Can anyone stop Rooney... or even Bendtner?

It's as you were at the top of the table as all three teams chasing the Premier League title won at the weekend, but as ever there was plenty to talk about as the dust settled on another frantic couple of days.

BANK ON BENDTNER
A week ago he was a laughing stock, even among Arsenal fans - but suddenly Nicklas Bendtner is the rival of Wayne Rooney in the dead-eyed finishing stakes. After his midweek hat-trick against Porto the lanky Dane spared Arsenal's blushes with an injury time winner against Hull, that kept the Gunners in the title race.

But his 93rd minute strike was only his fourth league goal of the campaign, and he has as good as doubled his tally for the season in the last week. He is still some way behind Rooney and Drogba with just nine goals to his name in all competitions.

BROWN GETS THE BULLET

Hull City finally ran out of patience with manager Phil Brown after the defeat against Arsenal. Although being Phil Brown things had to be done a little differently - ratehr than being properly sacked he has been relieved of his duties and placed on gardening leave until the end of the season.

It seems a strange decision to sack Brown after an extremely unlucky defeat. The Tigers fought bravely to hold on to a 1-1 scoreline against title challengers Arsenal, despite being down to 10 men after George Boateng was sent off. Hull are in deep trouble, lying second bottom of the table, but with nine games left it is surely to late to find someone who can rescue their season.

In any case the appointment of assistant boss Brian Horton and Steve Parkin hardly suggests there is a replacement lined up. Hull's next game is against doomed Portsmouth, if they fail to win that then it will surely be all over.

ROONEY GOAL MACHINE

Will Wayne Rooney ever stop scoring? The United striker took his tally for the season to 32 with another brace against Fulham on Sunday. The likelihood of him passing 40 for the season is now quite high as United have at least 10 more games to play and potentially as many as 13. Rooney is scoring at a rate of more than a goal a game at the moment so could he even challenge Denis Law's record of 46?

The England man is not just scoring goals either, he helped set up the first by feeding Nani down the left wing and then sliding home the Portuguese winger's cross. He was instrumental in the third goal as well, finding Park Si-Jung with a raking crossfield ball that David Beckham would have been proud of.

FLORENT AND THE BLUE MACHINE

Manchester United and Wayne Rooney's success this season has been built on excellent wing play - but Florent Malouda of Chelsea produced the best all-round performance in a wide position this weekend.

The Frenchman has not always looked convincing during his time at Stamford Bridge, but he was on hand to set up two of Chelsea's goals against West Ham and scored another.

BUNGLING BURNLEY

If Burnley go down this season as looks increasingly likely then their prformance against Wolves would be a good indicator of why. First there were some howlers at the back. Brian Jensen was lucky to escape with a yellow card after his bizarre charge out of goal and wild butting of Kevin Doyle, and Tyrone Mears presented Wolves with the opening goal when he left his keeper stranded with a weak back header (although Jensen perhaps could have reacted quicker).

Then there was the usual dose of bad luck - Danny Fox was injured and had to be stretchered off in the first half and then Adlene Guedioura's shot took a wicked deflection off Clarke Carlisle and went in.

Brian Laws must already be wondering how long he can keep his job.

GOALS GALORE

It has become almost commonplace this season but it was yet another bumper weekend for goals - unless you had the misfortune of being at the Stoke v Aston Villa game, which finished scoreless.

Birmingham and Everton shared four goals between them, Bolton and Chelsea both hit four in their respective wins, while Spurs found the net three times as did Manchester United on Sunday.

After this weekend the total number of goals scored this season now stands at 807 - with Arsenal contributing the most, with 71 of them.

SCHIZOPHRENIC WIGAN

Wigan are showing no signs of becoming any less flaky as the season progresses. Roberto Martinez's men have beaten Liverpool and Chelsea this season - but also went down 9-1 to Spurs and contrived to follow up their impressive victory over Liverpool with a 4-0 capitulation to Bolton.

The Latics are now just four points clear of the relegation zone. They should have enough to stay up, or rather the teams below them don't look as if they have enough to overtake them, and if they do stay in the Premier Leauge, Martinez will have to make consistency a priority. ·