Premier League

Premier League Team of the Week - Jamie Vardy, Jack Grealish, Illan Meslier

By Barney Corkhill, Editor | 29 September 2020

Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek three, including Jamie Vardy, Jack Grealish and Illan Meslier.

The free-scoring nature of the 2020-21 Premier League season continued over the weekend as 36 more goals were plundered to take the overall tally over 100 in just 28 games.

The highest-scoring contest and headline result saw Leicester City stun Manchester City with a 5-2 win at the Etihad Stadium, while a six-goal thriller between West Bromwich Albion and Chelsea - which saw Chelsea fall three goals down in 27 minutes before launching a second-half fightback - was not far behind.

Liverpool rounded the gameweek off with another ominous statement of their title credentials, dominating en route to a 3-1 win over Arsenal, while West Ham United boasted the biggest win of the weekend with a shock 4-0 drubbing of Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Despite all that, the main drama came elsewhere as Manchester United scored a 100th-minute winner at Brighton & Hove Albion via a penalty awarded by VAR after the final whistle had already gone at the end of a game which saw Brighton hit the woodwork five times.

Indeed, the new interpretation of the handball laws, which led to that penalty, were the main talking point of the weekend with Tottenham Hotspur being cruelly denied at the death in their draw with Newcastle United and Crystal Palace also being stung by a contentious call as Everton won at Selhurst Park.

The trend of away wins continued too, with Aston Villa cruising past Fulham, Leeds United winning the first top-flight Yorkshire derby since 2001 at Sheffield United and Southampton edging past Burnley.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week from an action-packed gameweek three.

There were two standout contenders for the gloves this week; Karl Darlow is incredibly unfortunate to miss out having made 11 saves, including a few stunning ones, to keep Newcastle in the game as they ultimately earned a point at Tottenham.

However, while those saves were essentially worth one point, Illan Meslier's were worth three for Leeds as he made world-class stops to deny John Lundstram and George Baldock, keeping a clean sheet in the process.

That was one of only four clean sheets over the course of the weekend, and our back four were all involved in keeping the other three, including Southampton's Jan Bednarek, who made more clearances and interceptions than any other player in their narrow win over Burnley.

Tyrone Mings not only kept a clean sheet at Fulham but also capitalised on some criminal defending to get his name on the scoresheet at the other end, and he is joined in this XI by Villa teammate Matty Cash following a fine performance from the summer signing.

On the opposite flank, Arthur Masuaku was a constant threat down the left in West Ham's rout of Wolves and can consider himself unfortunate to have only ended the game with one assist.

It is in midfield where the competition for places intensifies, and honourable mentions should go to the likes of Nampalys Mendy, Youri Tielemans, Mason Mount, Solly March, Tomas Soucek, James Rodriguez and Bruno Fernandes.

Conor Hourihane also came very close to making the cut with a goal and an assist, but he is just pipped by two Villa teammates; Jack Grealish opened the scoring and had Denis Odoi in the palm of his hand throughout, while John McGinn's classy display was capped off by two assists.

Declan Rice anchors the midfield having quelled the Wolves attack time after time to help West Ham keep a clean sheet in their 4-0 triumph.

West Ham's trio of selections is completed by two-goal Jarrod Bowen, while West Brom's Callum Robinson also helped himself to a well-taken brace in the Baggies' first-half blitz of Chelsea - enough to beat Jack Harrison, Sadio Mane, Marcus Rashford and Leandro Trossard to a place on the left.

Jamie Vardy went one better than that, though, helping himself to a hat-trick at Man City, including two from the spot. Leicester can perhaps feel hard done by to only have one representative in this XI after such a memorable result, but Vardy's treble - his second against Pep Guardiola's Man City - made him the first name on the teamsheet.