Sunday, December 22, 2024

Who has made Troy’s Premier League team of the week?

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After every round of Premier League matches this season, BBC football pundit Troy Deeney will give you his team and manager of the week.

Here are this week’s choices. Do you agree? Give us your thoughts using the comments form at the bottom of this page.

Troy's XI: Onana, Alexander-Arnold, Konsa, Gabriel, Calafiori; Morsy, Dibling; Dias, Maddison, Ndiaye; JacksonTroy's XI: Onana, Alexander-Arnold, Konsa, Gabriel, Calafiori; Morsy, Dibling; Dias, Maddison, Ndiaye; Jackson

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Andre Onana (Manchester United): He made an excellent double save, which I thought was miles better than David Raya’s in the Champions League. Onana is under pressure at Manchester United, but he kept them in a game they probably should have gone on to win. He was top drawer.

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Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool): I was at the Liverpool game, where Alexander-Arnold was excellent at the back against a Bournemouth team who were lively. Alexander-Arnold was good both defensively and going forward, where Bournemouth had to rotate two or three people just to deal with his attacks. He got a great assist as well.

Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa): I know Konsa played as a right-back to start with, but he moved as the game developed. He has become one of the best defenders England have got. He’s very consistent and can can play anywhere across the backline. He came up with a pivotal goal for Aston Villa as well.

Gabriel (Arsenal): Gabriel is getting a lot of attention and rightly so. He’s got this aura now when it comes to set-pieces. Every team he faces must think he’s going to score. You saw Manchester City put two on him and couldn’t stop him. Defensively he was at his best, Arsenal just couldn’t get over the line.

Riccardo Calafiori (Arsenal): Calafiori had a poor start but grew into the game. He scored an unbelievable goal but I thought his tactical nous, and his understanding of defending when his side were a player down, was excellent.

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Sam Morsy (Ipswich): I’ve been critical of him of late, I think it’s taken him a little while to get up to speed with the tempo of the Premier League. But he was much better this week and got around the pitch more. Defensively he has a massive job for Ipswich and he did really well.

Tyler Dibling (Southampton): He is one player everybody needs to look forward to because he is the business. He might not still be at Southampton in January. This 18-year-old can play anywhere in midfield – a sitter, a 10, an eight, you name it he’s got it in the bag. He was super-confident and so comfortable. Every now and then you see a player who looks like they walk through games, he is like that. He scored his first goal as well, fair play to him.

James Maddison (Tottenham): This is the game I’ve been waiting to see Madds do for a long, long time. Even though Brentford scored early he got in there and said ‘right, watch what I do’. He created loads of chances. I’ve been critical of him at times, I felt he has gone too short and not put himself in difficult positions. This was the perfect response.

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Luis Diaz (Liverpool): On the right for Liverpool he was the best player on the pitch by a country mile. I appreciate this is a massive statement but it made me think if Liverpool do let Mohamed Salah go, he could take over as the main man. He was excellent, left foot, right foot. He ran short and ran long. His enthusiasm to play football was brilliant and both his goals were unbelievable as well. Fantastic, fantastic.

Nicolas Jackson (Chelsea): This weekend is all about Jackson. Two great goals and an assist, all done before he was given a rest after 60 minutes. It was a fine day at the office for him. I’m quite critical of how many chances he misses for Chelsea and, if he wants to be the main man moving forward, he has to have more games like this. He grabbed hold of it, offered a threat in behind and scored goals. Chelsea don’t need to buy another striker if he stays in this kind of form.

Iliman Ndiaye (Everton): The last three weeks, when Everton have been really poor, he’s been the shining light. He looks like he’s the one with no fear. He works really hard off the ball and on it he adds a different dimension and quality that Everton didn’t have. They need to keep him fit if they hope to stay up. If he keeps playing well they’ll have a chance.

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Mikel Arteta (Arsenal): He will probably feel like he lost today, but tactically he got the gameplan spot on. I thought he looked after Erling Haaland – I know he scored, but on the whole you didn’t really see him much. Even after they conceded, Arsenal stuck to their gameplan and quickly went 2-1 up.

He then took the decision to take off Bukayo Saka and camp 10 men inside their box. Up until the 98th minute it looked like he’d pulled off the perfect masterclass.

Do you agree with Troy’s selections? Who would be in your team of the week? Have your say using the comments form below.

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