Sports activities Mole selects its Premier League Crew of the Week, together with Ilkay Gundogan, Virgil van Dijk and Aaron Ramsdale.
On the weekend of King Charles’s coronation, 20 Premier League groups served up a choice of enthralling contests match for royalty, as targets flew in left, proper and centre up and down the nation.
Manchester Metropolis had briefly prolonged their lead on the summit to 4 factors by seeing off Leeds United 2-1, earlier than Arsenal fired a warning to the champions with a hard-earned 2-0 win over Newcastle United.
Manchester United couldn’t make the most of the Magpies’ setback as they have been surprised 1-0 by West Ham United, however Liverpool‘s end-of-season juggernaut rolled on with victory over Brentford by the identical scoreline.
Tottenham Hotspur additionally stored their Champions League ambitions alive courtesy of a 1-0 triumph over Crystal Palace, whereas Frank Lampard belatedly pulled Chelsea out of their rut with a 3-1 win over Bournemouth.
Aston Villa‘s hopes of Europe suffered one other painful blow in a 1-0 loss to Wolverhampton Wanderers, earlier than Fulham and Leicester Metropolis kicked off a rare Financial institution Vacation Monday at Craven Cottage, because the relegation-threatened Foxes went down 5-3.
Later that day, Everton produced an exceptional show on the South Coast to thump Brighton & Hove Albion 5-1, earlier than Nottingham Forest ran out 4-3 winners over Southampton within the basement battle.
Right here, Sports activities Mole takes on the unenviable process of whittling down the weekend’s finest performances into an 11-man Crew of the Week.
DEFENCE
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As a lot as Arsenal had Newcastle’s profligacy in entrance of purpose to thank for his or her profitable revenge mission at St James’ Park, the efficiency of Aaron Ramsdale in between the sticks didn’t go unnoticed both. The England worldwide got here up with 5 essential saves – together with a terrific response cease from Fabian Schar‘s point-blank header – to maintain his tenth away clear sheet of the season, turning into solely the third Premier League goalkeeper to ever achieve this.
One other stellar defensive show from a North London consultant got here on the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the place Cristian Romero responded to latest criticism within the good method. Palace had a number of brilliant sparks on the day, however Romero stood agency with eight clearances, 5 interceptions and three tackles in a marked enchancment.
Over at Anfield, Liverpool additionally had loads of defending to do to quell an inconsistent Brentford aspect, and Virgil van Dijk was largely as much as the duty. Regardless of being spun by Bryan Mbeumo for a purpose that was in the end disallowed, Van Dijk made 10 clearances, accomplished 91% of his passes and in addition headed the ball throughout purpose for Mohamed Salah to attain the winner.
Lastly, Wolves boss Julen Lopetegui hailed hitting the 40-point mark with the West Midlands membership as his “most necessary achievement” in soccer, thanks in no small half to Toti Gomes. The 24-year-old might hardly have picked a extra ideally suited fixture to attain his first Wolves purpose, utilizing his power to go Ruben Neves‘s nook in off the crossbar within the ninth minute of their derby with Aston Villa, shifting Lopetegui’s males ever nearer to security.
MIDFIELD
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Producing two virtually equivalent assists, Riyad Mahrez could have given Pep Guardiola meals for thought within the Champions League together with his playmaking masterclass in opposition to Leeds, selecting out the run of Ilkay Gundogan twice for the German to fireplace house within the first half and giving Junior Firpo a torrid time all afternoon.
Gundogan’s opening end was an arrowed first-time strike into the underside nook earlier than he took a contact and picked out the other aspect of the purpose, though he could not put his hand up for penalties when Guardiola is round. Regardless of hitting the submit with a late spot kick to be denied a first-ever profession hat-trick, Gundogan warrants a spot in our staff regardless.
There was an abundance of two-goal midfielders within the weekend’s enthralling motion, as Fulham’s Tom Cairney and Everton’s Abdoulaye Doucoure each bagged braces for his or her respective sides, with the latter taking simply 32 seconds to interrupt the impasse in opposition to Brighton on Monday. On the stroke of the half-hour mark, Doucoure doubled his tally for the afternoon, and the ex-Watford man additionally created two possibilities and made three tackles in an astonishing particular person and collective efficiency.
In some other gameweek, Cairney would have sailed his approach into the engine room, however the Fulham man is simply edged out by West Ham’s staunch skipper. If Sunday’s win over Man United was Declan Rice‘s audition for a Champions League membership, he handed with flying colors, because the 24-year-old dominated the midfield with 4 interceptions, two tackles and 4 profitable dribbles from 5 makes an attempt in a monstrous show.
Heading again right down to the Amex, the climate could have been depressing, however Dwight McNeil was actually not. Straight contributing to a few of Everton’s 5 targets on the day, McNeil fed Doucoure for his second of the afternoon earlier than notching a second-half brace – celebrating earlier than he had even scored a tap-in previous to a shocking late effort into the roof of the web.
ATTACK
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Whereas Cairney can contemplate himself unlucky to not power his approach in, his fellow Cottager Willian can be dwelling within the nightmares of Foxes followers – and Daniel Iversen – for weeks to come back. The ex-Arsenal man opened the scoring on Monday in freakish circumstances, as his deep free kick evaded everybody earlier than bouncing over a stranded Iversen into the again of the web, however there was nothing unorthodox about his second – a chic 25-yard strike into the underside nook.
A couple of hours after that eight-goal extravaganza, the web rippled seven occasions throughout Forest’s encounter with Southampton, and twice from the ft of Taiwo Awoniyi. With 18 minutes gone, the Nigerian’s first-time strike proved too scorching for Alex McCarthy to deal with, earlier than he executed an exquisite volley on the flip in what might show to be a priceless Tough Bushes triumph.
Sports activities Mole’s Premier League Crew of the Week (3-5-2): Ramsdale; Romero, Van Dijk, Toti; Mahrez, Doucoure, Gundogan, Rice, McNeil; Willian, Awoniyi