BBC Premier League team of week: Man Utd quartet dominate, Liverpool ace gets nod

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BBC Sport pundit Garth Crooks has named his Premier League team of the week and after their win over Man City, Man Utd unsurprisingly have a strong contingent named.

The Red Devils secured a 2-1 win over their city rivals at the Etihad on Saturday, as they backed up their win over Tottenham in midweek to continue to close the gap on the top four.

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Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men now sit in fifth place in the table, five points adrift of Chelsea in fourth, and so there will no doubt be added belief at Old Trafford that they can continue to keep their hopes of achieving their objectives alive in the coming weeks and months.

As seen in his BBC column, Crooks has picked four United players in his team of the week, with David De Gea, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Victor Lindelof and Marcus Rashford all getting the nod.

From key saves to quality defending and a great attitude from Rashford to cope with the pressure and make a decisive impact with his penalty, Crooks was impressed with the quartet in the win and evidently believes that they did enough to get into the XI.

Everton’s Mason Holgate completes a back three after his side saw off Chelsea in a 3-1 win on Saturday, while Harry Kane and Dominic Calvert-Lewin join Rashford up top as they both bagged a brace in key wins for their respective sides.

The midfield sees George Baldock, Jordan Henderson, James Maddison and Son Heung-min get the green light from Crooks, with all four playing a key role in positive results for their sides whether it was through finding the back of the net themselves or making a crucial creative impact in some form.

That came in the shape of an assist for Henderson, with the Liverpool captain labelled as ‘outstanding’ by Crooks over the past few weeks as he continues to lead their title charge while he registered the most successful passes in the game with 140.

With that in mind, it’s difficult to disagree with the picks from Crooks, although based on the tweets below in response to his column, some fans were left baffled as to how neither Jamie Vardy nor Naby Keita were able to get a look in.

Ultimately, this is largely down to opinion and how certain people see games and the impact of individuals, and so Crooks will never get a universal seal of approval from readers of his column.

Nonetheless, he’s done a pretty decent job this week, as many of those included in his XI certainly deserve recognition and praise for their roles in key results for their respective teams.

However, from Vardy bagging a brace in a 4-1 win for Leicester at Aston Villa to Keita getting on the scoresheet for Liverpool at Bournemouth, it’s easy to see why the readers below would question the decision to not include them.

More Stories Aaron Wan-Bissaka David de Gea Jordan Henderson Marcus Rashford Victor Lindelof