Chelsea march on and referees go red card crazy

Rafa Benitez's season lurches from disaster to catastrophe as nine-man Liverpool crash 3-1 at Fulham, but will he be sacked before Hull City's boss Phil Brown? Meanwhile, the remorseless blue machine at Chelsea rumbles on...

ReD, RED WHINES
A record nine red cards were shown over the weekend in Premier League games - take a bow, Barry Ferguson (Birmingham), Jamie Carragher and Philipp Degen (Liverpool), Diniyar Bilyaletdinov (Everton), Vladislav Kovac (West Ham), Carlos Cuellar (Aston Villa), Geovanni (Hull), JLloyd Samuel (Bolton) and Kenwyne Jones (Sunderland). The managers have been running out their usual excuses, and vowing to see the decisions rescinded, but few expulsions were game-changers, with even Liverpool's pair sent off at Fulham after the hosts were 2-1 ahead.

CHELSEA BOOTS BOLTON YET AGAIN
The wobble can officially be classed as over, after Chelsea recorded their fourth consecutive shut-out in all competitions - games in which they have scored at least four goals each time. Carlo Ancelotti was confident enough on Saturday to bench the returning Joe Cole, despite his sterling form, and Bolton will have been happy that the visitors stopped at four - for the second time in a week - having had Jlloyd Samuel sent off in first half injury time.

BYE BYE, BROWN
Phil Brown must surely be the first managerial casualty of the season, after Hull crashed to a 2-0 defeat at Burnley in a game that had must-win written all over it. With his boardroom champion Paul Duffen having resigned last week, Brown needed more luck than he got on Saturday, seeing a dodgy penalty given against the Tigers and what looked like a perfectly good free kick being disallowed for pushing in the wall. He claims to have been assured that his job is safe by incoming chairman Adam Pearson, but the vultures are gathering.

WIGAN PIER ROLLER COASTER
Under Roberto Martinez, Wigan Athletic are enduring one of the topsy-turviest seasons ever in the Premier League. In their last two Premier League games before the weekend, they stormed Burnley's Turf Moor fortress and held Manchester City to a 1-1 draw at home. Before that they also beat Chelsea 3-1. However, the 4-0 thumping by bottom club Portsmouth, and losses to Hull City and Wolves suggest consistency will be hard to come by for the Lancashire side - who are now sans the jailed and sacked Marlon King.

KEANO'S BOOT IN THE MOUTH
Memo to Robbie Keane: engage your brain before you open your mouth. The Irishman's bold claim ahead of Saturday's north London derby that Spurs were "definitely on a par" with Arsenal, and that if anything the White Hart Lane side had a stronger bench, was made to look especially foolish in the 11 seconds of play that it took for Arsene Wenger's side to make it 2-0 and wrap up the game inside the first half. ·