JESUS!
The saviour for Man City on the sabbath day. Okay, we'll stop now. He grabbed a late winner against Swansea, Chelsea beat Arsenal again to go even further clear at the top and Hull stunned Liverpool. But who played well enough to make it into the Balls.ie Premier League Team of the Weekend? Scroll down to find out.
Balls.ie Premier League Team of the Weekend
GK – Huerehlo Gomes (Watford)
Gomes has been steady for Watford this year and made five saves including a crucial one as Burnley chased an equalizer late on in the game. Vito Mannone can count himself unlucky to not make an appearance here.
LB - Chris Brunt (West Brom)
When Chris Brunt plays well, West Brom tend to win. The Baggies only have one league defeat since Christmas (a 4-0 thumping against Spurs). A mainstay in all of our fantasy sides in the office.
The Northern Irish takeover at West Brom is reaping the plaudits. McAuley, Brunt and McClean. We just need a snappy acronym.
CB – Andrea Ranocchia (Hull)
Liverpool’s hopes for everything were dealt a major blow after they were outclassed by Hull City. None of Firmino, Coutinho or the returning Mane could get into the game at all, mainly due to the strength of the Tigers defence. Andrea Ranocchia was making just his second appearance for Hull, but grabbed an assist and won all of his aerial duels.
CB – Lamine Kone (Sunderland)
Ah irony. Sam Allardyce signed Lamine Kone for Sunderland last season and he was an important part of keeping them up last season. Yet, it was Kone who started the demolition job of Allardyce’s Palace yesterday. He reacted quickest to open the scoring and also won four battles in the air.
2 - Lamine Koné is only the 2nd player in Sunderland’s starting XI today to score for them in the PL this season (also Defoe). Surprise.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 4, 2017
RB - Cheikhou Kouyaté (West Ham)
West Ham have been yo-yoing since selling Dmitri Payet. Hammered by Man City but came back impressively at St.Mary’s yesterday. A 3-1 victory for Slaven Bilic’s side was helped massively by Kouyate’s five tackles, two dispossessions and a 100% success rate while in the air.
CM – Pedro Obiang (West Ham)
Kouyate was important at the back, but Pedro Obiang made the difference going forward. He covered more yards than any other West Ham player, and finished the game with a goal and an assist.
CM – Ross Barkley (Everton)
He’s a diamond in the rough, and a bit of a cheeky bollocks after celebrating his goal before he’d even scored it. A goal, an assist, an 80% pass success rate and five tackles made. Not a bad day for the Englishman.
RM – Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
Duh.
LM – Josh King (Bournemouth)
How can a lad who was on a team that lost 6-3 possibly get into a team of the week? 2 goals, an 82% pass success rate, four dispossessions and four successful take-ons. He wrote himself into the Cherries history books as well (for now)
12 – Josh King has scored more Premier League goals for Bournemouth than any other player (12). Hope.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 4, 2017
Unfortunately, he’s not in his main position of striker because…
ST – Jermaine Defoe (Sunderland)
Where would Sunderland be without him? Well, probably in League One as that stat above showed. Defoe helped end the Rodwell curse by finding the net twice. Six more league goals will take him past Robbie Fowler and into 6th in the all time list with 176
ST – Romelu Lukaku
Double duh. Four goals will get you in this team every week.
