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Premier League Team of the Week - Sergio Aguero, Roberto Firmino, Virgil van Dijk

Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek four, including Sergio Aguero, Roberto Firmino and Virgil van Dijk.

The final round of Premier League fixtures before the first international break of the season saw goals, drama and VAR controversies galore - and that was just the North London derby.

Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur played out an enthralling 2-2 draw at the Emirates to round off the weekend's action, with the hosts coming from two goals down but still feeling that they should have perhaps won the match.

Liverpool still lead the way in the fledgling Premier League table having made it four wins from four with an impressive 3-0 victory away to Burnley, picking up a club-record 13th successive top-flight triumph in the process.

Manchester City are hot on their heels courtesy of their 4-0 cruise past Brighton & Hove Albion, and it looks as though those two will streak clear again after the rest of the big six all failed to win.

Chelsea threw away a two-goal half-time lead at home to newly-promoted Sheffield United to be held to a 2-2 draw, while the spoils were also shared at St Mary's where 10-man Southampton hung on against Manchester United.

It is Leicester City who are running the top two closest so far, having continued their unbeaten start with victory over Bournemouth, while Crystal Palace also sit pretty in the top four following their win over 10-man Aston Villa - although they were given a big helping hand by a hugely controversial disallowed equaliser at the death.

Everton edged a five-goal thriller against Wolverhampton Wanderers to leave last season's seventh-placed team as one of only two yet to win this term, alongside Watford, who drew 1-1 with Newcastle United at St James' Park.

West Ham United also beat Norwich City 2-0 at London Stadium to make a big leap up the table to seventh place - above the likes of Manchester United, Tottenham and Chelsea.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek four.



PL TOTW GW4

Bizarrely, this is the second time already this season that Hugo Lloris has claimed the gloves in our team of the week despite conceding two goals. The Spurs skipper could do little about either Arsenal goal in the derby and, although his distribution from the back sometimes threatened to put his side in trouble, his shot-stopping ability saved a point for the Champions League runners-up. Adrian, Angus Gunn and Tim Krul all deserve honourable mentions too.

While Adrian misses out despite his first clean sheet for Liverpool, the league leaders do contribute two defenders in this XI, led by the towering Virgil van Dijk. The newly-crowned UEFA Player of the Year topped a host of defensive statistics once again to severely limit the influence of an in-form Ashley Barnes at Turf Moor.

It looked as though Trent Alexander-Arnold had opened the scoring during that match, but his deflected cross ultimately went down as a Chris Wood own goal. Nevertheless, the Liverpool full-back was a constant presence down the right flank and, while his 'assist' for the opener was undoubtedly lucky, it provided the breakthrough his side needed in an awkward fixture.

Two centre-backs were on the scoresheet this weekend, but Jan Vestergaard pips Newcastle's Fabian Schar to a place in this XI having not only scored the equaliser against United, but also then helped Southampton protect parity with just 10 men.

Completing the back four is West Ham's Arthur Masuaku, who is beginning to make the left-back slot his own at the London Stadium. The standout performer in that position this weekend, Masuaku registered an assist, was a constant threat down the left flank and put in a game-high six tackles in the win over Norwich.

Man City's despair at losing Aymeric Laporte may be tempered by the knowledge that they still won the title last season despite the absence of Kevin De Bruyne for much of the campaign, although they will be delighted to see the Belgian back to his best now. De Bruyne opened the scoring after little more than a minute to set Man City on their way against Brighton, and then helped himself to an assist for a second - he has now been directly involved in nine goals from his last seven Premier League starts.

De Bruyne's teammate David Silva weighed in with two more assists of his own, but to offer a fraction more balance in the team we have selected Youri Tielemans alongside De Bruyne in this XI. The Leicester man was lucky to stay on the field after VAR spared him for a studs-up collision with Callum Wilson, and he made the most of his reprieve with a goal and an assist at the King Power Stadium.

Jamie Vardy was the star of that particular show, though, scoring two and creating the other in Leicester 3-1 triumph. The England international is well and truly back to top form under Brendan Rodgers - demonstrated by his stunning lob for the first and then instinctive finish for the second - and he now has 12 goals since Rodgers took charge, which is more than any other player in the league in that timeframe.

The huge level of competition for forward places means that Vardy has to be shoehorned in on the left this week, while two-goal Tammy Abraham can consider himself unfortunate to miss out alongside a host of other players, including Sebastien Haller, Alexandre Lacazette, Felipe Anderson, Riyad Mahrez, Sadio Mane, Callum Robinson, Daniel James and Nicolas Pepe.

It had to be a particularly special performance to get into this week's attack, then, and Roberto Firmino certainly provided that at Turf Moor with a goal, assist and all-round majestic display. While Salah and Mane have stolen the headlines for Liverpool in the past two seasons, this term could well be Firmino's time to have the well-earned spotlight.

Firmino's Merseyside neighbour Richarlison is back amongst the goals too with his well-taken brace against Wolves, the latter of which showed great desire to get to the ball ahead of the defender for what ultimately proved to be the winner.

Arguably the standout individual performance of the weekend came from Sergio Aguero, who added two more goals to his record Man City tally - both of which were excellent finishes - before setting up Bernardo Silva for the fourth to cap off the scoring. Brighton simply could not live with the Argentine, who appears to be making the most of Gabriel Jesus's injury absence.

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Barney Corkhill
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Raheem Sterling celebrates scoring for Manchester City against West Ham United on August 10, 2019.
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Today's games header
Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool16123137162139
2Chelsea17105237191835
3Arsenal1796234161833
4Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest179442319431
5Bournemouth178452721628
6Aston Villa178452626028
7Manchester CityMan City178362925427
8Newcastle UnitedNewcastle177552721626
9Fulham176742422225
10Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton176742726125
11Tottenham HotspurSpurs1772839251423
12Brentford177283232023
13Manchester UnitedMan Utd176472122-122
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham175572230-820
15Everton163761421-716
16Crystal Palace173771826-816
17Leicester CityLeicester173592137-1614
18Wolverhampton WanderersWolves1733112740-1312
19Ipswich TownIpswich172691632-1612
20Southampton1713131136-256


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