Weekend Awards: Etuhu, Mignolet, Barton and Spurs among the worst and best
With the weekend now behind us, and all ten Premier League games tidily tucked into the space of two days for a change, MirrorFootball's Karl Sears looks at the winners and losers from the third round of fixtures.
Finish of the week: The first award of the week goes to the cool finish by the usually goal-shy Dickson Etuhu.
Manager Mark Hughes said afterwards that he was keen to see the midfielder get forward more often, and it's clear to see why. With his side 2-1 down inside the last five minutes, his cool chip over the on rushing Matthew Gilks gave Fulham a share of the points.
Honorable mention to: Nani, Kevin Davies and Luke Young
Save of the week: Bravo, Simon Mingolet. The relatively unknown Belgian stopper produced easily the best save of the weekend. Emmanuel Adebayor's powerful flick from inside the six yard box seemed set to hit the net and give City an important 3 points. Step forward Mingolet. His left arm instinctively rose to tip the ball over the bar and put Sunderland on the way to their first win of the season.
Honorable mention: Robert Green and David Stockdale
The 'Foot like a Traction Engine' Award: The phrase 'netbuster' is a term that's spouted around far too often nowadays, for never have I seen a shot literally 'bust' a net - until this weekend. Granted, Theo Walcott's shot may not have exactly burst through the goal and into the crowd, but his low drive past Paul Robinson did break a string in the Ewood Park goal, and for that reason alone he is worthy of this honor.
Honorable mention: Nani and Glenn Whelan
The 'Oh dear ref' Award: There weren't too many nominations for this award this week, which is good for football, but bad for jovial football award compilers like myself. But luckily there was still one stand-out example of bad judgement from Stuart Atwell. Wolves' Matthew Jarvis burst into the Newcastle box and was crudely down by James Perch's badly timed challenge. Penalty? Nope. The award of a spot-kick would have given Wolves the chance to take a 2-0 lead and a strangle hold on the game.
The 'Maybe we should have seen that one coming' Award: Tottenham 0 - 1 Wigan. Yes, hindsight is a beautiful thing and many people (including myself) got a little carried away with recent form and the one-sided scoreline from last season. But if we'd have thought a little harder could we have predicted this?
Last season Spurs found it very hard to break down teams who came to White Hart Lane to defend and make things difficult, namely Wolves, Stoke and Hull. And after their midweek heroics perhaps a case of 'after the Lord Mayor's show' was always going to be on the cards.
Honorable mention: Wolves 1 - 1 Newcastle
The 'Most boring game of the weekend' Award (as decided by the Match of the Day panel): Congratulations Wolves, who have had this dubious honor two weeks running. Their 1-1 draw with Newcastle was awarded the 'last match' slot on Saturday night.
The 'Well played mate' Award: Joey Barton probably hasn't won too many awards for remaining calm in the face of stern antagonism, so this could be a first.
Wolves manager Mick McCarthy's game plan on Saturday was fairly clear. Rough up Joey Barton, get him to react and get him booked. Wolves performed their part of the plan admirably, with challenges at Molineux that wouldn't have looked out of place in St Helens or Wakefield. But Barton wasn't playing ball and kept his temperament throughout, despite more than a handful of full-blooded challenges.
Honorable mentions: Roberto Martinez, Nani, Sylvan Ebanks-Blake
The Captain Mainwaring 'You Stupid Boy' Award: On any other weekend a comedy own-goal or a happy-slapping goalkeeper would have won this award at a canter. But Carlos Tevez's first half miss against Sunderland was pretty special.
Yaya Toure had done all of the hard work; run into the box, lure the defender and goalkeeper towards him and complete the move by rolling the ball for Tevez to shoot into an open goal. Or over an open goal, as it turned out.
At a time in the match when City were beginning to dominate, a Tevez goal would have totally changed the game and for that reason, claims this award.
Honorable mention: John Pantsil and Jussi Jaaskelainen
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