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Premier League Team of the Week - Jamie Vardy, Ayoze Perez, Christian Pulisic

Sports Mole selects its Premier League Team of the Week for gameweek 10, including three hat-trick heroes and no fewer than seven Leicester City players.

Leicester City shattered Premier League records galore in the opening match of gameweek 10 when they recorded the biggest ever away win in the 131-year history of the Football League and the joint-biggest Premier League victory of any kind.

The only thing worse than the weather at St Mary's was Southampton's performance as they capitulated after being reduced to 10 men and went on to lose 9-0 in a result so humiliating that it raised immediate questions over manager Ralph Hasenhuttl's future.

Southampton's red card was retrospectively awarded by VAR to set the tone for a weekend which saw the technology make many of the headlines again.

Arsenal saw a late winner disallowed having thrown away a two-goal lead against Crystal Palace, Manchester United were awarded - and missed - two penalties in their win over Norwich City, Everton were on the wrong end of a penalty decision which allowed Brighton & Hove Albion to turn the game around in the latter stages and Newcastle United had a man sent off in their draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

At the top of the table, Liverpool's lead still sits at six points after they overcame an early setback to beat Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield, a day after watching Manchester City beat Aston Villa 3-0 at the Etihad.

Leicester and Chelsea are the closest challengers to that top two, with the latter easing to a 4-2 triumph at Burnley in Saturday's evening kickoff.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Premier League Team of the Week for gameweek 10.



PL TOTW GW10

As was the case when Manchester City recorded an 8-0 win earlier this season, the size of Leicester's triumph means that they dominate this XI with no fewer than seven players - and others who were in competition for a place too.

Kasper Schmeichel is one of those who does not make the cut in a competitive week for the goalkeeping position, with Ederson getting the nod for the second week in a row. Man City's 3-0 win over Villa looked more comfortable in the end than it actually was, and Ederson's five saves were crucial in that being the case.

Honourable mentions should also go to Tim Krul, who saved two penalties and made one miracle stop despite Norwich's home defeat to United, Paulo Gazzaniga and Ben Foster, but Ederson was the only one who combined world-class saves with a clean sheet in this gameweek.

Indeed, clean sheets were few and far between this weekend, making Steve Cook's performance for Bournemouth all the more important. The Cherries are struggling for goals at the other end at the moment, but as long as Cook is in this form they should be okay at the back at least.

Jamaal Lascelles, Federico Fernandez and Harry Maguire were all considered as partners for Cook, but that spot instead goes to Arsenal's Sokratis Papastathopoulos. The Greek centre-back opened the scoring for the Gunners and thought he had netted the winner before VAR denied him, posing a significant threat in the opposition box. The two goals conceded are a blot on his copybook, but he showed the type of fight and aggression that the Arsenal fans are crying out for.

Seven of the remaining eight spots go to Leicester men, and deservedly so courtesy of their nine-goal haul on Friday night. Ricardo Pereira was actually more impressive in a defensive sense than attacking with his seven tackles to beat Trent Alexander-Arnold to a place in the team, but on the opposite flank Ben Chilwell was a constant threat going forward.

The England full-back opened the scoring and added two more assists in the rout, while in front of him there were goals for James Maddison and Youri Tielemans too, the latter also helping himself to an assist in another impressive performance.

Wilfred Ndidi, who matched Pereira's game-high tally of seven tackles, completes an all-Leicester midfield in a week where there were plenty of fine displays in that area of the field, most notably from Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan, David Silva, Mateo Kovacic, Jordan Henderson and Harvey Barnes.

There were also a number of players who put their names forward for a place in the front three, including Marcus Rashford, Sadio Mane and Willian, but the trio selected were never really in doubt after all three helped themselves to hat-tricks over the weekend.

Ayoze Perez and Jamie Vardy became only the second lot of teammates to score trebles in the same Premier League match by inflicting the bulk of the punishment on Southampton, with Vardy making sure of the record-equalling result by netting his 93rd-minute penalty.

Neither of those were the 'perfect' hat-trick, though, and Christian Pulisic did claim that rare honour against Burnley. The summer signing has not been a regular feature of Chelsea's side so far this season, but he staked his claim in style on Saturday with a well-taken treble at Turf Moor, scoring one with the left, one with the right and one with his head.

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Virgil van Dijk in action during the Premier League game between Liverpool and Newcastle United on September 14, 2019
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Today's games header
Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Arsenal34245582265677
2Manchester CityMan City33237380324876
3Liverpool34228475344174
4Aston Villa34206871502166
5Tottenham HotspurSpurs32186865491660
6Manchester UnitedMan Utd33165125150153
7Newcastle UnitedNewcastle331551369541550
8West Ham UnitedWest Ham34139125463-948
9Chelsea32138116157447
10Bournemouth34129134960-1145
11Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton331111115254-244
12Wolverhampton WanderersWolves34127154654-843
13Fulham34126165054-442
14Crystal Palace34109154456-1239
15Brentford3498175259-735
16Everton34118153648-1233
17Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest3479184260-1826
18Luton TownLuton3467214775-2825
19Burnley3458213769-3223
20Sheffield UnitedSheff Utd3437243392-5916


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