With matchday 15 of the Premier League all but in the bag, Iain Macintosh brings us his latest installment of Heroes and Villains...
HEROES
Let's brush over the fact that he could have done better for Chelsea's late goal and give Jak Alnwick's fairy tale debut the stardust it deserves. A 21-year-old third choice goalkeeper with just six non-league appearances to his name is hurled into action against the side Alan Pardew dubbed 'the best in Europe,' and he plays a pivotal part in a memorable victory. A confident punch at a set-piece gave him confidence, a fine save from Diego Costa was a highpoint. With Karl Darlow due to arrive in the summer, Alnwick's future at the club looks bleak. This will certainly spice up his CV.
Andy Carroll is back and thus, it is time to witness the power of this fully armed and operational battle station. Until Sunday, the Gateshead destrier had scored only 15 league goals since leaving Newcastle almost four years ago. Goals No.16 and no.17 were timely reminders of why he was once deemed to be worth 35 million pounds. When he's fit, he's almost unplayable. It's not just that he always claims air superiority, nor that he's an enormous pile of surprisingly mobile man-flesh. His positional awareness is excellent. He's the perfect pivot. And he's off the treatment table. For now, at least...
Peter Crouch hadn't started a league game for Stoke for six weeks, but given Arsenal's inability to deal with set-pieces, he was always going to lead the line this weekend. His goal was extraordinary, it looked like someone had thrown two skies through an open door and one of them had knocked the ball in. He was responsible for the third as well, his presence drew the attentions of five Arsenal defenders, his header came from somewhere in the lower reaches of the stratosphere and found Jon Walters in open space. There's no one else quite like Crouch.
Manchester City lost their hero at the front, but were indebted to their hero at the back on Saturday. Joe Hart's incredible late save preserved three points that were only claimed through a contentious penalty. Quite how he managed to stretch his fingers to Romelu Lukaku's shot is anyone's guess. Stricken Sergio Aguero is City's top scorer in the league with 14 goals, but the nearest other names on the charts, Stevan Jovetic and Yaya Toure, have only four. If Manuel Pellegrini's team are to take advantage of Chelsea's slip, they'll need more heroics from Hart before the season is out.
Another goalkeeper to enjoy a good day at the office was Queens Park Rangers' Rob Green. The former England stopper gave his team the foundation for victory with a pair of outstanding stops in the first half hour of their clash with Burnley. The first, from Scott Arfield, was brave and instinctive. The second, from George Boyd, was like Hart's stop; scarcely believable. That this was only QPR's third clean sheet of the season is little reflection on Green's abilities. He's one of Harry Redknapp's most important players.
VILLAINS
The actual result notwithstanding, Jose Mourinho was doing so well. Having just seen the end of his long unbeaten run, he stood in front of the TV cameras with no small amount of class and dignity, telling the world that this was the way he liked to lose, refusing to blame the referee and applauding his players for giving everything. Then he stood in front of the written press and blamed the ball boys for wasting time. Yes, that's Mourinho, the undisputed Grand Mage of the Dark Arts, complaining about time wasting. With a straight face.
You don't get much bang for your buck at Anfield this campaign. Liverpool are so goal shy that you could use their season tickets as sleep aids. Saturday's dismal stalemate with Sunderland was their third blank in eight home league games and they've only scored more than one league goal in front of their own supporters on two occasions. In Brendan Rodgers' first season, there was promise. In his second, there was very nearly success. In his third, there's been only frustration. Two steps forward against Stoke and then Leicester. One big step back here.
Speaking of Leicester, the Foxes' defeat away at Aston Villa was their 10th league game without a win and leaves them rooted to the bottom of the table. It's been all downhill since that 5-3 victory over Manchester United, a result that seems more and more like a particularly weird dream with every passing day. Manager Nigel Pearson's clashes with the club's supporters have been making the headlines of late, but if he doesn't turn this team around, it will be a rather one-sided clash with the club's owners that shifts the newspapers instead.
There's no point picking out culprits in the Arsenal back five, you can find something to pin on all of them. Without Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker is a reduced force, capable only of plaintively mumbling "I am Groot," while the chaos unfolds around him. Damian Martinez and Hector Bellerin are raw and Calum Chambers seems determined to make everyone who cooed over him in the summer look very silly indeed. There have been countless occasions when Arsene Wenger has proved his critics wrong, but his refusal to strengthen at the back this summer is not going to be one of those times. And yet...
You're entitled to be frustrated when you've just spent over 100 pounds on train and match tickets only to see yet more inexplicable uselessness, but there are limits. The Arsenal fans who gathered at Stoke-on-Trent train station to hurl abuse at Arsene Wenger have been quickly disowned by the majority of their comrades, but the video footage has already gone viral. There are, ahem, those of us who felt Wenger's time had come to an end last season, and some felt he should go long before that, but you don't treat your most influential manager since Herbert Chapman like a mercenary striker who's just issued a come-and-get-me plea to Barcelona.