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Premier League: Best 11 Players of Week 29

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Because it was FA Cup weekend only 4 of the scheduled 10 Premier League games took place over the weekend but there were still some very significant results.

Tottenham bounced back after a nightmare week as they stepped up their top 4 hopes with victory over Aston Villa. The most thrilling game though involved Tottenham north London neighbours in another London derby as Arsenal came back from 3-0 down to draw 3-3 against West Ham.

Brighton won their 2nd game in a row and they have pushed 6 points clear of the bottom three as a result.

Let’s look at the players that made the team of the week.

Goalkeeper: Hugo Lloris- Tottenham 7pts

After a disappointing week for the club the captain would have been happy to have secured his 10th clean sheet of the season as Tottenham got back to winning ways to beat Aston Villa 2-0 away from home. Lloris now has 48 points.

Defender: – Sergio Reguilon Tottenham 5pts

Sergio Reguilon has been one of the best defenders in the league this season and he was alert and focused as Tottenham beat Aston Villa 2-0. He has now helped to keep six clean sheets.

Defender: Lewis Dunk- Brighton 5pts

Lewis Dunk really stood out for Brighton as they achieved a fantastic and much needed 3 points at the weekend by beating Newcastle 3-0. Dunk helped to keep a clean sheet and his value is is 7m and he is rated as the best Brighton defender.

Defender: Ben Davies- Tottenham 5pts

Ben Davies had a solid game for Tottenham when he came on for Reguilon in the 2nd half. Davies could be called upon and was so effective that Aston Villa were not able to come back into the game when he was brought on.

Defender: Joel Veltman- Brighton 7pts

Joel Veltman was at the heart of Brighton’s team performance. The defender helped to keep a clean sheet as he saw his side beat Newcastle 3-0. He also assisted in the first goal which got the ball rolling. Veltman now has 27 points and his value is 7.5m.

Midfielder: Neal Maupay- Brighton 6pts

Neal Maupay scored his 8th goal of the season as his goal helped Brighton on their way to beat Newcastle. It was a huge win for the club who with that victory have been able to move six points clear of the bottom three.

Midfielder: Jesse Lingard- West Ham 6pts

Jesse Lingard has had a very positive start to his career as a West Ham player. Lingard opened the scoring against Arsenal and then assisted two minutes later for the 2nd goal. Lingard has already since January, been involved in seven goals and scored 5 of them.

Midfielder: Lucas Moura- Tottenham 4pts

Lucas Moura assisted in Tottenham’s opening goal and that was the midfielder’s third of the season so far. Moura with 38 points is ranked as the best midfielder for the club and pulled 8 points clear of Tanguy NDombele.

Midfielder: Raphinha- Leeds United 4pts

Many expected Fulham to pull together another win as they are battling hard in relegation but Leeds pulled off a great victory by beating Fulham 2-1.Raphinha scored the winning goal and he now has six goals so far this season.

Striker: Patrick Bamford- Leeds United 5pts

Patrick Bamford scored the other goal for Leeds as they beat Fulham 2-1. That was Bamford’s 14th goal of the season and he has also assisted six times in what has been a superb season for the player so far. Bamford now has 68 points overall.

Striker: Harry Kane- Tottenham 4pts

Harry Kane was back to his best as he converted a penalty for Tottenham which secured their win and ended up being the winning goal as they bounced back to beat Aston Villa 2-1 after a miserable week for the club. That was Kane’s 17th goal of the season.

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Premier League Game of the Week: Arsenal 4-2 Leeds United

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Arsenal won their first game since January 26th by beating Leeds United 4-2 and the day was capped off as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored a hat-trick. Aubameyang much like Arsenal this season has underperformed so it was a nice symmetry to proceedings and the Gunners will now have one eye on a European finish after their 10th win of the season.

Aubameyang scored the opening goal of the game with just 13 minutes played as he used quick feet on the edge of the area to shoot into goal and that set the game up for the Gunners. Five minutes before half time and it was 2-0 to Arsenal as Illan Meslier was adjudged to have fouled Bukayo Saka. Whilst it did look like a penalty on repeated views the keeper made next to no contact. Aubameyang made no mistakes in slotting home.

It looked like Arsenal would head into half time with a 2 goal lead but Hector Bellerin an unlikely player to score made it 3. The player burst through and from an acute angle tried his luck and it went in. Leeds also had their chances but Marcelo Bielsa’s side found themselves 3-0 down and this game looked over.

If the match wasn’t finished by the end of the first half it certainly was two minutes into the second half as Aubameyang again scored to complete his hat-trick. He headed in from an unmarked position and to be fair this was a simple goal for the forward, and now it was 4-0.

However this is Leeds, and the way the club play means that they can always get score goals. Perhaps Arsenal could be accused of taking their foot off the gas a little but Leeds started to enjoy more of the ball and chances soon after and pulled a goal back through Pascal Struijk. Raphinha had assisted from the corner and Struijk rose high above the Arsenal defence to put in.

On the 69th minute Leeds scored another through a smart move finished off by Helder Costa now it was 4-2 and there was a small chance perhaps that Leeds were going to stage a dramatic comeback.

However it wasn’t to be and to their credit Arsenal defended well and held on. It was a mature performance from Arsenal who showed their attacking abilities in the first half and apart from a few errors were then able to shore up defence. We have seen in the past from Mikel Arteta’s side how they have failed to keep a lead so this was an important result for the Gunners.

Arsenal leap frogged Leeds with this win and have 34 points. They are only six points adrift of a possible European place and 2 points behind their arch rivals Tottenham albeit that Jose Mourinho’s team has an extra game to play.

As for Leeds they slipped down to 11th but the club will be more than safe this season and have 32 points.

Arsenal will play league leaders Manchester City next weekend at home and that is sure to be quite a spectacle whilst Leeds are away to Wolves and Wolves would overtake Bielsa’s side with victory.

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Premier League Game of the Week: Leicester 1-3 Leeds United

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One could have expected Leicester to have roared on in their surprise quest for a 2nd Premier League title in 5 years, after all the Foxes have done so well this season and came into this game having won 12 of their 20 so far. But Leeds United are the team that keep on asking questions after the school bell has sounded. The team that keep pressing when you feel lethargic and the team that are here to stay in the Premier League.

Former Leeds great Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink noted a month ago that he felt his former side would be relegated this season and one has to wonder how wrong can a player turned media pundit have been? Yes you may argue that hindsight is a wonderful thing, though when he claimed this Leeds had 23 points and we were not even at the half way stage of the season- unless Leeds were about to record the mother of all collapses there was next to no chance that Marcelo Bielsa’s team were going down this season. One almost feels that Leeds heard the words of their former player and are partly playing on a level just to prove him wrong.

That was the case in keeping as Leeds surprised Leicester at King Power Stadium by coming away with a 3-1 victory. By far the man of the match was the ultra talented Patrick Bamford. He scored one and assisted in the other two.

But it would be the home side who would take the lead through the impressive Harvey Barnes his precision shot was set up by James Maddison and Leicester looked well on their way to victory. However in the 15th minute and only three minutes after the Foxes took the lead Leeds were level. A great counter attacking move was finished off sweetly by Stuart Dallas who scored his 4th goal of the season. Indeed the equaliser had many similarities to Leicester’s opener.

The half ended 1-1 at no one could complain we had seen a fast paced and equal game and the score seemed to fit the duel we were watching.

Both sides came close in the 2nd half but the third goal of the game had to wait until the 70th minute. Raphinha set the ball up but this was all Bamford’s doing and he scored a peach of a goal, perhaps the best of the weekend to put Leeds into the lead. It didn’t feel like a surprise to see Marcelo Bielsa’s side take the lead but before the game Leicester were the favourites.

Perhaps the Foxes were missing Jamie Vardy and Ndidi two huge players for the club of course and Vardy had to miss the game because of his recent hernia operation although he hopes to be back this weekend.

As time ran out so did Leicester’s ideas and they were caught on the break- Leeds are one of the best sides in the Premier League for quick counter attacking- and Jack Harrison made it 3-1 after being set up by Bamford.

It was a fantastic win for Leeds who are now in 12th place with 29 points. They are at home to Everton next in midweek. As for Leicester they are still 4th and have 39 points and have a 4 point safety cushion to 5th. But manager Brendan Rodgers will be counting down the days until Vardy returns. Leicester’s next game is against Fulham at Craven Cottage.

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Rennes make a bid for the Champions League as Neymar and Mbappe overshadow PSG win

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Rennes made big strides to try and qualify for the Champions League as they beat Nantes in a five goal thriller winning 3-2 at home. Raphinha was the hero for the home side grabbing two goals. Rennes would be a major surprise to make the Champions League but that is what finishing 2nd gives teams and they edged up each week to Marseille. The gap is just three points.

And the gap is three points because Marseille have imploded, or rather look like they are. The club have not lost for 10 matches but that makes no odds when you are drawing games and not winning them and they drew yet again on Sunday night, this time in disappointing fashion away to Bordeaux with the game ending 0-0.

That draw effectively ended Marseille’s already slim hopes of winning the league. Only a few weeks ago they had shortened the gap to league leaders PSG by 5 points but now that stands at 12 and it looks very difficult to think that PSG will drop so many points and Marseille will go on such a consistent run.

As for PSG, not many people would think that they had a fantastic result at the weekend when they overpowered Montpellier to win 5-0. Pablo Sarabia who has been in good form for the club opened the scoring.  It was interesting to see that from the five goals scored only one was scored by either Kylian Mbappe or Neymar. And it was Mbappe who got it, with Neymar assisting. All should have been well then with such an emphatic victory but it wasn’t.

The referee booked Neymar after an exchange of words that saw the Brazilian at half time question the officials, to which they replied, ”speak French”. Then there was Mbappe who realised that he needed one more goal to be joint top goalscorer in Ligue 1 with Monaco’s Wissam Ben Yedder. But PSG coach Thomas Tuchel instead took the player off for Mauro Icardi and Mbappe was furious with his coach. A heated exchange of words could be clearly seen and Mbappe sat in the dug out looking very gloom. Now the inevitable has happened and the media have linked Mbappe with a move away from Paris. One has to feel for Tuchel, he doesn’t always get it right but at the same time he has quite a few egos in the dressing room.

Lille got an important victory away to Strasbourg by winning 2-1. It was only Lille’s 2nd away victory of the season and came courtesy of a Victor Omishen penalty, the player has been in great form lately and that win took the club into 4th place and six points behind 3rd placed Rennes.

Lyon just can’t find enough consistency and after going their last 3 games unbeaten they came unstuck away to Nice, who have not lost a game in Ligue 1 for two months. To make matters worse for Lyon Fernando Marcal was sent off early on. Though the hosts also lost a player they just shaded the game. To be fair to Lyon with 7 strikes on goal they were hardly poor, but they will have to pick themselves up once more. The objective this season has to be a European finish and despite this fresh set back they are just two points from their target.

Reims propped up the table again and into 7th place after they surprised Angers and won 4-1 at Stade Raymond Kopa. Reims had been behind and the surprise was not just the comeback but the fact that they scored so many goals. Prior to the game the club had scored just 17 all season. What was also interesting is that Reims had just 4 shots on target and everyone of them ended in a goal.

With Nice beating Lyon as mentioned above they have moved into 8th and that has cost Nantes who lost to Rennes a top 8 place.

There are midweek games in Ligue 1 this weekend and Champions League and Europa League spots will be up once again for grabs.

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