Under NO circumstances will I ever say that doing this feature is like a bag of Revels, in part because I don’t even know what a bag of Revels is, and am quite happy in my ignorance. But you never know what you’re going to get. Sometimes you wait all weekend for the right-back performance that never comes, and sometimes, like this weekend, you go into Monday night desperately needing a holding midfielder and a centre-half and they both drop into your lap. (Thank you, West Ham United.) It’s a nicely varied 4-3-3, with nine different clubs represented:
Goalkeeper: Ben Foster (Watford)
Unless Artur Boruc wins his place back from Asmir Begovic, Foster is now the oldest first-choice keeper in the league. He’s still good. According to GK1, who provide the most comprehensive goalkeeping ratings, he’s second best outside the top six, behind only Lukasz Fabianski, another greybeard. He was in excellent form against Brighton: he twice went high to his right to stop Jürgen Locadia headers, got all the way across goal to kick away a Shane Duffy shot, and capped the performance by coming out big to block Florin Andone on a late breakaway. Confident as usual coming off his line. A story that deserves a bit more attention.
Right-back: DeAndre Yedlin (Newcastle United)
Not a faultless match, but perhaps his best in a Newcastle shirt. Playing wing-back in a back five, completely shut down Son Heung-min, who had to go elsewhere to influence the game. Also showed excellent anticipation to tackle and intercept, starting a couple of Newcastle’s attacking moves in the process. He even got forward for a couple of crosses, and nearly got an assist when Salomón Rondón hit the post. On the debit side, Jan Vertonghen got in a couple of crosses that might have been stopped, and one foul gave Spurs a free kick in a dangerous position. Still a very fine performance, and while we may grow old waiting for him to step up in class, he was all you could ask for against strong opposition. Against much weaker opposition, Aaron Wan-Bissaka continued his march toward an England spot.
Centre-half: Angelo Ogbonna (West Ham United)
An outstanding display against Liverpool, one of the very best of the year at this position. Stayed calm and turned away everything that got close. Mostly sat deep in the line, but occasionally came out to contest a ball up the pitch or mark Mo Salah. If Salah got to the ball before him, he either held his ground to prevent a dribble or, if Salah passed, continued to mark the striker into the area. He’s only in the line-up because Fabián Balbuena is injured, but this was first-class defending all the way around.
Centre-half: Jonny Evans (Leicester City)
Hasn’t seen that much action this year (ten starts), but against Manchester United reminded us of his considerable quality. A typical Evans match: nothing dramatic, just intelligent positioning and precise execution. Helped to stifle Alexis Sánchez (admittedly not that hard these days). Moved toward the touchline where necessary to mark a winger, stepped forward to challenge the man with the ball, glided over to clear crosses, etc. etc. Basically made it look very simple for 90 minutes. Highlight was running back the length of the pitch after a Leicester corner to break up a counter. A real education.
Several defenders had strong matches with significant lapses. Fabian Schär was due a few more puns until he got outmuscled by Fernando Llorente on the Spurs goal, then sort of collapsed, giving the ball away once and almost twice. Issa Diop wasn’t far behind Ogbonna most of the evening, but was also badly at fault on Mané’s goal. It may have been offside, but that was no excuse for poor marking.
Elsewhere, as seems almost every week now, Jan Bednarek and Yannick Vestergaard both played well for Southampton. But once Peter Crouch entered the match they were second best in the aerial challenge. Sol Bamba had a mad game even by his standards, with all sorts of barely-believable interventions and absurdities. Quite possibly the most exciting player in the league.
Left-back: Matt Targett (Southampton)
Playing wing-back in Ralph Hasenhüttl’s system, he contributes well at both ends of the pitch. Against Burnley he had a steady match, keeping it tight defensively and getting in several good crosses. The highlight was a lovely long through ball for Danny Ings that deserved an assist and a post-game interview. He’s taken Ryan Bertrand’s job during the latter’s back injury, and I’d be surprised if Bertrand got it back. Elsewhere, Nacho Monreal was brave against Manchester City, particularly since he had whatever the opposite of ‘support’ is from Sead Kolasinač.
Deep Midfielder: Declan Rice (West Ham United)
The boy’s a bit special. The tougher the opposition, the better he plays. When Liverpool got past the midfield, Ogbonna and Diop took over, but quite often they didn’t get that far, and that was mostly Rice. Finished with eight tackles and two interceptions, but the numbers don’t tell you how confident he appeared and how well he read the game. There’s no such thing as a perfect deep midfielder performance – someone’s always going to get past you at some point – the thing is to cover as much ground as possible, get to whatever’s within range, and neutralise the man in front of you. That he most certainly did.
Davy Pröpper had a good match as Brighton dominated Watford but couldn’t beat Ben Foster. He’s always comfortable on the ball, and with Dale Stephens a late scratch, he handled distribution duties, recording 88.1% completion on a wide variety of passes. Would have made the list had he buried his good scoring chance. Elsewhere, Matteo Guendouzi had an outstanding first half, but faded with the rest of the Arsenal side.
Attacking Midfielder: Eden Hazard (Chelsea)
Please stay, Eden. Please.
Attacking Midfielder: Bobby Reid (Cardiff City)
Has been very lively the past two games, both at striker and centrally in a 4-2-3-1, and looks set to keep his spot now. Last week at Arsenal he missed two excellent chances, but made no mistake against Bournemouth, netting both from the penalty spot and after neatly rounding the keeper. Was effective both in passing combinations and running straight at the defence. He seems to work well with Oumar Niasse, and (shameless plug) the Senegal striker performed exactly as advertised in Friday’s piece. His hold-up play was crucial to the second goal, he got behind the defence with pace, and he made a great chance much harder with a poor first touch. Love him, and starting to love Reid too. Big big match this coming weekend at Southampton.
Elsewhere, James Maddison was Leicester’s best player before he was untimely ripped from the pitch by Claude Puel. (The home fans booed, and you can’t blame them.) At Goodison Park, The Black Cat showed excellent pace and was hard to contain at both ends of the pitch. Hesitated at times in front of goal, but good movement without the ball. A promising debut.
Winger: Solly March (Brighton & Hove Albion)
A clear man of the match against Watford. Always looking to attack, he wound up with nine (!) successful dribbles, got in a heap of good crosses, and lost a game-winning assist when, despite his wonderful through ball, Foster saved from Andone. Chris Hughton has plenty of wingers in his squad – Anthony Knockaert, Jürgen Locadia, Alireza Jahanbakhsh, José Izquierdo – but March has kept his spot with consistently good performances. His second appearance on this list, and a decent candidate for Brighton’s player of the year.
Winger: Raheem Sterling (Manchester City)
Last man on the teamsheet this week. Not his all-time best game, but two textbook assists, and if you think the second one was lucky, remember he might have had a third when Kevin De Bruyne shot weakly at the keeper. He also rampaged on the counterattack in the latter part of the game, when Arsenal had to go forward. Son Heung-min gets a mention for plugging away until he got his goal, although he wasn’t anywhere near his best.
Striker: Sergio Agüero (Manchester City)
The irony of Agüero’s short-range hat-trick is that ten years ago those goals would have been labelled ‘typical Arsenal’. The non-irony is that he remains one of the great strikers of the world. And speaking as one who believes the handball rule should be very strict, the third goal was perfectly legal by the current letter of the law. No intent, the arm in a reasonable position, the ball hitting his body first. Not that it mattered.
Raúl Jiménez impressed again for Wolves against Everton, scoring a set-piece goal and missing an assist when Leander Dendoncker couldn’t finish. Although he’s played well all season, I think the recent change from 3-4-3 to 3-5-2 gives him even more options combining with teammates. In two of the three games with the new system his pass completion percentage has been over 80%, extremely high for a striker. Ashley Barnes also deserves a mention for winning a penalty that wasn’t given (reaching peak Barnes in his reaction to the call), hitting the woodwork, being denied by Alex McCarthy, and finally nailing a spot kick to get Burnley the draw.
Elsewhere, Nathan Redmond finally has a manager who knows how to use him, and continued his resurgence with a fine finish and all-around useful play. Finally, Gonzalo Higuain managed one of the least impressive two-goal games in recent memory. The first goal was superb, but the second was deflected (I’ll concede he hit it well), and the rest of the time he seemed well off the pace. Maybe he’ll adjust in the following weeks, but the opposition will be tougher.
Peter Goldstein