The race for the title and top four took another interesting set of twists and turns on Matchday 28 as Arsenal, Liverpool, and Tottenham registered victories while Manchester City outclassed Manchester United 4-1 in the marquee fixture of the weekend.
The league’s top stars were on song on matchday 28, and here is our Man’s Life Premier League Team of the week.
GK: Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City)
Kasper Schmeichel spared Leicester City’s blushes in the opening fixture of matchday 28 against Leeds United, making three impressive stops against Jack Harrison, Raphinha and Daniel James to help the Foxes keep a clean sheet and snatch a 1-0 victory.
RB: Reece James (Chelsea)
Reece James returned to Chelsea’s starting lineup against Burnley on Saturday, and the English full-back made an instant impact on the Blues’ set-up, scoring the opening goal with an excellent strike into the bottom corner before assisting Kai Havertz with his pin-point delivery.
CB: Fabian Schar (Newcastle United)
Fabian Schar’s remarkable run at the heart of the Newcastle defence continued on the south coast, with the Swiss centre-back scoring a brilliant header to help the Magpies extend their winning run in the league.
CB: Thiago Silva (Chelsea)
Thiago Silva continues to ooze class at age 37 as the Brazilian centre-back produced another dominant performance in Chelsea’s 4-0 win at Burnley. The former PSG defender displayed plenty of awareness and maturity to keep Wout Weghorst quiet for the Clarets and made an excellent goal-line clearance to help the Blues keep a clean sheet.
LB: Matt Doherty (Tottenham)
Matt Doherty’s impressive run of form continued for Tottenham with the wing-back delivering two superb assists and keeping a clean sheet in Spurs’ dominant 5-0 win over Everton.
CM: Martin Odegaard (Arsenal)
Martin Odegaard ran the show for Arsenal in their 3-2 win at Watford on Sunday, causing havoc in the Hornets’ defence with his intelligent movement and passing. The Norwegian opened the scoring for the Gunners after a lovely bit of inter-play with starlet Bukayo Saka, and Odegaard orchestrated the majority of Arsenal attacks to lift the Gunners into a top-four spot.
CM: Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)
Kevin de Bruyne scored his 50th and 51st goals in the Premier League to help Manchester City outgun United in the Manchester Derby on Sunday. After suffering from injuries to start the season, the Belgian has been back to his best in recent months, becoming just the fourth City player to bag a brace against Manchester United in the league.
RM: Riyad Mahrez (Manchester City)
Riyad Mahrez reached 20 goals in all competitions for the 21/22 season in the Manchester Derby at the Etihad with two excellent second half strikes. Mahrez displayed extraordinary technique to redirect de Bruyne’s corner into the net from the edge of the box before adding his second in injury time with a stunning shot past a hapless David de Gea.
LM: Kai Havertz (Chelsea)
The mercurial Kai Havertz showed clear glimpses of his star quality at Turf Moor on Saturday, scoring two goals and linking the play beautifully for Chelsea to help the Blues register their third league win on the bounce.
ST: Harry Kane (Tottenham)
It was a vintage Harry Kane performance for Tottenham on Monday night, as the English striker produced two clinical finishes and some excellent all-round play to help Spurs put five goals past Frank Lampard’s Everton.
ST: Ivan Toney (Brentford)
Ivan Toney marked his return to the Brentford lineup after injury with an emphatic hat-trick, giving the Bees three priceless points to keep them from getting sucked into the relegation battle.
Manager of the week: Mikel Arteta (Arsenal)
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal continue to fly under the radar as the Gunners registered their eighth Premier League victory in their last ten games against Watford to jump into the top four places. Although Arsenal had some nervy moments towards the end against the Hornets, the Gunners scored three scintillating strikes to make themselves favourites to qualify for next season’s Champions League.
Shivaan Shah