MX23RW : Wednesday, May 31 01:18:56| >> :120:6392:6392:

Premier League Team of the Week - Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford, Jordan Pickford

Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek 25, including Bruno Fernandes, Marcus Rashford and Jordan Pickford.

Liverpool's alarming and dramatic downturn in form continued with the most painful defeat yet in one of many standout fixtures in gameweek 25, with the champions falling to their first home Merseyside derby loss since 1999 at the hands of Everton.

The Reds were not alone in feeling the despair of derby defeat, though, with Tottenham Hotspur losing at West Ham United and Brighton & Hove Albion somehow succumbing to Crystal Palace on Monday night.

Manchester City's title charge was strengthened with an 18th successive win across all competitions as Arsenal became their latest victims, but their lead at the top remains 10 points after both Manchester United and Leicester City also won.

West Ham now join those three in the Champions League places after Chelsea were held by out-of-form Southampton, while Wolverhampton Wanderers were victorious against Leeds United.

At the bottom, Fulham picked up a priceless victory over Sheffield United to move to within three points of safety, while Burnley hung on for a goalless stalemate with 10-man West Bromwich Albion.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek 25.



PL TOTW GW25

Goalkeeper was perhaps the most competitive position in this week's team, with Rui Patricio desperately unfortunate not to get the nod having made seven saves en route to a clean sheet against Leeds, and Nick Pope also deserving a mention.

Everton's Jordan Pickford beats both of them to the gloves, though. Having been the villain of the piece in the reverse derby, Pickford was Everton's hero this time around with six saves, including particularly impressive ones to deny Jordan Henderson and Mohamed Salah.

The England number one is joined in this XI by two of his clubmates too, with Michael Keane and Mason Holgate also playing a huge role in stifling the Liverpool attack on an historic derby day for the Toffees.

Keane made a number of crucial interventions and cleared the ball a whopping 13 times in the match, while Holgate dominated Sadio Mane throughout to the extent that the Liverpool winger only got a glimmer of joy when he moved away from the Everton defender.

Ruben Dias and Kyle Bartley also deserve mentions at centre-back, but James Tarkowski completes what is a back three this week following his crucial goalline clearance to earn Burnley a point against West Brom in a game which they were very fortunate not to lose, despite having a man advantage.

Matthew Lowton is also worthy of being considered from that game, while on the opposite flank Lucas Digne was in contention, but there was a lack of competition for full-back roles this week and so we have drafted some more attacking players in at wing-back.

One of those is Raphinha who, despite being on the losing side for Leeds against Wolves, was again a standout performer in a game Leeds will feel they should have got something from.

On the left, Harvey Barnes drops into a slightly deeper role having further strengthened his international case with a goal and an assist in Leicester's impressive win at Aston Villa.

James Maddison scored from Barnes's assist and is another name in that England picture, and he was in contention for a central midfield spot in this team along with Declan Rice and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa.

They all narrowly miss out to Tomas Soucek, who alongside Rice played a huge part in West Ham's memorable victory over Spurs, and Bruno Fernandes, whose overall performance was not his best but who still produced a goal and assist to make the difference against Newcastle.

Marcus Rashford is another player who made a difference in that game without being on the very top of his game, and his selection as the centre-forward in this week's XI is as much down to a lack of other options as his individual display.

Raheem Sterling and Lucas Moura, both of whom were on the scoresheet in their respective games, were the other names in contention for the forward roles, but they miss out to Jesse Lingard and Ademola Lookman.

Lingard continued his fine start to life at West Ham by tucking away what proved to be the winning goal against Spurs, while Lookman's strike against Sheffield United could prove to be even more valuable as Fulham gave their survival hopes a major boost.

ID:436383: cacheID:436383:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:8860:
Restore Data
Share this article now:
Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang celebrates with the match ball after scoring a hat-trick on February 14, 2021
Read Next:
PL Team of the Week - Aubameyang, Gundogan, Kovacic
>
rhs 2.0
Real Madrid Until The End
Today's games header
10am
Ofner
Korda
10am
Ostapenko
Stearns
10am
Fognini
Kubler
10am
Mertens
Osorio
10am
Hunter
Svitolina
10am
Carballes Baena
Tsitsipas
10.45am
Giorgi
Pegula
11.30am
Sherif
Potapova
11.30am
Sonego
Humbert
11.30am
Samsonova
Pavlyuchenkova
11.30am
Schwartzman
Borges
11.30am
Wawrinka
Kokkinakis
12pm
Muchova
Podoroska
12pm
Putintseva
Zheng
12pm
Vondrousova
Kasatkina
12.15pm
Garcia
Blinkova
1pm
Arnaldi
Shapovalov
1pm
Griekspoor
Hurkacz
1.30pm
Bautista Agut
Pablo Varillas
1.30pm
Stephens
Gracheva
1.30pm
Khachanov
Albot
1.30pm
Errani
Begu
1.30pm
Moutet
Rublev
1.30pm
Shymanovich
Sabalenka
1.45pm
Alcaraz
Daniel
3pm
Van Assche
Davidovich Fokina
3pm
Musetti
Shevchenko
3pm
Pouille
Norrie
3.30pm
Frech
Rakhimova
3.30pm
Fernandez
Tauson
3.30pm
Jeanjean
Avanesyan
7.15pm
Djokovic
Fucsovics
Tables
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
CManchester CityMan City38285594336189
2Arsenal38266688434584
3Manchester UnitedMan Utd38236958431575
4Newcastle UnitedNewcastle381914568333571
5Liverpool381910975472867
6Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton381881272531962
7Aston Villa38187135146561
8Tottenham HotspurSpurs38186147063760
9Brentford381514958461259
10Fulham38157165553252
11Crystal Palace381112154049-945
12Chelsea381111163847-944
13Wolverhampton WanderersWolves38118193158-2741
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham38117204255-1340
15Bournemouth38116213771-3439
16Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest38911183868-3038
17Everton38812183457-2336
RLeicester CityLeicester3897225168-1734
RLeeds UnitedLeeds38710214878-3031
RSouthampton3867253673-3725

Real Madrid Until The End
Ted Lasso creative

Subscribe to our newsletter


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!