Gail Force: Five things we learned from the Boxing Day football

Dimitar Berbatov has still got it but Ashley Cole appears to be losing it and Andy Carroll is just unlucky

Berbatov's still got it

One of the sadnesses of modern football and the prevalence of large squads is the talent that does not get to play. Given the circumstances of his departure, Spurs fans may think Dimitar Berbatov deserves all he gets, but for the rest of us the Bulgarian's re-emergence is a delight. He is perhaps too much his own man to play regularly at the very highest level, and his lack of pitch-time is presumably the result of his tendency to slow the game down, but he remains one of the few players it is worth focusing on even as the game happens elsewhere.

Berbatov seems somehow engaged in a permanent act of self-irony, as though demonstrating how illogical it is that 75,000 people should turn up to watch 21 other players hurtle around in pursuit of a ball. His shoulders seem hunched in an eternal shrug, his face forever expressing a bewilderment that people should strive so hard for what comes so naturally and easily to him. Would he be a better player if he didn't have that quality that Walter Smith once euphemistically described as "economy of movement"? Perhaps, but he wouldn't be the same player, and he wouldn't be such fun.

Against Fulham last week, he scored a deft spinning backheel, a goal that was quintessential Berbatov in its louche understatement. On Boxing Day, he contrived one goal by leaning into his marker, as though even standing up while scoring were too much of an effort, before adding a second with a magnificently smooth turn before a whipcrack finish with the outside of his right foot. That he completed his hat-trick with a penalty might have seemed banal, had he not left Ali al-Habsi kneeling with a shuffle in his run-up before rolling the ball past him.

Berbatov's contract expires at the end of the season, and it may be that with Wayne Rooney, Javier Hern�ndez and Danny Welbeck, United decide they don't need him. If such a decision gets him more game time elsewhere, that may not be a bad thing for the wider world.

Nobody is better at shape than Hodgson

Even watching just the highlights it was beautiful to see: a line of four white shirts then, in front of it, another line of four that expanded and contracted according to the position of the ball, like some mythical monster that always returns to its original form no matter what pieces are hacked off by its opponents. Even Manchester City, with all their buzzing creators and the maverick genius of Mario Balotelli conjured only a handful of half-chances against West Bromwich Albion.

The experience of Liverpool raises questions about how transferable his methods are to a higher level, but Roy Hodgson is the perfect manager for West Brom. At Fulham, players acknowledged that training sessions were repetitive and tedious, featuring constant work on position, often without using the ball. Simon Davies admitted there was some resistance, until they saw the effect on the pitch; as they qualified for the Europa League the fact that training was boring didn't seem to matter ? it was a means to a worthwhile end.

A top-seven finish is probably beyond West Brom this season, but the "shape and discipline" Hodgson praised after the game should be more than enough to ensure they finish comfortably above the relegation scrap.

Carroll is unlucky

Luck is the great unspoken in football, playing a far larger part than is usually admitted. A mathematician at All Souls College, Oxford, calculated that even to cancel out the impact of opponents' form (ie, it is easier to play a team after they have just lost four games than when they have just won four games), a season would need to be seven times longer than it is at present. One moment of good luck can give a player a surge of confidence, add an extra fraction of determination and decisiveness to his game; one moment of bad luck can have the opposite effect.

Andy Carroll may be struggling at Liverpool, but there have been signs he is not far off a return to form. Against Manchester City, he was denied a winner only by a superlative save from Joe Hart. On Monday, it was Blackburn's Mark Bunn who denied him, plunging to his right and slightly backwards to shovel Carroll's effort wide, a save so remarkable that Blackburn's players congratulated him almost as though it had been a goal. Carroll did nothing wrong with either the attempt against City or against Blackburn: but for the misfortune of finding two goalkeepers in exceptional form, he would perhaps be being hailed as the man who found two late winners.

On the other hand, he also put a good headed chance just wide a few minutes before Bunn's save; but then had he scored against City, had he had that extra surge of self-belief, he may have found the extra inch in his leap that would have guided that on target and Bunn's late save would have been an irrelevance.

The danger is that he comes to believe ? as Fernando Torres perhaps has ? that he is doomed and nothing will ever work again; but if he keeps meeting crosses like that, the goals will come eventually. Not every goalkeeper can save their best to deny him.

Sunderland's Curse of the Carrot-Tops may be over

Most Sundays, David Corner goes for a drink with the friend he shares a taxi business with in Sunderland. At least twice each Sunday afternoon, his friend reckons, somebody will come up to him and say, "Yer should've just put it out, Davie lad." Corner now works for Durham police. A couple of years ago, he was called to a disturbance in Seaham where a man was going berserk with an ornamental sword. All attempts to reason with him failed until he caught sight of Corner's flaming ginger hair. "Are yiz ? are yiz Davie Corner?" he asked disbelievingly. Corner confirmed he was. The man dropped the sword and offered his hands to be cuffed. "Yer've not had much luck, son," he said. "So I'll give yer this 'un. But, Davie lad, why didn't yer just put it out?"

Whatever he does for the rest of his life, Corner will always be remembered on Wearside as the 18-year-old defender who tried to shepherd a through-ball out for a goal-kick in the 1985 League Cup final, only to have the ball nicked off him by John Deehan. His cross was half blocked and fell for Mick Channon, whose shot was deflected in off the chest of Gordon Chisolm, the only goal in Norwich's 1-0 win.

Corner hung around for 33 league starts before carving out a reasonable career at a lower level with Darlington and Gateshead, but he stands as the apogee of the curse of the carrot-tops. Since the departure of Micky Horswill for Manchester City in 1974, terrace wisdom has doubted that any ginger-haired player will ever play well for Sunderland: Corner is part of a dread tradition that includes Ian Wallace, Steve Whitworth, Tommy Lynch, Nigel Saddington, Gary Ogilvie, Chris Lumsdon and Paul McShane.

Perhaps, though, that is beginning to change. The Newcastle game and the last-minute gift to Wigan aside, Wes Brown has been commanding, classy and solid at centre-back, while Jack Colback, who scored his first goal for the club against Everton on Boxing Day ? albeit with the help of a significant deflection off Sylvain Distin ? is calm and composed in possession.

It may be that he, David Vaughan and Lee Cattermole are too similar ? tidy rather than explosive or imaginative ? to be truly effective together, but Colback is further evidence of a productive academy. Jordan Henderson and Martyn Waghorn have already brought the club �19m in transfer fees, while the centre-forward Ryan Noble, the midfield creator Billy Knott and the left-back Blair Adams were all part of England's squad for the Under-20 World Cup last summer.

Cole may be on the wane

Amid all the discussions of what's gone wrong for Chelsea this season, all the talk of high lines and the suitability of Andr� Villas-Boas's approach, one component of an unusually rickety back four has escaped the worst blame. That's particularly odd, because in recent years Ashley Cole has had an awful press, at least for his off-field behaviour and his attitude to referees. On-field, though, the perception seems to be that Cole remains a certainty to start both for Chelsea and for England.

In fairness, he probably is still England's best left-back, but the days when he was one of the top two or three full-backs in the world have gone. It was noticeable against Arsenal how much space he gave Theo Walcott ? a function of the lack of protection offered by a midfield that pressed high and, presumably, of his concern about Walcott's pace. In days gone by, Cole was as quick as anybody, but at 31 he is perhaps just starting to feel the debilitating effects of age. That's natural, of course, and plenty of players before him have managed to adapt their games to their physical limitations.

The concern from Monday's game, though, was the half-hearted leg-wag Cole offered as Bryan Ruiz turned past him to cross for Clint Dempsey's equaliser for Fulham. It was the challenge of a man who was either exhausted, or didn't much care, either of which explanations is a worry for both Chelsea and England.