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Premier League Team of the Week - Romelu Lukaku, Virgil van Dijk, Raul Jimenez

Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek 29, including Romelu Lukaku, Virgil van Dijk and three Wolverhampton Wanderers players.

The Premier League title race took another twist this weekend as champions Manchester City moved above Liverpool at the top of the table with only nine games now remaining.

City scraped a 1-0 win over Bournemouth at Dean Court on Saturday to put the pressure back on Liverpool, who could only manage a goalless draw in their Merseyside derby against Everton.

Manchester United regained their place in the top four, meanwhile, taking advantage of the 1-1 draw between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal in the North London derby by edging a 3-2 thriller against Southampton.

Chelsea were also victorious in their West London derby with Fulham as caretaker Cottagers boss Scott Parker joined new Leicester City manager Brendan Rodgers in losing his first game at the helm.

Elsewhere there were crucial wins for Brighton & Hove Albion and Crystal Palace, while West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers also picked up maximum points on Saturday.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek 29.



PL TOTW GW29

Artur Boruc may have ended up on the losing side against Manchester City - and he was even at fault for the goal - but he more than redeemed himself with a string of saves to keep the score down in the second half. Honourable mentions must also go to Hugo Lloris - who saved a penalty - and Bernd Leno, whose double-save to deny Christian Eriksen and Moussa Sissoko was world class.

Crystal Palace produced one of the performances of the weekend to beat Burnley at Turf Moor, and promising full-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka boosted his burgeoning reputation even further in that match with an assist and a solid performance at both ends of the pitch.

Liverpool may have been misfiring in the attacking third, but Virgil van Dijk was once again a colossus at the back for the title hopefuls in their stalemate with Everton. He is joined at centre-back this week by Shane Duffy, who recorded more tackles and won more aerial duels than anyone else on the pitch during Brighton's win over Huddersfield Town.

There is also an Everton representative from that Merseyside derby draw, with Lucas Digne helping to keep Mohamed Salah quiet for the most part with his diligent marking. Teammate Michael Keane also deserves a mention having led the Everton rearguard action to dent Liverpool's title hopes.

Declan Rice will be increasingly hopeful of an England call-up after another impressive performance for West Ham against Newcastle, opening the scoring for the Hammers as well as contributing to a clean sheet at the London Stadium.

Wolves are the best-represented club in this week's XI courtesy of their 2-0 win over Cardiff City, and while those in front of him stole the headlines, Romain Saiss was every bit as important to that result and takes his place in midfield.

It was ultimately Raul Jimenez and Diogo Jota who did the damage at Molineux, though, with Jimenez assisting Jota's opener before the pair switched roles just two minutes later to double their advantage.

Palace are the only other club to boast more than one player in this team, as Wilfried Zaha continued his recent revival in front of goal with a twisting and turning solo effort which eventually made sure of the points at Turf Moor.

David Silva, Anthony Knockaert and Troy Deeney all deserve mentions in the forward positions, but the lone striker role this week goes to Romelu Lukaku, who made it back-to-back braces with a couple of expert right-footed finishes against Southampton - including the late winner.

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Liverpool forward Sadio Mane celebrates after scoring against Watford in the Premier League on February 27, 2019
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Tables
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Manchester CityMan City29232476205671
2Liverpool29217164154970
3Tottenham HotspurSpurs29201856302661
4Manchester UnitedMan Utd29177558382058
5Arsenal29176661392257
6Chelsea28175649301956
7Wolverhampton WanderersWolves29127103735243
8Watford29127104141043
9West Ham UnitedWest Ham29116123741-439
10Everton29107123939037
11Leicester CityLeicester29105143541-635
12Bournemouth29104153954-1534
13Crystal Palace2996143539-433
14Newcastle UnitedNewcastle2987142636-1031
15Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton2886143041-1130
16Burnley2986153253-2130
17Southampton2969143249-1727
18Cardiff CityCardiff2974182557-3225
19Fulham2945202765-3817
20Huddersfield TownHuddersfield2935211551-3614

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