At the end of every round of fixtures, BBC football pundit Garth Crooks is on hand to give you his Team of the Week.
Who has he picked this time? Take a look and then pick your own team below and share it on social media. As ever, Garth also has his say on the game’s big talking points in the Crooks of the Matter.
Alisson (Liverpool): To achieve 100 clean sheets in your goalkeeping career for one club is quite a statement. I didn’t appreciate goalkeepers actually counted clean sheets but if strikers count goals I see no reason why they shouldn’t.
Alisson is a remarkable goalkeeper, especially in the modern era, largely because of the fact that he is not as comfortable with the ball at his feet as Manchester City’s Ederson for example, but to be perfectly honest there are not that many that are.
He is one of the best keepers in the world when it comes to a one-on-one situation with an advancing striker. That is one of the reasons that the Brazilian has achieved this impressive landmark.
Craig Dawson (Wolves): Last week Wolves played Brighton and were thrashed 6-0 and they looked like their minds were anywhere but on their jobs. The best thing that could have happened to them in order to focus the mind was the prospect of another humiliation but this time at the hands of one of their rivals, Aston Villa.
Dawson, who has been their player of the season for me, was outstanding and provided the stimulus for an impressive victory. Julen Lopetegui has done a brilliant job since his arrival at Molineux. His players have only really let him down once and that was at Brighton. The problem for Wolves is, can they keep him? Lopetegui is a first-class manager and I can think of a number of clubs who would benefit from his services – Spurs and Chelsea are just two.
Thiago Silva (Chelsea): I never said that refereeing a Premier League football match was easy. The tackle by Thiago Silva on Dominic Solanke in the penalty area looked like the defender had won the ball. It was only having seen the challenge on the Match of the Day analysis camera that it was clear Silva hadn’t won the ball but the defender’s challenge did force Solanke to take a heavy touch. Forcing the striker to mistime his control of the ball is not an offence and referee John Brooks called it absolutely right. It was a crucial part of the match and it could be a turning point for Chelsea too.
The Blues were shocking in the first half against Arsenal but Frank Lampard’s post-match interview following the game was as honest and as lucid about the club’s position as I have heard from him. His point-blank refusal to be drawn into publicly criticising Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who has had a torrid time at Stamford Bridge, was telling. Chelsea’s impressive performance against Bournemouth seemed to be in direct response to that honesty. Lampard may have a future at the club after all.
Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool): It may not be the best season Virgil van Dijk has ever had but Liverpool are putting a run together that just might save their season. Van Dijk has never been quite the same since his injury sustained in the clash with Jordan Pickford but he’s getting there.
He can’t make the recovery runs he used to and on the odd occasion he is dispossessed or someone gets a march on him. A point highlighted when Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo turned him on the halfway line and raced half the length of the pitch before putting the ball in the back of the net. Fortunately for Liverpool and Van Dijk, the goal was ruled offside. That wouldn’t have happened three years ago. Nevertheless the inspirational Dutch defender is starting to look more and more dangerous in the opposition’s penalty area. His beautifully controlled header back across the six-yard box for Mohamed Salah to tap home was as intelligent as it was unselfish.
Martin Odegaard (Arsenal): This was a very professional performance by Arsenal. I thought Newcastle might have put an end to any title ambitions by the Gunners but they could have been 3-0 up in the first half had it not been for a combination of missed chances and good goalkeeping by Newcastle’s Nick Pope.
Odegaard was yet again at the heart of another Arsenal victory. The Norwegian’s decision-making seems to be getting better by the game as he continues to provide his team with the sophistication other players simply don’t possess. This away performance will send the strongest possible message to Manchester City that Arsenal have no intention of giving up on the title race and any slip-up in City’s league performance would not just cost them the championship but the Treble as well.
Jorginho (Arsenal): When Jorginho arrived from Stamford Bridge I wasn’t entirely sure why Arsenal had invested in the Italian. I must say I saw hints of why after his performance in midweek against Chelsea but the way he played against Newcastle explained exactly why Mikel Arteta saw such value in the player. His experience at crucial moments in the match at St James’ Park was clearly evident.
He is the perfect foil for Thomas Partey, who has had an excellent season but is in desperate need of a rest like most of the players who played in the World Cup. Newcastle are a big side and the moment they realised they couldn’t outplay Arsenal they tried to intimidate them and, all credit to the Gunners, they were having none of it.
Abdoulaye Doucoure (Everton): This was a massive three points and an extraordinary performance by Everton. Their start couldn’t have been any better, Doucoure was the coolest man on the pitch when he tucked in his goal after only 35 seconds while his second goal was better than his first. The Mali international only grew in stature and confidence as the game went on after that.
This results puts Everton on 32 points and I think they require at least another four points in order to be safe. They have Manchester City at home, so they can forget that; Wolves away, which is a must-win game, and Bournemouth at home, which will almost certainly be their biggest game of the season. Meanwhile, what a difference a few games make. A few weeks ago the fans were calling for their board to resign. The fans have now turned their attention to the team and they have responded accordingly. There is hope for Everton yet.
Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City): The first goal from Gundogan was a gem. He literally stroked the ball home like a conductor providing the opening stroke of his baton to a symphony. The problem for Leeds United and their new manager, Sam Allardyce, was that Gundogan was just getting started. His second goal came within eight minutes of his first as the Germany international received the ball with his left foot, and with one touch feinted to put the ball in the keeper’s bottom left-hand corner but brilliantly and deliberately pulled his shot around and buried it in the opposite corner of the net.
Gundogan would have had his first hat-trick in Premier League football had he converted his penalty, generously handed to him by the normal taker Erling Haaland – much to Pep Guardiola’s annoyance. The gesture was the right thing to do. Haaland, who missed a hatful of chances against Leeds, is just as capable of missing a spot-kick as he is missing goalscoring opportunities and the game against Leeds proved precisely that point.
Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest): The penalty was a pressure moment for Gibbs-White but the player was equal to the occasion. He has had an excellent season for Forest and has been one of the players in the team who always made me believe that they had a chance of surviving in the Premier League.
I said recently after Forest’s defeat at Anfield that this was a team that would have to be carried out of the Premier League kicking and screaming. Southampton gave it everything against Forest but this defeat means the Saints are doomed. Forest, meanwhile, need four points from three games: Chelsea away, Arsenal at home and Crystal Palace away. It’s a tall order but I wouldn’t bet against them.
Harry Kane (Tottenham): It’s difficult to leave Harry Kane out of my team, having scored the winning goal against Crystal Palace, which brings him closer to Alan Shearer’s Premier League record, and then clears a certain equaliser off the line. Neither can you ignore the fact that he has somehow remained utterly professional amid an avalanche of mismanagement and chaos at the heart of his football club.
Three managers have taken charge of his dressing room in a matter of weeks, which means they almost certainly will not finish in the top four when at one point they looked nailed on. Spurs are no nearer finding a replacement for Antonio Conte than they were the moment he walked out the door. Yet you wouldn’t know any of that when watching Kane. The England captain is the consummate professional and that is why he is in my team. Read about what I think of the managerial merry-go-round in the Crooks of the Matter below.
Mohamed Salah (Liverpool): Seven goals in seven games is the biggest indicator to date that Salah is returning to the kind of form that has won him iconic status at Anfield. To have also scored 30 goals in three consecutive seasons is an extraordinary achievement. Liverpool now find themselves one point behind Manchester United, having played a game more.
If Liverpool stand any chance of bringing Jude Bellingham and Declan Rice to Anfield, and I think they need both to compete with Manchester City next season, then a top-four finish is critical. The purchases would cost them the best part of £200m but what a statement it would make. With Salah slowly coming back to his best, and with Cody Gakpo, Darwin Nunez and Luis Diaz all developing, Liverpool would take some stopping. Anyway it’s only money.
The Crooks of the Matter
Antonio Conte, Brendan Rodgers, Graham Potter and Patrick Vieira are prominent football managers who have all lost their jobs in recent weeks. What is true about every one of them is that they were all appointed as managers of football clubs because of their reputations and yet currently they are all out of work.
Roy Hodgson, meanwhile, has been reappointed by his former employer Crystal Palace, having left in 2021, and Sam Allardyce has been asked to come out of retirement by Leeds United, presumably for a great deal of money, to see if he could achieve what he failed to do at West Bromwich Albion and keep the Yorkshire club in the Premier League.
I have always been fascinated by executives at football clubs who make these decisions. In their everyday life they often run very successful companies with chief executives who have formidable track records and would never run their businesses how they run their football club.
Spurs currently have Ryan Mason, a rookie caretaker manager in charge of team affairs, which is like giving an accountant who has just passed his accountancy exams the role of running of a FTSE 100 company for a few weeks to see how he gets on. Which credible business would do that? It makes no sense but it does seems to be the acceptable way in which professional football is run these days.
