Premier League

Premier League Team of the Week - Sadio Mane, Javier Hernandez, Joshua King

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 18 March 2019

Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week from a depleted gameweek 31, including Sadio Mane, Javier Hernandez and three Everton players.

There were just five Premier League games this weekend as the top flight battled for attention with the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, but that did not lessen the drama whatsoever.

Late goals were the theme of the weekend, with the most significant coming at Craven Cottage where Liverpool survived a serious scare to beat relegation-threatened Fulham 2-1 and regain top spot in the table.

Everton made it a Merseyside double over West London later in the day too, producing a much-improved second-half performance to beat Chelsea 2-0 and pile more pressure on the shoulders of Maurizio Sarri.

The game of the weekend came at the London Stadium, where Huddersfield Town looked destined to give their forlorn survival hopes a late boost when they led West Ham United 3-1, only to concede three times in the final 15 minutes and lose 4-3.

Indeed, all three of Saturday's matches contained a game-changing goal in the 90th minute or later, with Leicester City leaving it late to beat Burnley and Newcastle United rescuing a 2-2 draw with Bournemouth.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for a depleted gameweek 31.

Only one goalkeeper kept a clean sheet this weekend, so Jordan Pickford's selection between the sticks is a fairly straightforward one having made five saves to deny Chelsea at Goodison Park.

It is a similar story in defence, where Seamus Coleman and Michael Keane were instrumental in curbing the attacking threat of Eden Hazard, Gonzalo Higuain and Pedro, particularly in the second half.

Wes Morgan was named on the bench for Leicester against Burnley only to be called upon after just four minutes when Harry Maguire was sent off, but the Premier League-winning captain went on to marshall the 10 men brilliantly before popping up with a 90th-minute winner at the other end - enough to pip teammate Jonny Evans and West Ham's Angelo Ogbonna to a place in this XI.

There is plenty of competition at left-back despite the lack of games this weekend, with Newcastle duo Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummett both in contention. Aaron Cresswell gets the nod, though, courtesy of his assist in the seven-goal thriller against Huddersfield.

The Terriers will be kicking themselves after capitulating in the final stages of that match, and it may seem strange to select two holding midfielders from a team that conceded four goals, but those all came from set pieces or crosses into the box which Juninho Bacuna and Aaron Mooy could do little to prevent. The duo were also heavily involved in Huddersfield's best attacking performance of the season, with Bacuna opening the scoring for his side and Mooy registering an assist.

Sadio Mane is one of the league's form players at the moment and he made it 11 goals in his last 11 games across all competitions with the opener at Craven Cottage, before then winning the penalty that ensured top spot for Liverpool.

James Maddison produced one of the goals of the weekend for Leicester when his free kick broke the deadlock at Turf Moor, while also putting a shift in along with the rest of his side to earn victory despite playing 86 minutes with 10 men.

There were three players who scored braces in the top flight this weekend, but only two of them make our team as Huddersfield's Karlan Grant narrowly misses out to Javier Hernandez - purely due to the fact that the Mexican's late double sealed the win for West Ham over their doomed visitors.

Bournemouth's Joshua King completes the XI having scored twice against Newcastle - one of which came from the penalty spot and the other of which was a fine instinctive finish which left the keeper no chance.