MX23RW : Friday, December 13 10:44:39| >> :60:3041:3041:

Premier League Team of the Week - Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Sadio Mane

Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek two of the season, including Son Heung-min, Harry Kane, Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Sadio Mane.

It was a record-breaking weekend in the Premier League as the goals flowed more freely than ever in the highest-scoring gameweek the competition has ever seen.

There were three separate seven-goal thrillers, with Everton and Tottenham Hotspur running out 5-2 winners over West Bromwich Albion and Southampton respectively and Leeds United playing out their second successive 4-3 - this time ending on the winning side against Fulham.

Leicester City beat Burnley 4-2 to get in on the act, while there were notable away wins for Crystal Palace at Manchester United, Brighton & Hove Albion at Newcastle United, Liverpool at Chelsea and Manchester City at Wolverhampton Wanderers.

In total, 44 goals flew in over the weekend as the first full round of fixtures got the 2020-21 campaign off to a thrilling start.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek two.



PL TOTW GW2

In such a high-scoring week, it is no surprise that goalkeeper and defence were not the most fiercely contested positions in this week's XI, although there were still notable performances in those areas.

Only three goalkeepers kept clean sheets and two of those needed to save penalties to do so, making it a two-horse race between Alisson Becker and Emiliano Martinez. The Liverpool man gets the nod for us over the Aston Villa debutant by virtue of having to do more over the 90 minutes - making three saves to Martinez's one.

There may have been concern among Liverpool fans prior to kickoff when injury troubles forced Fabinho into a makeshift centre-back role, but the Brazilian excelled up against Timo Werner to earn a place in this team.

Again, the main competition comes from Villa's clean sheet with Tyrone Mings and Esri Konsa both impressing defensively, and the latter's winning goal means that he gets the nod to partner Fabinho at the heart of the defence.

Tariq Lamptey was unfortunate not to make the team last week, but he does this time around having continued his fine start to the season with an electric first-half display against Newcastle, helping Brighton to a clean sheet in addition to his constant attacking threat.

On the opposite flank, James Justin got himself on the scoresheet in Leicester's win over Burnley to earn a spot at left-back.

The way this weekend's action went leaves us no choice but to name an attacking and imbalanced midfield, simply because there were at least six attacking players who fell into the 'impossible-to-leave-out' bracket.

As a result, our central midfield is a creative hub with James Rodriguez and Kevin De Bruyne both registering a goal and assist apiece, and we'd back them to have enough impact going forward to negate the lack of a defence-minded player in the middle of the park too.

Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Dani Ceballos, Dennis Praet, Mateusz Klich, James McArthur and Phil Foden were also considered in those central midfield roles, but it was impossible to ignore the impact of Rodriguez and De Bruyne.

The competition for the left-sided attacker role was incredible this week, so much so that Sadio Mane is forced out to the right following his two-goal showing against Chelsea.

Jeffrey Schlupp, Richarlison, Harvey Barnes, Helder Costa and Leandro Trossard are among the names that deserve a mention in the wide areas, but all of them were overshadowed by Son Heung-min's incredible four-goal show at Southampton.

Even more incredible was the fact that Harry Kane assisted all four of those goals - in addition to scoring one of his own - to also make him one of the first names on this week's teamsheet.

Son's was one of two hat-tricks over the weekend, the first of which was scored by Dominic Calvert-Lewin to complete a strike force which essentially picked itself despite such a high level of competition.

There are plenty of players missing this week who would have made it into any ordinary team of the week; Wilfried Zaha scored twice in a win at Old Trafford, Neal Maupay scored two and assisted one, Aleksandar Mitrovic helped himself to a brace, Patrick Bamford got a goal and an assist and Gabriel Jesus and Aaron Connolly were also on the scoresheet.

However, it is hard to argue with a front four that scored 10 goals and created four more between them - not to mention the magic playmakers behind them.

ID:415395: cacheID:415395:1false2false3false:QQ:: from db desktop :LenBod:restore:9426:
Written by
Barney Corkhill
Restore Data
Share this article now:
Liverpool's Mohamed Salah celebrates his hat-trick against Leeds United on September 12, 2020
Read Next:
PL Team of the Week - Salah, Jimenez, Gabriel
>
rhs 2.0
Today's games header
1.15am
Rams
@
49ers
Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool14112129111835
2Chelsea1594235181731
3Arsenal1585229151429
4Manchester CityMan City158342721627
5Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest157441918125
6Aston Villa157442323025
7Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton156632522324
8Bournemouth157352320324
9Brentford157263128323
10Fulham156542220223
11Tottenham HotspurSpurs1562731191220
12Newcastle UnitedNewcastle155551921-220
13Manchester UnitedMan Utd155461918119
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham155372028-818
15Everton143561421-714
16Leicester CityLeicester153572130-914
17Crystal Palace152761420-613
18Ipswich TownIpswich151681427-139
19Wolverhampton WanderersWolves1523102338-159
20Southampton1512121131-205


Sports Mole provides in-depth previews and predictions for every match from the biggest leagues and competitions in world football.
Argentina's Lionel Messi kisses the World Cup trophy after collecting the Golden Ball award on December 18, 2022Sign up for our FREE daily preview newsletter direct to your inbox!