletic 1-0 with the home side showing a certain team spirit after Richard Dunne had been given his marching orders, a real team effort keeping Wigan out.

What is it with Daniel Cousin? He may as well go to Barbados between big games. The Gabon and Hull City striker only scores against big teams and proved it with Hull’s equalizer at the KC Stadium against who else but Arsenal.

Save of the week: This week, the honour goes to Hull’s Boaz Myhill after his finger tip save from a powerful curling Robin Van Persie free kick.

Arsenal showed some serious guts in coming back from the blow of Cousin’s equalizer to win the game 3-1. It was a good weekend for England’s “softer” starting 11’s.

After a great start to the season, Jason Roberts hasn’t had it all his way this season but two goals in Blackburn Rovers 3-0 win over Newcastle United signalled a return to form for the big striker.

Just to prove no one is safe from relegation this season, West Bromwich Albion hammered Middlesbrough to get within touching distance of Premier League safety. Maybe my choice of West Brom to stay up at the start of the season wasn’t so bad after all.

Goal of the week: Easy enough choice, Paul Konchesky’s Sunday screamer during his Fulham sides 3-1 defeat at West Ham United. If he wasn’t left footed we would have called it a swinger.

redrus

[mrbojangles]

Thought this looked the best place for this....!

u]Manchester United Fly The Flag as Joey Barton Loses His Rag:[/u]

Where in the article did it mention anything about Joey Barton

Or was my speed reading a little too fast

[redrus]

Thought this looked the best place for this....!

u]Manchester United Fly The Flag as Joey Barton Loses His Rag:[/u]

Where in the article did it mention anything about Joey Barton

Or was my speed reading a little too fast

I thought that was the only mention he needed....!

redrus

[redrus]

Just read through this thread again, well well well, we all made some rather dodgy predictions, especially at the bottom. I think my United prediction was the only sound one (touch wood).

Liverpool it seems, surprised everyone exept one person....?

redrus

[technocracy]

:D

How wrong you all were about the mighty potters!!

Mind you all the media wanke_rs have now made an about turn about Stoke and are eating humble pie with one particular Bookies taking out a full page ad in the local paper apologising for paying out after 1 match that we would be relegated.

We hate you all even more that you hate us!

Edited May 2, 2009 by technocracy

[MSingh]

Who was that " Expert " who wrote about T*ttenahm & West Ham ???

[ThaiPauly]

Just goes to show...what do us "experts know"

Stoke have had a fine season, but nobody really expected it...they are team of fighters, battlers ad scrappers, no really big names, but they play well as a team, they remind me of the Reading I knew two years ago.

They win ugly...but the win, especially at home Techo was right about the Brittania Stadium fans, they are worth a goal, shame they could not suck one in yesterday, I predicted a 1-1 draw.

Someone said Boro would finish as the top north-east team, well its not much of a fight with all of them looking at potential relegation.

I think the only thing I predicted correctly was Arsenal to finish 4th...and thats pretty predictable anyway

I may have a few mid-table positions right, but will have to wait and see.

Yeah, and I said Chelsea would win the league, had Hiddink been there from day one I think they would have

Not that I really care who wins it