Football News: Premier League team of the weekend; Sunderland, Southampton and Manchester City players dominate

Image from: getwestlondon.co.uk

After another thrilling weekend of Premier league football, let's have a look at which players were the top performers. With an excellent comeback win for QPR, comfortable wins for Southampton and Manchester City as well as a few brilliant individual performances across the league, there are lots of players to consider!

Goalkeeper:
For me there can only be one winner and that is Costel Pantilimon. He was Sunderland's saviour in the Tyne-Wear derby pulling off a string of world class saves and never looking like being beaten. What a performance from the Romanian giant.

Right back:
There were a few good performances this weekend from right backs. Nathaniel Clyne and Carl Jenkinson could both easily be in this team on another week. However Pablo Zabaleta was just brilliant against Crystal Palace. Whilst being solid defensively he also managed to be one of Manchester City's best players going forward (which takes some doing). His excellent run in behind led to Manchester City's first and crucial goal that opened up their stubborn and disciplined opposition as Crystal Palace went in search of an equaliser.

Centre back:
For me it is impossible to leave out Steven Taylor. He epitomises the warrior style centre back and literally put his body on the line for his team. He selflessly cleared the ball off the line with Steven Fletcher waiting behind him for an almost certain goal. For Taylor's troubles he clattered into the post face first. After being helped to his feet he ran down the tunnel to be stitched up and then came charging back out to get straight back into the action. He was certainly one Newcastle player who didn't deserve to be on the losing side. The Geordie army certainly let him know as chants of "There's only one Steven Taylor" boomed around the stadium.

Centre back:
Maya Yoshida simply cannot be ignored. Not only was he excellent at the heart of Southampton's defence alongside Jose Fonte. He even got himself onto the score-sheet with a towering header that flew past Tim Howard in the Everton goal. A complete performance from the under rated Japanese defender.

Left back:
This was a straight race between Aleksandar Kolarov and Ryan Bertrand for me. Whilst Kolarov claimed a brilliant assist for his low driven cross in to Silva, he was booked for a bad foul and Crystal Palace actually should have scored from a cross that came down his flank. Ryan Bertrand may not have offered as much of a threat going forwards, but his primary job is to defend and keeping Seamus Coleman quiet is easier said than done.

Central midfield:
Jonjo Shelvey is often criticised for failing to take control of a game but he did so against Hull with relative ease. He completely ran the midfield and his shot was deflected off of his own player to give Swansea the lead. Shelvey actually hit an even better shot later on only for it to come crashing back off the inside of the post. He must've hit it from over 25 yards and the keeper didn't even get near it. Had it flown in it would've been no less than the midfielder deserved.

Attacking midfield:
Liverpool completely dominated Arsenal at Anfield on Sunday and the man who ran the show was Phillipe Coutinho. He went looking for the ball at every opportunity, didn't shy out of any tackles and beat his man time and time again. Largely down to Coutinho's composure on the ball and finding space in the middle of the park, this game marked Arsenal's lowest percentage of possession in a game since Opta stats started recording their data. Coutinho even got himself onto the score-sheet with an excellent low shot from just outside the area that went in off the base of the post. This was arguably Coutinho's best performance of what has been a somewhat inconsistent season for the young Brazilian.

Attacking midfield:
It is impossible to ignore David Silva. He not only won his team the game with 2 great goals (albeit one took a heavy deflection), but like Coutinho he also ran the show for his team in the middle of the park. With Silva starting to find the form he has shown in spells throughout his Manchester City career, you would not bet against City being top of the league by the end of the Christmas period; even without Sergio Aguero.

Right wing:
There were a couple of players I considered for this position. One was Erik Lamela and the other was Adam Johnson. Both players scored great goals to give their team the win. I'm leaning towards Adam Johnson though purely because I thought he had a better overall performance against stronger opposition than Lamela faced. Johnson actually started the attack he scored from by carrying the ball out of his own box following a Newcastle corner. He rode two fouls on the way to the half way line before moving on the ball and then had the desire to continue his run right the way up to Newcastle's box, where he found himself receiving an awkward pass from the right hand side. His control was perfect though and his volleyed finish matched it.

Striker:
There's not really any competition here. For a start, not many strikers actually scored at the right end this weekend (just 7 strikers across the 9 games played). However Charlie Austin decided to emphatically break that trend with a hattrick that rescued his QPR team from 2-0 down inside 20 minutes. He converted a first half penalty brilliantly before burying two poachers goals in the second half; both from corners. QPR's fox in the box now has 11 goals this season.

Left wing:
Stewart Downing once again put in an excellent overall performance and even helped himself to a goal. His goal was quite brilliant as well. His first touch set himself perfectly and he then curled a brilliant long range effort into the far side of the goal. Downing has certainly been one of the surprise players of the season so far and arguably one of the best creative players in the league. West Ham will be hoping he can stay fit so they can continue to fly high and potentially sneak under the radar for a place in Europe next year. Maybe not the Champions league, but they certainly wouldn't look out of place in the Europa league and a lot of that is down to the rebirth of Downing as a top player.

So my Premier league team of the weekend is, Pantilimon; Zabaleta, Taylor, Yoshida, Bertrand; Shelvey, Coutinho, Silva; A.Johnson, Austin, Downing. There were some great individual performances, some even better goals and a few brilliant games of football. This is why we love the Premier league!

Written by Adam Jones December 22 2014 11:55:02