Sports Mole selects its Premier League Team of the Week for gameweek 22, including Gabriel Jesus, Conor Bradley and Julian Alvarez.
As recruitment teams up and down the country scrambled to conclude late transfer business, 20 Premier League teams took to the pitch for a goal-laden batch of midweek fixtures, which saw Liverpool maintain their five-point lead at the summit courtesy of a 4-1 pounding of Chelsea.
Arsenal and Manchester City remain the Reds’ closest challengers, with the Gunners edging past Nottingham Forest 2-1 before the reigning champions brushed aside Burnley in a 3-1 Etihad success.
Tottenham Hotspur rose back into the Champions League positions thanks to a thrilling 3-2 win over Brentford, capitalising on Aston Villa‘s first home loss of the season, 3-1 versus Newcastle United.
An extraordinary away success also came the way of Manchester United, who left it late to sink Wolverhampton Wanderers 4-3, while Luton Town also struck a quartet of goals in a sensational 4-0 crushing of Brighton & Hove Albion.
Elsewhere, Crystal Palace overcame an early setback in a 3-2 victory over Sheffield United, West Ham United and Bournemouth played out a forgettable 1-1 draw, while Fulham and Everton‘s wastefulness took centre stage in a goalless stalemate.
Here, Sports Mole selects its attack-heavy Team of the Week for the latest round of Premier League fixtures.
DEFENCE
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Neither Fulham nor Everton donned their best shooting boots at Craven Cottage, where a total of 46 shots were fired without success, but the contributions of Jordan Pickford are not to be overlooked, as the England number one made five crucial stops to keep the Toffees in the tie, including a magnificent acrobatic leap to tip Tosin Adarabioyo‘s header over the top.
While Jarrad Branthwaite may be the Toffees defender linked with a big-money European move at present, his centre-back partner James Tarkowski was equally instrumental in earning Everton a point in West London, stopping a goal-bound Timothy Castagne strike from crossing the line in one of his nine clearances, while he also should have recorded a late assist for Beto, only to see the Portuguese striker inexplicably miss an aerial sitter from a couple of yards out.
Everton’s point at Craven Cottage still saw them drop into the relegation zone, and there was also a palpable sense of disappointment for Nottingham Forest after their loss to Arsenal, but it was not for the want of trying for Murillo. Proving to be one of the finest of Forest’s many post-promotion acquisitions, the Brazilian recorded 11 clearances, five blocks, four interceptions and two tackles as the Tricky Trees frustrated the Gunners for over an hour, only to fall victim to two errors from other rearguard members.
All of Pickford, Tarkowski and Murillo were lauded for their contributions in their own box, but for Newcastle’s Villa Park hero Fabian Schar, the Switzerland man found the answer to the Magpies’ striker crisis. After failing to score with his previous 73 shots in the top flight, Schar ended that hoodoo with an instinctive volley from a corner before completing an unlikely brace with an unmissable tap-in. Remarkably, only a top-notch block from Clement Lenglet in the second half denied the defender an unforgettable hat-trick in the West Midlands.
MIDFIELD
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A penny for Jurgen Klopp‘s thoughts as he selects Liverpool’s starting XI for the imminent trip to Arsenal, as Trent Alexander-Arnold‘s understudy Conor Bradley was too hot for Chelsea to handle. Alongside a fine strike across goal to open his Reds account, the 20-year-old surged forward to lay off Diogo Jota before delivering a pinpoint cross for Dominik Szoboszlai, thereby becoming the youngest Reds player to set up two goals in a Premier League match since Alexander-Arnold himself five years ago.
Chelsea’s existing crop of players cut dejected figures in midweek, but an erstwhile Blues midfielder – Ross Barkley – was in dreamland alongside his Luton teammates at Kenilworth Road. Still rolling back the years in the Hatters engine room, the Englishman slipped in Elijah Adebayo for one of his three goals against Brighton and created five chances in total, as well as completing three successful dribbles in another dynamic display.
Luton and Sheffield United both needed just a matter of seconds to open the scoring in midweek, but unfortunately for the latter, their first-minute strike would prove inconsequential against a Palace side inspired by their ever-dangerous duo. Indeed, Eberechi Eze ended the first half of that five-goal thriller with a brace to his name – acrobatically hooking the ball into the net before a clever dummy and stunning strike – both of which were set up by Michael Olise.
After playing provider for Eze’s efforts at Selhurst Park, Olise wanted his own slice of the goalscoring action and got it with an exquisite drive from the edge of the area, putting his laces through the ball and finding the bottom corner to ensure maximum points for the under-fire Roy Hodgson, who will be anxiously awaiting updates on their conditions after the men of the match left the pitch looking worse for wear.
ATTACK
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Talk about being spoiled for choice. With 39 goals flying in across the 10 Premier League fixtures – an average of almost four per game – a multitude of attackers had a strong case for selection, but Luton history-maker Elijah Adebayo was the first name on our teamsheet. With two headers either side of a calm finish at Jason Steele‘s near post, Adebayo not only registered the Hatters’ first top-flight hat trick in 33 years – and their maiden one in the Premier League – but also a long-awaited first treble of his professional career at the age of 26, sending Kenilworth Road into raptures in the process.
To the right of Adebayo, Julian Alvarez celebrated turning 24 the only way he knew how on Wednesday evening, by scoring goals for Manchester City. The Argentine only had two shots on target in the entire game, but he required no more to notch a brace for himself, opening the scoring with the simplest header he will ever put away before a perfectly-timed run to meet Kevin De Bruyne‘s perfectly-weighted free kick.
Completing the three-pronged attack as the third South American representative in the team, Gabriel Jesus was guilty of a glaring miss against Nottingham Forest during Arsenal’s agonising opening hour, but the Brazilian quickly made amends, squeezing the ball through Matt Turner‘s legs from a tight angle before also registering an assist for Bukayo Saka after a lightning-quick counter-attack, deservedly clutching the Man of the Match prize for his endeavours.
Sports Mole’s Premier League Team of the Week (3-4-3): Pickford; Schar, Tarkowski, Murillo; Bradley, Barkley, Eze, Olise; Alvarez, Adebayo, Jesus
