As another exciting weekend of Premier League action passes us by, it’s time to take stock and decide which players were a help or a hindrance to their sides over the weekend.
Here are the Heroes and Villains from the latest round of Premier League fixtures…
Hero: Mohamed Salah
The Egyptian King just about shades Sadio Mane into our illustrious list this weekend. The Kop favourite put in a show-stopping display against Huddersfield on Friday night. Scoring two and assisting one, Salah was a relentless force upfront for Liverpool.
A lovely chip handed him his first goal, looping the ball over the onrushing Lossl to add his side’s third, before rounding off the scoring by tapping in Robertson’s cut back. This brace takes him up to 61 goals in 100 games for The Reds; the most by anybody in the history of the club after that many games played. Nice work!
Villain: Ben Foster
The prize for weirdest goalkeeping error of this season has to go to Ben Foster. The veteran stopper has been brilliant this season for Watford but on Saturday afternoon, he appeared to be in his own little world as he gifted a goal to Wolves.
A dangerous, looping ball should have been his, but instead the former England ‘keeper seemed to forget he was allowed to use his hands as he tried to be a sweeper and tackle Diogo Jota instead of make a routine catch. The ball looped over him and into the path of Wolves attacker Jota for an easy tap in. It was truly weird and somehow strangely wonderful stuff from Mr Foster.
Hero: Callum Wilson
It’s been a memorable season for Callum Wilson. The Coventry born forward has been a real positive force in topsy-turvy campaign at Bournemouth and so he was again in a crazy game on the south coast. A 3-3 draw with Southampton pretty much summed up The Cherries’ frantic season; there was some lovely football, but some hideous defending to boot, but at the heart of it all, Callum Wilson was at hand to cap off a good old fashioned poacher’s brace to help his side to a point.
It’s hard to tell whether he’s enjoying a Marcus Stewart style, purple patch, but on this evidence Wilson will have his suitors this summer.
Villain: Glenn Murray
Those poor Brighton fans have a miserable time of it of late. Sinking down the table, a dismal goal scoring record and a defence as leaky as the Old Trafford roof on Wednesday night; they really needed something against Newcastle in Saturday’s late kick off.
A goal drought of epic proportions had been ended thanks to a second-half Pascal Gross header to level up proceedings with The Magpies and the game was set up for a late winner.
If you’re going to get one chance to score to ensure survival then most Brighton fans would have banked on Glenn Murray to convert. Well, they’d have banked wrong! The veteran spurned the best chance of the match for the hosts with a close range header flying high, wide and handsome! He had the goal at his mercy too! Could they live to regret that miss?
Hero: Youri Tielemans
Another year, another classy Belgian! They just keep churning out quality players in the cockpit of Europe with Leicester City the latest beneficiaries.
The Belgian midfielder opened the scoring in his side’s emphatic 3-0 win over Arsenal and was, in general, an all round nuisance for The Gunners shambolic defence. On this evidence it is little wonder why Brendan Rodgers wants The Foxes to break the bank and make his loan move from Monaco permanent.
Villain: David de Gea
It’s another week, another error by the currently under performing David de Gea. The Spanish stopper has taken some flack lately after a real glut of errors and he’s in for a hell of a lot more now after this latest one.
With Chelea’s first shot on target, what should have been a reasonably comfortable save, albeit from a decent hit by Antonio Rudiger, de Gea fumbled and pawed the ball straight out to Marcus Alonso, for an untimely equaliser. Old Trafford was silenced and there will be more awkward questions now posed to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer about his man between the sticks.
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