Garth Crooks' Team of the Week: Odegaard, Hojlund, Salah, Watkins

[CharlieH]

 

 

After every Premier League weekend, BBC football pundit Garth Crooks gathers his thoughts and gives you his Team of the Week.

Here are this week's choices and, as ever, Garth also discusses the game's big talking points in the Crooks of the Matter.

 

GOALKEEPERS

Ederson (Manchester City): The Manchester City keeper has not made my team selection for some time. I'm not entirely sure if that says more about his defenders than it does about his own performance. However, the Brazilian had to be at his best during Saturday's 1-1 draw against Chelsea.

City might have gone 2-0 down if it hadn't been for the brilliance of Ederson, who produced an excellent double save, with the first denying Raheem Sterling his second goal of the match.

The defending champions may look back at this fixture at the end of the season as a defining moment. The title could hinge on the finest margins and Ederson's double save might prove to be the difference.

 

DEFENDERS

Nelson Semedo (Wolverhampton Wanderers): There were so many impressive performances for Wolves in their 2-1 win at Tottenham that I could have picked out any number of their players to be in my team.

Nelson Semedo deserved a mention as he was outstanding. His ability to get forward, but also defend with equal measure, was impressive. He had a superb effort saved by Guglielmo Vicario when the rebound should have been converted by Hwang Hee-chan. He then produced the ball of the match in the second half for Pablo Sarabia, who should also have scored, and produced the block of the match to stop Dejan Kulusevski putting Spurs ahead.

Playing with a back three seems to have transformed Wolves, allowing Semedo to cascade forward almost at will. Arguably Wolves' most improved player since his arrival.

Lewis Dunk (Brighton & Hove Albion): It was Dunk's header across the face of the Sheffield United box that created Brighton's first goal and opened the floodgates as they won 5-0. Brighton were rampant, and clearly in no mood to repeat the performance they turned in against Luton Town, where they lost 4-0 to another team fighting relegation.

Sheffield United admittedly weren't helped by Mason Holgate's early red card for his tackle on Kaoru Mitoma, but the defender got what he deserved. If players are behaving like this in matches, it will have been spotted in training and it needs to stop.

 

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