MX23RW : Monday, February 15 00:44:21| >> :60:3369:3369:

Premier League Team of the Week - Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Sadio Mane

Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek two of the season, including Son Heung-min, Harry Kane, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Sadio Mane.

It was a record-breaking weekend in the Premier League as the goals flowed more freely than ever in the highest-scoring gameweek the competition has ever seen.

There were three separate seven-goal thrillers, with Everton and Tottenham Hotspur running out 5-2 winners over West Bromwich Albion and Southampton respectively and Leeds United playing out their second successive 4-3 - this time ending on the winning side against Fulham.

Leicester City beat Burnley 4-2 to get in on the act, while there were notable away wins for Crystal Palace at Manchester United, Brighton & Hove Albion at Newcastle United, Liverpool at Chelsea and Manchester City at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

In total, 44 goals flew in over the weekend as the first full round of fixtures got the 2020-21 campaign off to a thrilling start.

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



PL TOTW GW2

In such a high-scoring week, it is no surprise that goalkeeper and defence were not the most fiercely contested positions in this week's XI, although there were still notable performances in those areas.

Only three goalkeepers kept clean sheets and two of those needed to save penalties to do so, making it a two-horse race between Alisson Becker and Emiliano Martinez. The Liverpool man gets the nod for us over the Aston Villa debutant by virtue of having to do more over the 90 minutes - making three saves to Martinez's one.

There may have been concern among Liverpool fans prior to kickoff when injury troubles forced Fabinho into a makeshift centre-back role, but the Brazilian excelled up against Timo Werner to earn a place in this team.

Again, the main competition comes from Villa's clean sheet with Tyrone Mings and Esri Konsa both impressing defensively, and the latter's winning goal means that he gets the nod to partner Fabinho at the heart of the defence.

Tariq Lamptey was unfortunate not to make the team last week, but he does this time around having continued his fine start to the season with an electric first-half display against Newcastle, helping Brighton to a clean sheet in addition to his constant attacking threat.

On the opposite flank, James Justin got himself on the scoresheet in Leicester's win over Burnley to earn a spot at left-back.

The way this weekend's action went leaves us no choice but to name an attacking and imbalanced midfield, simply because there were at least six attacking players who fell into the 'impossible-to-leave-out' bracket.

As a result, our central midfield is a creative hub with James Rodriguez and Kevin De Bruyne both registering a goal and assist apiece, and we'd back them to have enough impact going forward to negate the lack of a defence-minded player in the middle of the park too.

Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Dani Ceballos, Dennis Praet, Mateusz Klich, James McArthur and Phil Foden were also considered in those central midfield roles, but it was impossible to ignore the impact of Rodriguez and De Bruyne.

The competition for the left-sided attacker role was incredible this week, so much so that Sadio Mane is forced out to the right following his two-goal showing against Chelsea.

Jeffrey Schlupp, Richarlison, Harvey Barnes, Helder Costa and Leandro Trossard are among the names that deserve a mention in the wide areas, but all of them were overshadowed by Son Heung-min's incredible four-goal show at Southampton.

Even more incredible was the fact that Harry Kane assisted all four of those goals - in addition to scoring one of his own - to also make him one of the first names on this week's teamsheet.

Son's was one of two hat-tricks over the weekend, the first of which was scored by Dominic Calvert-Lewin to complete a strike force which essentially picked itself despite such a high level of competition.

There are plenty of players missing this week who would have made it into any ordinary team of the week; Wilfried Zaha scored twice in a win at Old Trafford, Neal Maupay scored two and assisted one, Aleksandar Mitrovic helped himself to a brace, Patrick Bamford got a goal and an assist and Gabriel Jesus and Aaron Connolly were also on the scoresheet.

However, it is hard to argue with a front four that scored 10 goals and created four more between them - not to mention the magic playmakers behind them.

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Liverpool's Mohamed Salah celebrates his hat-trick against Leeds United on September 12, 2020
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Todays Game Header Right
Tables
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Manchester CityMan City23165246143253
2Manchester UnitedMan Utd24137450311946
3Leicester CityLeicester24144642261646
4Liverpool24117645321340
5Chelsea23116638241439
6West Ham UnitedWest Ham2311663428639
7Everton2211473430437
8Aston Villa22113836241236
9Tottenham HotspurSpurs23106736251136
10Arsenal24104103125634
11Leeds UnitedLeeds23102114042-232
12Wolverhampton WanderersWolves2486102532-730
13Southampton2385103039-929
14Crystal Palace2485112742-1529
15Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton2451182530-526
16Burnley2375111729-1226
17Newcastle UnitedNewcastle2374122538-1325
18Fulham2339111931-1218
19West Bromwich AlbionWest Brom2427151955-3613
20Sheffield UnitedSheff Utd2332181537-2211

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