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Premier League Team of the Week - Callum Wilson, Eberechi Eze, Alisson Becker

PL Team of the Week - Wilson, Eze, Alisson
© Reuters
Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek 35, including Callum Wilson, Eberechi Eze and Alisson Becker.

Manchester City were made to wait for their coronation as Premier League champions in gameweek 35 of the season as they squandered a half-time lead to lose 2-1 at home to Champions League final opponents Chelsea on Saturday.

Manchester United's come-from-behind victory over Aston Villa had also denied them the chance to be crowned champions, as well as confirming United's place in the top four.

That top-four race took more twists and turns as Leicester City were beaten 4-2 at home by Newcastle United, Tottenham Hotspur lost to Leeds United and West Ham United fell at home to Everton.

Liverpool took full advantage of the rest of the chasing pack dropping points by beating Southampton 2-0, leaving the Saints sitting just one place above the relegation zone at the end of the gameweek.

The final two relegation places have now been confirmed with three games of the season remaining, though, as West Bromwich Albion's defeat to Arsenal consigned them to the drop on Sunday, before they were quickly followed by Fulham courtesy of their home loss to Burnley on Monday night.

Sheffield United - the other Championship-bound team - lost at home to Crystal Palace, while Wolverhampton Wanderers came from behind to beat Brighton & Hove Albion.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Premier League team of the week for gameweek 35.



DEFENCE

Southampton's Che Adams in action with Liverpool's Alisson on May 8, 2021© Reuters

There was an unusually high amount of competition for places in this week's defence, starting between the sticks where Alisson Becker gets the nod.

The Brazilian narrowly pips Martin Dubravka to the gloves by virtue of his saves making more of a difference to his side's result, with Alisson making a few vital interventions to either prevent Liverpool from falling behind, or to protect their one-goal lead before they finally wrapped up the result late on.

Alisson did almost give a goal away with the only blot on his copybook against Southampton, but he recovered to make the save in the end. Illan Meslier, Nick Pope and Edouard Mendy also all deserve honourable mentions this week.

We have gone for a back three in front of the Liverpool goalkeeper this week, including a fellow Merseysider in Ben Godfrey, whose assist for the Toffees' winner at West Ham was the standout moment of quality in the game. Godfrey also made a game-high five tackles to help protect his side's clean sheet, keeping them in the race for European football.

Paul Dummett went one better than an assist by getting on the scoresheet himself - his first Premier League goal in five years - which only added to the shock factor as Newcastle raced into a four-goal lead away to Champions League-chasing Leicester.

Cesar Azpilicueta, Antonio Rudiger, Pascal Struijk, Diego Llorente and Ben Mee were all in contention for a centre-back spot too, but it is Mee's teammate James Tarkowski who completes our back three this week, having won 10 aerial duels and made three tackles as Burnley secured survival for yet another season in the top flight.



MIDFIELD

Crystal Palace's Eberechi Eze celebrates scoring their second goal on May 8, 2021© Reuters

Two Leeds players make it into our midfield five this week, with Robin Koch excelling in the holding midfield role as Kalvin Phillips missed out again, and Stuart Dallas continuing his superb campaign with another goal, opening the scoring against Spurs.

Dallas comes in at right wing-back for us, beating Trent Alexander-Arnold and Matthew Lowton to that place, and on the opposite flank there is another goalscorer with Marcos Alonso netting Chelsea's untidy winner at Man City.

Eberechi Eze produced arguably the standout individual performance of the gameweek as Crystal Palace beat Sheffield United, almost single-handedly taking the game away from his relegated hosts from a deeper and more central midfield position.

Eze created the opener for the Eagles, before netting the second himself shortly before full time - only Wilfried Zaha has now contributed to more goals for Palace this season.

We have seen a number of players thrive during loan spells this season, and Joe Willock is right at the top of that list as he continued his purple patch in front of goal with Newcastle's opener at Leicester, pinching the ball off Caglar Soyuncu and finishing with aplomb to set the Magpies on course for an eye-catching win.



ATTACK

Leeds United's Patrick Bamford celebrates scoring their second goal with Ezgjan Alioski on May 8, 2021© Reuters

As ever, the forward positions were fiercely contested in this week's team, with Christian Benteke, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Edinson Cavani, Adama Traore, Hakim Ziyech, Sadio Mane, Nicolas Pepe, Allan Saint-Maximin, Jack Harrison, Willian, Raphinha, Rodrigo and Kelechi Iheanacho all among the players to miss out.

Instead, two English strikers who look likely to miss out on Gareth Southgate's Euro 2020 squad make the cut as they attempted a late charge to change the England manager's thinking.

Callum Wilson was the only player across the division to score more than once this weekend, helping himself to a brace against Leicester to ultimately decide the match after the Foxes attempted a late comeback.

Wilson's return to fitness has come at just the right time for Newcastle, with his 12 goals this season proving instrumental in securing their Premier League status.

Patrick Bamford has arguably been even more instrumental to Leeds' success this season, and he notched his 15th top-flight goal of the campaign as Marcelo Bielsa's side all but ended Tottenham's top-four hopes.



SPORTS MOLE'S PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM OF THE WEEK

PL TOTW GW35

Sports Mole's Premier League team of the week (3-5-2): Alisson; Godfrey, Tarkowski, Dummett; Dallas, Eze, Koch, Willock, Alonso; Wilson, Bamford

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Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Arsenal34245582265677
2Manchester CityMan City33237380324876
3Liverpool35229477364175
4Aston Villa35207873522167
5Tottenham HotspurSpurs32186865491660
6Manchester UnitedMan Utd34166125251154
7Newcastle UnitedNewcastle341651374551953
8West Ham UnitedWest Ham351310125665-949
9Chelsea33139116359448
10Wolverhampton WanderersWolves35137154855-746
11Bournemouth34129134960-1145
12Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton331111115254-244
13Fulham35127165155-443
14Crystal Palace351010154557-1240
15Everton35128153748-1136
16Brentford3598185260-835
17Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest3479184260-1826
18Luton TownLuton3567224877-2925
19Burnley3559213870-3224
20Sheffield UnitedSheff Utd3537253497-6316


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