Anthony Kelly
Hero – Raheem Sterling
Hopefully, once and for all, we can end the debate about Sterling now. The England International is a top class talent. He was involved in four goals in Man City’s victory over Southampton, in a match which more resembled a pre-season friendly than a serious competitive fixture.
The winger was at is rapid, skillful and creative best for City as he terrorised Mark Hughes’s men and was a constant threat throughout. Sorry to all Liverpool and Chelsea fans, but it’s looking ominously comfortable for City already.
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Villain – Juan Foyth
All Juan Foyth needed was an own goal and or red card, to make his Premier League debut hit Jonathan Woodgate levels of woeful. The young Argentine has been widely defended by his teammates since, but they will surely be hoping for better from him if he features more regularly.
Foyth became the first man since Phil Jagielka in 2016, to concede two penalties in a game, during Spurs 2-3 victory over Wolves. He looked more than a little uncomfortable throughout and will clearly need time, a lot of time actually, to acclimatize otherwise Pochettino may as well dust his own boots off.
Hero – Felipe Anderson
The Brazilian finally showed West Ham that maybe they can halt the look for their receipt, following his £27 million signing from Lazio. The Brazilian has so far been something of a disappointment for The Hammers, culminating in his manager publically calling him out after their League Cup defeat to Spurs.
Anderson responded though and was excellent for West Ham in their much needed victory over Burnley. He was at the heart of everything good that the home side did on Saturday and will now hope that his brace will be something of a springboard for the rest of the season.
Villain – Sol Bamba
The Cardiff defender is becoming a bit of a regular in this feature. The Ivory Coast International seemed to forget he was a centre-half on Saturday, as he scrambled back towards his own goal line. Jamie Vardy appeared to have the easiest of tap ins for Leicester’s opener only to his shot expertly saved by Sol Bamba in goal for Cardiff.
The defender took a leaf out of the Luis Saurez manual and stuck up a hand to blatantly deny The Foxes a goal. He somehow avoided a red card and a penalty as the referee bizarrely missed the entire incident, we’ll come to Mr Probert later though.
Hero – Richarlison
Brazil’s most terrifying looking player was at it again for Everton this weekend. The wild eyed forward twice got himself onto the score sheet for Marco Silva’s men. Against a plucky and determined Brighton side, Everton’s record signing showed his quality with two excellent finishes on the day, the first of which was particularly impressive. Taking the shot on first time after some lovely build up play from his teammates, Richarlison drilled his effort past Ryan in the Brighton goal. He’s looking increasingly likely to be one of the most eye catching signings of the season.
Villain – Lee Probert
Full credit must go to Claude Puel for not complaining about Demarai Gray’s booking on Saturday. The Leicester forward scored what proved to be the winner against Cardiff and took his shirt off to reveal a tribute to Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha in an emotional celebration.
For Lee Probert to use the jobsworth manual and show a yellow card, on such an occasion, is pretty low. The referee will be defended no doubt, for following the rules, but you cannot help but be infuriated by the officials in this league, who feel they must be the centre of attention in games they are to simply officiate. Probert could easily have turned a blind eye to this one but chose not to. It was very poor form indeed from the smug official, on a weekend of some truly woeful decisions by his colleagues across the country.
Special hero mention to Leicester City in general whose staff were a credit to their club and supporters in a really awful week and moment for their proud football club.