Premier League Team Of The Week

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Premier League footballer’s up and down the country will no doubt have suffered several sleepless nights over the last few days in anticipation of whether or not they did enough last weekend to merit a place in Adam Smith’s Premier League Team Of The Week, so without further ado let’s put them out of their misery and see who made the cut …

 

 

Jonas Lossl – Rating: 9 (Huddersfield 1-0 West Brom)

 

West Brom were unlucky not to score on Saturday and deserved at least a point, but they were up against an inform keeper. The Big Dane who is on loan from Mainz, made some brilliant saves to give Huddersfield another crucial three points. David Wagner, the Huddersfield Manager, ran straight to Lossl at the final whistle to thank him for his performance.

 

Steve Cook – Rating: 9 (Newcastle 0-1 Bournemouth)

 

Man of the Match, a clean sheet and scored a last minute winning goal, a good day at the office for Steve Cook, and for Bournemouth. Eddie Howe seems to have found his best starting 11 now and they are improving week on week. It was fitting that Cook who has been such a stalwart on the South Coast was the man who popped up with such a crucial goal for the Cherries.

 

César Azpilicueta – Rating 9 ( Chelsea 1-0 Man United )

 

We’ve all known for a long time that Azpilicueta is a top-class defender, but what is becoming more and more obvious as he plays in a back-three for Chelsea is just how good a footballer the Spaniard is.

 

He was superb defensively in his sides impressive 1-0 win and set up Alvaro Morata’s winner with a sublime cross; which is actually his fifth assist of the season and all of them have been finished by Morata. Move over Dele Alli and Eric Dier theres a new bromance in the Premier League.

 

 

James Tarkowski – Rating: 8 (Southampton 0-1 Burnley)

 

If Sean Dyche goes to Everton, it would be no surprise to see one of his first signings being James Tarkowski. He has taken his opportunity with both hands since Michael Keane left in the summer for Goodison Park. This was another brilliant performance from the Burnely centre-back at St Marys on Saturday and he’s not too far off getting an English cap. This was Burnley’s fifth clean sheet of the season and you would fancy them to get another against Swansea at home next.

 

Leighton Baines – Rating: 8 (Everton 3-2 Watford)

 

Defensively not his best game and struggled with the pace of Watford. However, Everton were 2-0 down with 25 minutes to go, and the Everton captain came up with two assists and scored the winning goal from the penalty spot in a must win game.

 

I’m not sure if this win is enough to give Unsworth the job full-time though. As for Watford, maybe Marco Silva needs to re-think his tactics. This is two away games in a row now that they have lost after being 2-1 up with 20 minutes to go.

 

Xherdan Shaqiri – Rating: 8 (Stoke 2-2 Leicester)

 

Stoke came from behind twice to earn a draw with Leicester with the Swiss international scoring one and assisting the other. The ex-Bayern Munich playmaker shows flashes on occasions that make you think he should be playing at a higher level, but consistency seems to be his issue. Leicester will probably feel that they were the better team on the day but conceded two soft goals.

 

 

Sadio Mane – Rating: 9 (West Ham 1-4 Liverpool)

 

If Sadio Mane hadn’t of been injured or suspended this season, I think Liverpool would be 6 points better off, and would have probably beat Burnley, Newcastle and Man Utd instead of drawing with them. Mane returned from injury on Saturday evening and was devistating on the counter attack, and layed on two assists for Salah.

 

Liverpool were the worst team that Slavan Bilic could of played to save his job with the return of Mane adding extra pace to The Reds attack. Thats the end of Bilic at West Ham but I cannot believe that the Hammers board have chosen David Moyes as his replacement.

 

Kevin De Bruyne – Rating: 9 (Man City 3-1 Arsenal)

 

Got his second goal of the season and ran the show against Arsenal on Sunday. We are running out of things to say about the Belgian and he is a cert for the Player of the Season award. As for Wenger and Arsenal; they spent 50 million on a striker but continue to leave him on the bench. Instead, they play Sanchez who doesn’t want to be at the club, and then blame the referee for their defeat. It really sums up were Arsenal are as a club at the moment.

 

Rajiv Van La Parra – Rating: 8 (Huddersfield 1-0 West Brom)

 

Scored one of the goals of the season so far out of nothing against West Brom, but he caught the eye for his all round perfomance on Saturday. Huddersfield went down to 10 men with 30 minutes left and Van La Parra put in a real shift in midfield to help his side grind out a 1-0 win.

 

The Dutchman is proving to be another good signing by The Terriers. With Huddersfield, Brighton and Newcastle all possibly staying up and only two wins in their last 20 games, I fear for West Brom. Tony Pulis was pictured sun-bathing on a beach in Barbabados on Sunday which hasn’t gone down well with the Baggies fans.

 

 

Mo Salah – Rating: 9 (West Brom 1-4 Liverpool)

 

Salah was brilliant on Saturday, all week everyone spoke about how Liverpool and the Egyptian were going to enjoy the big pitch at the London Stadium on Saturday evening. Salah has now scored seven Premier League goals and 12 in all competitions. Apart from Chelsea at home, Liverpool’s next six games are against teams in the bottom half of the table.

 

I’m going to put my neck on the line here, and predict that Liverpool will be second going into the new year with Mane, Lallana, Sturridge, Salah and Countinho now all fit.

 

Alvaro Morata – Ratin: 9 (Chelsea 1-0 Man Utd)

 

You pay big money for players who score in big games. Earlier in the season people discussed who got the better player Man Utd with Lukaku or Chelsea with Morata.

 

Morata has scored in El Classicos, Madrid Derbies, Champions League Finals etc etc, and in tight games like Sunday, the real top players will be the difference.

 

Morata lead the line brilliantly and also took his goal well. The 24-year-old striker has now had a hand in 10 goals in his first 10 games for Chelsea. Lukaku hasn’t found the net since scoring against Crystal Palace in September and again didn’t contribute much against one of the top sides.

 

Written by Adam Smith.

 


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