Who features in 90MAAT’s Premier League TOTW for GW2?
Jonas Lossl – Huddersfield
Building on last week’s excellent performance at Selhurst Park where they comfortably dispatched Crystal Palace 3-0, the Premier League new boys had their first game where they took on fellow newly promoted team Newcastle, and didn’t they do well.
Huddersfield were as good as Newcastle were poor but they kept a clean sheet against a team that know what it takes to play in the Premier League and with established top division performers in their ranks. Fantastic saves from Richie and Ayoze Perez topped off what was a solid all round performance by the big Dane.
Eric Bailly – Manchester United
Bailly was at the centre of a incredibly solid, strong, intimidating, classically Mourinho, United defence that stopped any form of attack in its tracks, cleared everything that came into the box, and quite frankly just scared a Swansea attack into not daring to come forward.
United look like a classic Mourinho team, they will be fluid and free scoring in the first half of the season then when it comes to the crunch time after Christmas they will grind out 1-0 wins, and a consistently solid back four will be crucial to this plan.
David Luiz – Chelsea
Luiz makes it into the TOTW as a centre back within a back three due to the quite remarkable job he, along with Andreas Christensen who only narrowly missed out on making it this week, on Dele Alli and Christian Eriksen.
He was good on the ball, destroyed the flowing Tottenham moves, and kept his position very well. The report on the game has been that Spurs were unlucky to lose but football is simple in that if you take your chances you will win and Chelsea did that, whilst Luiz was making sure that Spurs did not.
Harry Maguire – Leicester
Not only did Maguire do his job incredibly effectively, in terms of keeping Brighton at bay, but he chipped in at the other end of the pitch with a predatory back post header to secure the win for the East Midlanders.
The 24 year old Englishman was all over the pitch and showed his ability not just as a commanding centre back but also with the ball at his feet, dribbling out of defence and even on the edge of the opposition box and earning his team a free kick. Maguire showed just why Leicester paid Hull £17m for the 24 year old, and hopefully for England his career kicks on.
Marcus Alonso – Chelsea
Need this really be explained? Chelsea beat Spurs 2-1 away from home, one absolutely beautiful free kick placed perfectly in the corner beyond the reach of Hugo Lloris, before marauding down the left flank and drilling one beneath the body of the Spurs goalkeeper, topping off a near perfect performance. There is talk that Chelsea are in for Danny Rose from Spurs but why? To me it seems like they have everything they need.
Andy Robertson – Liverpool
The 23 year old Scotsman was making his competitive debut for the Anfield outfit and is basically directly competing with Alberto Moreno after his awesome pre-season. He moved from Hull in the summer and looked like a quality purchase against Palace. Pounding up and down the left flank he made more key passes and had more touches than any other player so maybe he has made that position his own?
Nemanja Matic – Manchester United
Another flawless performance for the 29 year old Serb, he was an absolute force of nature in the centre of the park, deconstructing any move that Swansea attempted to begin before slipping to any of Pogba, Mata, Lukaku, or Mkhitaryan. Why Chelsea let him go I will never know but their loss is absolutely United’s gain.
Paul Pogba – Manchester United
This season looks like it could be the one where the former holder of the title of ‘Worlds Most Expensive Footballer’ could justify his price tag, and my lord is he starting off well. Last week’s performance and goal was followed by another one this week. However on another day with another referee he could well have been sent off, but he stayed, calmed down, and went on to roam around the pitch causing havoc to any Swansea player that happened to dare to challenge him.
Henrik Mkhitaryan – Manchester United
In the 80th minute United were only 1-0 ahead after Eric Bailly struck early on but then, introducing Henrik Mkhitaryan, two unbelievable assists in the space of two minutes. Number one was a beautifully disguised reverse pass to Lukaku who gladly dispatched it home and then number two was a delightful little through ball to Pogba who deftly lifted it over the top of Fabianski. A truly world class performance.
Romelu Lukaku – Manchester United
Another United player putting in another stellar performance. Mourinho signed him to put away the chances that would be supplied by the plethora of attacking talent situated behind him and that is exactly what he was doing. Two last week was followed by another classy powerful finish today, if they carry on at this rate and Lukaku carries on this form then we will be in for a very very interesting year.
Jese Rodriguez – Stoke City
Signed this week from PSG, the Spaniard comes with a large entourage and an even larger sense of self but he certainly delivered against the Gunners on Saturday evening. In the early stags of the game he showed exactly what he’s capable of by out pacing Mustafi but Cech pulled off a decent save.
But he kept on working and in the 47th minute a tidy finish was enough to secure the 3 points for the Potters. In the 71st he was taken off to a standing ovation having run his heart out, he is a hit and miss footballer but on this evidence he could be a hit for Stoke.
Full starting XI:
GK: Lossl
CB: Bailly
CB: Luiz
CB: Maguire
RWB: Robertson
LWB: Alonso
CM: Pogba
CM: Matic
RF: Mkhitaryan
CF: Lukaku
LF: Jese Rodriguez
