Premier League Heroes and Villains

In this week’s Premier League Heroes and Villains, JOE salutes Blackpool and a rejuvenated Yaya Toure, while getting a dig in at the tempestuous Mario Balotelli.

By Conor Heneghan

Heroes of the weekend

Blackpool: We’ve lost count of the amount of times we’ve written off Blackpool so far this season, whether it was identifying them as relegation dead-certs or repeatedly asserting that their fine run of form was a fluke ahead of an inevitable demise. They have proved us wrong again on a number of occasions this season and did so again at the weekend when claiming a fine away win over Stoke City at the Britannia Stadium, never an easy place to go at the best of times.

Saturday’s victory was the Tangerines’ fourth away from home this season and brought their tally of points gained on the road to 14, six more than they have accrued at Bloomfield Road. Their league position (10th) is still quite modest, but if at the start of the season, you had told an average Blackpool supporter that with nearly half the season gone, they would be on the same points as Liverpool (22) and have a game in hand on the Scousers, they’d have committed you to the nearest lunatic asylum.

Yaya Toure: Previously written off as a money grabbing, overpriced and overpaid prima donna, Toure has turned on the style in recent weeks, to the extent that critics are now praising the wisdom of Roberto Mancini for playing somebody who was previously recognised as one of the world’s best defensive midfielders in a more advanced role.

Whether it is just a case that Toure is now producing the goods because it took him time to settle at Eastlands or that his current run of form will turn out to be the exception rather than the rule remains to be seen, but Toure certainly has looked the part of late.

On Saturday against West Ham, he showed real drive, real power and no little skill to score twice against the struggling Hammers, following on from his goal against Fulham a few weeks back. Not quite the finished article yet, but the days of him fighting with James Milner and leaving the ground at half time after being substituted are firmly in the past.

Andy Carroll: Continues to dull the impact of his appearances on tabloid front pages for his deeds off the pitch by making sure he is plastered across the back pages for his displays on it.

As he has been so often this season, he was too hot to handle for Liverpool at the weekend, setting up Kevin Nolan’s opener with a trademark magnificent leap and adding the finishing touches in the 3-1 win with a smashing drive from the edge of the box. When he’s off form, he’s still an uncomfortable presence for any defence in the Premier League; on current form, he’s virtually unmarkable.

Villains of the weekend

Mario Balotelli: He had a reputation in Italy for his temperament and it hasn’t taken him long to carve out a bad boy caricature for himself in the Premier League. While fellow new boy Yaya Toure stole the spotlight against West Ham, Balotelli missed a sitter from two yards, got booked for dissent and flew into a rage when manager Roberto Mancini (rightly) replaced him with Adam Johnson, who went on to score City’s third goal of the afternoon.

Not much love between Balotelli and Mancini on Saturday

The annoying thing is beneath the attitude and the sulking, Balotelli is an exceptional talent. At 20, he’s still only very young though and the sooner we see a more mature Balotelli the better for both Manchester City and the Premier League.

Fulham: It is fast becoming more than a coincidence that the side that have now drawn ten Premier League games this season are managed by the same man who was sacked from his last job because of his apparent fondness for stalemates. Fulham under Hughes are devoid of any sort of ambition, any sort of leadership and have lost their strength at Craven Cottage, which was the key to them doing so well under Roy Hodgson.

Their position in 17th in the Premier League is entirely deserved and they are lucky that Wigan, Wolves and West Ham have been so awful this season or it could be far worse for the Cottagers.

Liverpool: Speaking of Hodgson and of patterns repeating themselves, it seems as if the travel sickness that so afflicted Hodgson at Fulham has been carried into his new job at Anfield - The ‘Pool have yielded only five points from nine away games and scored only six goals in the process. Sure, a lot of it is down to the mediocre players at Hodgson’s disposal, but when the man in charge had such a terrible away record in his last job, questions must be asked of Woy’s tactical mentality away from Anfield.

Goal of the weekend

Stuart Holden: Holden is given the nod this week for the timing as much as the quality of his goal. After being reduced to ten men following the dismissal of Mark Davies, Bolton grabbed an unlikely opener through Fabrice Muamba, but looked like they were going to be denied a vital win thanks to Mame Biram Diouf’s 87th minute equaliser.

Enter Holden, who immediately from the resultant restart, pounced on Kevin Davies’ flick on, chested the ball down and hit a sweet left volley to the net to seal all three points for the Trotters.

Manager of the weekend

Roberto Mancini: Having raised doubts about Mancini’s future at Manchester City earlier in the season, we must admit that we have come to admire the Italian as City have surged up the table in recent weeks. We’re still not fans of his ultra-cautious set up, but he has definitely got the best out of new signings Yaya Toure and David Silva, while the way he has refused to pander to the spoiled brat behaviour of the likes of Mario Balotelli and Carlos Tevez earns him the thumbs up in our book.