F365 Opinion

The top three go marching on, the next four go limping on, the bottom six go crawling on...

Winners

The League Leaders
Manchester United's record in their six league matches played at Old Trafford since losing at Fulham in December:

Won Six, Scored 28, Conceded 0.

Manchester United's record in their six league matches played away from Old Trafford since losing at Fulham in December:

Won Three, Drawn Two, Lost One, Scored Ten, Conceded Seven.

Manchester United's record in their last six league matches played against Fulham at Old Trafford:

Won Six, Scored 18, Conceded Three.

Manchester United's record in their last six league matches played against Fulham away from Old Trafford:

Won Three, Drawn One, Lost Two, Scored Nine, Conceded Nine.


Who Else But Rooney
Rooney's brace against Fulham has put him four clear of Didier Drogba in the Premier League top scorers chart and within ten of Cristiano Ronaldo's 42-goal haul of two seasons ago.


Dimi Berbatov
The Bulgarian played reasonably well against Fulham but his problem is that Sir Alex is clearly fixed upon a game plan for 'big' matches that only includes a solitary striker. And who else is that going to be?


Nani
The winger's assist for Rooney in midweek was one of the passes of the season. His assist for Rooney's opener against Fulham was a complete mis-hit. When you're on form...


Chelsea
Good stuff, and good enough to justify Carlo Ancelotti's post-match declaration that Chelsea are "in good condition" ahead of Tuesday's meeting with Inter Milan. Jose Mourinho will no doubt argue to the contrary, but the same cannot be said so confidently of the Italians following their Friday night defeat to minnows Catania.

Chelsea will be in even better condition if Petr Cech is passed fit, but it looks as if Ancelotti will have to field rookie Ross Turnbull instead. There are still more questions than answers over exactly why Chelsea signed Turnbull last summer, and the issue took a bizarre twist at the weekend when the Independent reported that 'Chelsea's interest in Turnbull was initiated by their goalkeeping coach, Christophe Lollichon, who vouched for him on the basis of his warm-up before Chelsea's 2-0 victory over Boro last season.'

The warm-up? Well, it can't have been his performance in the actual match because Turnbull was dropped the following week in favour of Brad Jones and remained on Boro's bench for the rest of the season. Just about the only entirely believable aspect of the transfer is Turnbull's reported reaction to being told by his agent that Chelsea wanted to sign him: "Are you sure this isn't a wind-up?"


Didier Drogba
Chelsea should be able to cope without Cech, but what would happen if they lost Drogba? The Ivorian has scored half of their last 14 league goals and netted 12 in his last 12 Premier League appearances.


Florent Malouda
An outstanding performance that must have secured the winger a starting spot against Inter.


Nicklas Bendtner
Three of the six goals scored by Bendtner in his last four matches have been netted into an open goal from an average distance of four yards, but he made his finish at Hull look far easier than it actually was.


Arsenal
At this stage of the season, it doesn't matter how a win is acquired so long as the game is won. Arsenal performed scruffily at Hull, particularly in the second half, but they eventually found a way. They might have also learnt that shooting occasionally is not such a bad policy.

Any concern at the overall quality of their performance should be alleviated by the realisation that they were bereft of four-fifths of their first-choice outfield spine - William Gallas, Alex Song, Cesc Fabregas and Robin van Persie were all absent - and replaced with the hope that Tottenham win their FA Cup quarter-final replay with Fulham. As Arsene Wenger attributed his side's sluggishness to the "mental tension" of playing a midweek European tie beforehand, he'll be desperate for the north London derby's scheduled date of April 10 to be postponed rather than travel to White Hart Lane for an early Saturday afternoon kick-off just a couple of days after the second leg of the Gunners' upcoming Champions League quarter-final.

Make a note in your diary: if the game is rescheduled, it will most likely be played in the final week of the season instead. How the Metropolitan Police must be relishing that prospect.


Joleon Lescott
Other than Adam Johnson, who picked a good weekend to make a headline-grabbing impact, the only City player to emerge from the draw at Sunderland in credit was Lescott. Matthew Upson's position in the England squad as first cover for Rio Ferdinand and John Terry is as worrying as it is debatable. Lescott isn't their equal either, but, like Gallas, he looks a far better player now now he's been separated from Kolo Toure.


Tottenham
Three down, 16 to go. Harry Redknapp last week set his side the target of 19 points from their remaining ten games in order to clinch fourth spot and there's good reason to suspect that such a modest haul would be sufficient. Liverpool, Aston Villa and Manchester City have all won just one of their last four, and so, despite losing four games ago at Wolves, Spurs have been able to take possession of fourth spot courtesy of three successive wins since that ridiculous humbling at Molineux.


Gareth Bale
Great pace, great technique and in great form. With Tottenham short of wide midfielders, Bale's versatility cured one of Harry Redknapp's many headaches on Saturday and gave Michel Salgado twisted blood instead.


Roman Pavlyuchenko
With eight goals in his last six appearances, he's a thorn in Peter Crouch's World Cup side, and has reduced Eidur Gudjohnsen's return to England to the irrelevance of the season.


Wolves
As the only bottom-six side not to lose this weekend, Wolves made significant grounds up the league table with victory at Burnley. Despite still being the lowest scorers in the Premier League, Wolves are now level on points with West Ham and just one behind Wigan. Their trip to Upton Park on March 23 is the next pivotal lower-half fixture of the season.


Bolton Wanderers
Sitting in safety eight points clear of the relegation zone.


Scott Parker
Before this weekend, Parker had taken more shots at goal in the Premier League than any other player without scoring.


Losers

Manchester City
Just what is it that Roberto Mancini has brought to Manchester City apart from upheaval and confusion? Even at this early stage of his tenure, time is surely already running out for the Italian.

The greatest puzzle of all is fathoming just what it is Mancini is trying to achieve with his team and how he intends to achieve it. Mark Hughes, for all his failings, at least appeared to have a clear idea of who and what made up his best team. Mancini, on the other hand, continues to defy the widespread belief that stability is a virtue by operating, seemingly by intention, without a settled line-up or even a settled formation.

At Sunderland, he deployed his team from the outset in what appeared to be a 4-3-2-1 system that included a converted right-back, Pablo Zabaleta, in midfield while Patrick Vieira - who Mancini declared would be City's most important player during their run-in - stewed on the bench. After half an hour, that plan was ripped up. Off went Wayne Bridge, championed by Mancini a few weeks ago as the best left-back in the country, on went Roque Santa Cruz and over went the right-footed Zabaleta to left-back. But not for long. On came Patrick Vieira after an hour, back went Gareth Barry, and over went Zabaleta to right-back. Confused? No doubt he was.


Sunderland
In total this season, they've dropped ten points to goals scored against them in the last ten minutes of matches.


The Officialdom Team For Hull v Arsenal
It wasn't even a difficult decision or a close-run thing. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was meandering into an offside position when Jimmy Bullard moved the ball forward towards Dean Marney, was still a yard-and-a-half off when the pass arrived at Marney, and hadn't moved when his team-mate lifted the ball over Arsenal's straight backline. How did Patrick Keane, whose job as a linesman is to see these sort of things, manage not to see what was literally standing still straight in front of him?

At least Adam Watts, the linesman on the other side of the pitch, must have spotted George Boateng grappling with Nicklas Bendtner because he alerted Andre Marriner to the incident. But he must have also seen something that wasn't apparent to anybody else as Boateng received a yellow card for his red-card offence while Bendtner was cautioned for the crime of having his eye poked.

And we know that Marriner saw Boateng's lunge on Bacary Sagna but something has to be amiss when a late, studs-up, knee-high, injury-inducing foul is only deemed worthy of caution. Just because Marriner was still able to dismiss him on account of his earlier caution shouldn't have made the slightest difference.


Hull City
Until Keane's inexcusable error, Hull were heading for a comprehensive defeat. It goes without saying that Jimmy Bullard's penalty amounted to the one and only shot Manuel Almunia faced all afternoon.

If Hull are to save themselves, their escape must begin in their next four matches: away to Pompey, home to Fulham, away to Stoke, home to Burnley.


The Daryl Harper of Premier League Refereeing
'Howard Webb - Another big match, another big decision error. It is becoming a routine.

'The only excuse that can be made for Webb's failure to spot Ricardo Carvalho's trip on Robbie Keane is that the referee did not have a clear line of sight. But another way of looking at Webb's unfortunate myopia is that he was badly positioned.

'Perhaps there is some sort of directive that dictates that when an attacking player drives into the box then the referee should abandon the centre of the pitch and run directly towards the corner flag because that is precisely what Webb did. Had he continued in a straight line after Keane collected possession then Webb would have been in the perfect position to view the incident. Instead he put himself in a position, blinded right behind both attacker and defender, from which he could not make a decision either way.

'The logic for running in such a direction presumably is that, with the linesman on the other side of the pitch, then at least one of the game's officials should be guaranteed a clear line of sight wherever an incident occurs. If that's the reasoning then the obvious question to be asked is why the unsighted Webb did not opt to consult with his linesman' - Winners & Losers, September 22.

And there he runs again. Watch the replays of the penalties not given at White Hart Lane - one for the home team, one for the visitors - and Webb's position is identical: behind the players, unsighted, and error-inducing. For neither incident does he request the assistance of his linesmen and as a result his error goes uncorrected.

Even more perplexing was Webb's decision to rule out Nikola Kalinic's late goal for a 'handball' brought about by a push in the back, but the biggest mystery of all is his ranking as England's best referee. "I never get him on a good day. He must have good days," mused Redknapp. Woes betide the rest of the world if he keeps his appointment as England's refereeing representative this summer in South Africa.


Aston Villa
Since Christmas, they've collected three points in just two of their nine league games, with four of those matches ending in a 0-0 stalemate.


Carlos Cuellar
Having another six-footer at Stoke made practical sense, but Cuellar, a centre-half playing at right-back, is the obvious fall-guy if Villa do go for a more attacking outlook. Tuesday's trip to Wigan is as good an opportunity as any to reintroduce Luke Young and fresh legs in general.


Nicolas Anelka
Is it a coincidence that having scored four goals in his four appearances in the month of January, Anelka hasn't been on the scoresheet since Drogba's return from the African Nations Cup?


Stoke City
After the FA Cup defeat at Chelsea a week ago, Tony Pulis outlined Stoke's target for the rest of the season by observing that "only one club in the history of the Premier League has managed to overcome second season syndrome and improve upon their points tally from their first season, so that would be a great achievement if we can do it."

And slowly but surely, they're getting there. After collecting a couple of points from the draws with Burnley and Villa, Stoke require just ten more from their remaining nine games to better last year's haul of 45.

Whether that is sufficient to bring satisfaction to their supporters remains to be seen, however. They seem a patient and loyal lot at the Britannia but they're entitled to ask for a little more than illness avoidance. Entertainment would be a start. Stoke have produced just 20 goals in 15 games at home this season, have the lowest pass completion of any side in the division, and the two goals they've produced in their last four games have both been scored courtesy of a Rory Delap throw-in.


Wigan
Hugo Rodallega's winner on Monday night against Liverpool is the only goal they've scored in five games.


Burnley
That is most probably that. And from the looks of things, they won't even have the consolation of sharing relegation with Bolton.


Fulham
Their last away win was at Portsmouth on the first day of the season.

Pete Gill

The Traditional Blatant Plug: Conclusions From The Rather Boring Bahrain GP