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Premier League HOT or NOT: Sterling, Gullit, Borini, Sturridge

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What is sexy, and what is unsexy, in football this week…

HOT

Raheem Sterling
The transformation of Euro 2016 Raheem Sterling to Premier League 2016/17 Raheem Sterling has been remarkable - and we’re not just talking about his haircut. Resembling a man who was terrified of the very concept of football during England’s doomed summer in France, the £50m forward has started the domestic season looking like a man who might one day actually be worth £50m. With two goals and a performance brimming with confidence and quality, Sterling was Manchester City’s best player in the 3-1 win against West Ham. Has he, perhaps, found Pep Guardiola a more inspiring figure to work with than Rod Hodgson?

Ruud Gullit
Despite being an affable man and a phenomenal player, as a pundit Gullit has always left the impression that he doesn’t really watch many football matches anymore, unless maybe Chelsea or Manchester United are playing. But on Saturday’s episode of Match of the Day, he transcended mere analysis. As goalscoring God Alan Shearer was answering a question about how strikers overcome lean spells (“You have to keep believing in yourself blah blah”), Gullit waded in. “Or I just put him on the bench,” he interjected, a reference to the time he famously dropped Shearer in a Tyne-Wear derby against Sunderland while manager of Newcastle (and was subsequently sacked). Cue an enormous belly laugh from the Dutchman, and Shearer - the self-styled King of the Sofa - looking slightly emasculated. Gullit literally doesn’t give a solitary hoot.

Drinkwater/Vardy
Riyad Mahrez may have won player of the year and N'Golo Kante is already bossing it at Chelsea, but Leicester’s all-English combination was just as vital in the Foxes’ title-winning campaign and it could be even more important this year. Vardy’s emphatic strike against Swansea - from Drinkwater’s perfectly weighted ball over the top - was the epitome of classic Leicester. It was Vardy’s first goal of the season and it helped the Foxes to their first win. But more significantly, it was evidence that last season may not have been a footballing aberration caused by a calamitous glitch in the matrix. Rather, Claudio Ranieri may have actually assembled a team of good players who can have another excellent season.

NOT

Fabio Borini
When you win a free-kick in a perfect position about 20 yards from goal, the best thing that can happen is you fire it straight into the top corner and score. But what’s the worst thing that can happen? Fabio Borini, bless him, has provided the answer. Stepping up to take the dangerous-looking set piece against Southampton, the Sunderland forward pondered deeply for a long time before scuffing a feeble effort straight at the goalkeeper. Then he fell over. Borini stayed on the floor for a while until it transpired he had actually injured his groin while scuffing the free-kick, so he was substituted. Tragic.

Daniel Sturridge
We know the Liverpool striker prefers to play as a centre-forward rather than a winger, because he very publicly announced it after Jurgen Klopp deployed him on the right side of an attacking triumvirate in the Reds’ 2-0 defeat at Burnley. But perhaps a more pertinent question is, does Sturridge prefer playing as a winger or a substitute? He didn’t seem to enjoy the bench-warming role very much in the 1-1 draw at Tottenham, based on his comically aggrieved expression when Klopp opted to bring on fellow sub Divock Origi in the 69th minute instead of the England man. Evidently, Klopp wanted to give Sturridge the maximum time to sit down considering whether winger was such a bad position after all.

James McCarthy
If only Roberto Martinez had been appointed manager of Barcelona rather than Belgium, Everton’s Irish international would probably be on his way to the Nou Camp right now. Instead, he appears to have been ousted from the Toffees midfield by a 35-year-old and a man who has just been relegated with Aston Villa. The deep love Martinez had for McCarthy does not appear to be shared by his successor Ronald Koeman, who prefers Gareth Barry and Idrissa Gueye in the middle, leaving the former Wigan player set for an unexciting move to somewhere like Crystal Palace. Until Martinez wins the World Cup with Belgium and finally gets that Barcelona job.

@darlingkevin