After a weekend where West Ham sprung the biggest surprise, and a couple of aging strikers reminded the fans of form from days of yore, Iain Macintosh is back for another instalment of Heroes and Villains...
HEROES
So often a villain this season, silver-haired lightning rod Alan Pardew returns to the heroes column with a bang. One goal down at half-time, the embattled Newcastle manager made two changes and 13 minutes later his team were 2-1 up. While legitimate concerns remain, this is a result and a performance that has changed the mood in the northeast. Back-to-back victories have propelled the Magpies up the table, with the added benefit of plunging Sunderland into the bottom three. Pardew looked doomed a few weeks ago, but has he somehow turned it around?
After their exploits against Manchester City, you could dub any one of the West Ham players a hero, but Alex Song still found a way to stand out in a good way, for once. At Arsenal, Song used to struggle to find the balance between his defensive responsibilities and his desire to show off his attacking prowess. Saturday was his Eureka moment. He fought manfully in the centre of the pitch, was bold enough to push up and support the attacks and was smart enough to know when to do it. He, like West Ham, has rarely looked so good.
Jose Mourinho doesn't trust his birth certificate, but Samuel Eto'o is still a class act. The Cameroonian legend's pace may have gone, but the class that has characterised his career is still very evident. Two goals will put his name in the headlines, but it was his wider performance against Burnley that will keep him in the side. His little flicks and his clever turns sometimes went unnoticed at Chelsea, but he's warmly appreciated at Everton. He's selfless and smart, and he could easily have had a hat trick against Burnley.
He didn't appear in many "signings of the summer" lists, but Gylfi Sigurdsson is proving to be quite the acquisition for Swansea. They knew all about him, of course, having had him on loan in 2012, but he's an even better player now. Tottenham Hotspur couldn't see it, but Sigurdsson is intelligent, determined and hugely creative. He assisted Wilfried Bony for the first goal and made another with a cutting pass that allowed Jefferson Montero to find Bony for the second. Manager Garry Monk thinks he's one of the most underrated players in the Premier League. He's right.
Those Manchester United fans who said they were desperate to see a performance from the good old days should have been more specific. The only person rolling back the years at Old Trafford was Didier Drogba. Like Eto'o, he's not as swift as he once was, but who needs pace when you can rise like an intercontinental ballistic missile at the near post and smash crucial headers past hitherto unbeatable young goalkeepers? Jose Mourinho needed a strong showing from his third-choice striker. What a shame for him that United's first-choice striker was equally prolific.
VILLAINS
There are times when Edin Dzeko can look absolutely unplayable; powerful, brave and inventive. He was unplayable on Saturday too, but only in the sense that he shouldn't have played. He's supposed to be the physical focal point for some of the world's most talented footballers, a pivot for their genius, as well as a clinical front man in his own right. He is not supposed to be neutralised by James Collins and Winston Reid and hidden from view. Dzeko's better moments have bought him a lot of patience with the City fans. It will wear thin if there are many more like this.
Crystal Palace manager Neil Warnock called it "an assault," which might have been overplaying it somewhat, but you could understand his anger. Julian Speroni was wiped out by Craig Dawson at a corner, felled by an elbow that might not have been deliberate, but was certainly reckless. That West Bromwich Albion scored as Speroni lay flat on the ground will only have intensified Warnock's fury. Dawson had an eight yard run-up and led with his elbow, like a ice-breaker, smashing through the floes. Generally, that sort of thing is frowned upon in the Premier League.
Poor Vito Mannone. Though he made a number of impressive cameo appearances for Arsenal during his seven-year spell with the club, he was never able to prove himself to Arsene Wenger. Sixteen months after his departure, that remains the case. Only Mannone will be able to explain precisely what he was doing when Will Buckley slipped the ball back to him in the final moments of Sunderland's defeat to the Gunners. He seemed set to clear it with his left foot, but panicked and chose to poke it gently with his right. Wenger ne regrette rien.
Ok, hands up. Who was it? Which soon-to-be-disciplined member of Manchester United's coaching staff was responsible for marking at set-pieces? No, Louis van Gaal didn't have many tall players at his disposal on Sunday, but surely there was a list of priority threats? You might dismiss this column as the rambling wibble of a know-nothing, rent-a-gob hack, and you might very well be right, but surely you'd have put someone taller than The Shire's Rafael on Didier Drogba at corners? That's just common sense, isn't it?
Last week, Stoke's Ryan Shawcross grabbed onto Wilfried Bony and hugged him like a lover at a train station, leaving for a distant war. Referee Michael Oliver gave a penalty. This week, Chris Smalling wrapped himself around Branislav Ivanovic's neck like a Hogwarts scarf and hauled him to the ground. Referee Phil Dowd was entirely unmoved. It always seem churlish to demand robotic consistency of fallible humans, but even Manchester United fans could surely understand Jose Mourinho's frustration on this one. Albeit, while pointing and laughing at him.