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Premier League Team of the Week - Kelechi Iheanacho, Jamie Vardy, Luke Shaw

Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek 28, including Kelechi Iheanacho, Jamie Vardy and Luke Shaw.

Arsenal earned local bragging rights in the North London derby against Tottenham Hotspur as the top-four race took more twists and turns during gameweek 28 of the Premier League season.

Spurs, Everton and West Ham United were all beaten - the latter two at the hands of Burnley and Manchester United respectively - while Chelsea dropped points in a goalless draw with Leeds United.

That allowed Liverpool to climb back up to sixth courtesy of a timely return to winning ways, capping the action off with a 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers on Monday night.

It was also a good weekend for the top three, who edged further clear of the chasing pack by all winning.

Man United's aforementioned victory over West Ham was preceded by champions-elect Manchester City easing to a 3-0 win over Fulham and Leicester City hammering managerless Sheffield United.

At the bottom, Brighton & Hove Albion picked up a crucial win over Southampton and Crystal Palace beat West Bromwich Albion, while Newcastle United rescued a late equaliser against Aston Villa on Friday night.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek 28.



PLTOTWGW28

Chelsea's unbeaten start under Thomas Tuchel continued at the weekend, but they still dropped two points in the top-four race and that was largely down to the presence of Illan Meslier, who made no fewer than eight saves to keep the Blues at bay at Elland Road.

Clean sheets have been regular occurrences for Manchester City too this season, and their latest one at Fulham sees them earn two selections in the defence this week - although they both made a telling impact at the other end too.

Joao Cancelo assisted John Stones for the opening goal at Craven Cottage, breaking what had been a stubborn resistance shortly after half time to send Man City on course to a comfortable win in the end.

Lewis Dunk was also on the scoresheet with a fine header for Brighton against Southampton, and that is enough to see him just edge out James Tarkowski and Harry Maguire for a place in this week's team.

Maguire's clubmate Luke Shaw does make the cut, though, having continued his fine form this season with another man-of-the-match display in the victory over Manchester United's top-four rivals West Ham.

There was not a great deal of competition for the midfield places in this week's team, and Luka Milivojevic's match-winning penalty for Palace against West Brom is enough for him to earn a spot in the middle of the park.

Youri Tielemans and Martin Odegaard also deserve mentions, but joining Milojevic is N'Golo Kante, who fired a reminder to Tuchel of his importance to Chelsea with an all-action display during their draw at Leeds.

Gameweek 28 was blessed with some memorable goals, and Dwight McNeil will no doubt be cursing the impudence of Erik Lamela for denying him goal of the weekend - although McNeil himself declared his stunner against Everton as the best he had ever scored.

Leandro Trossard, Emile Smith Rowe, Gabriel Jesus and Diogo Jota were all in contention for the forward positions, but the final three spots in this XI go to Leicester courtesy of their five-star showing against Sheffield United.

Ayoze Perez got the second of those but was heavily involved in much of the attacking damage done by Leicester, while Jamie Vardy incredibly did not manage to get on the scoresheet himself despite his side scoring five times.

The striker did register two assists, though, joining an exclusive club of players with 100 or more Premier League goal involvements after the age of 30, and two of those assists were for strike partner Kelechi Iheanacho.

It was the Nigerian who stole the show with his first senior hat-trick, firing a message to Brendan Rodgers that Vardy's long-term successor may already be at the club amid speculation linking Leicester with a new striker this summer.

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Barney Corkhill
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Tottenham Hotspur's Harry Kane and Gareth Bale celebrate a goal against Burnley in the Premier League on February 28, 2021
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Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool22165154213353
2Arsenal23138244212347
3Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest2313553327644
4Manchester CityMan City23125647301741
5Newcastle UnitedNewcastle23125641271441
6Chelsea23117545301540
7Bournemouth23117541261540
8Aston Villa2310763435-137
9Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton2381053531434
10Fulham238963431333
11Brentford2394104240231
12Manchester UnitedMan Utd2385102832-429
13Crystal Palace236982630-427
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham2376102844-1627
15Tottenham HotspurSpurs2373134637924
16Everton225891928-923
17Leicester CityLeicester2345142549-2417
18Wolverhampton WanderersWolves2344153252-2016
19Ipswich TownIpswich2337132147-2616
20Southampton2313191653-376


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