Haaland, Nketiah, Szoboszlai make EPL Team of the Week

Tricks and treats were being handed out in equal measure during this weekend’s Halloween Premier League fixtures, where Tottenham Hotspur enjoyed the sweet taste of top spot with a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace.

However, Manchester City and Arsenal remain hot on their tail, as the champions crushed local rivals Manchester United 3-0, while Arsenal hit Sheffield United for five without reply.

READ ALSO: Danny Drinkwater Retires From Football At 33

Liverpool maintained their place in the Champions League berths by easing to a 3-0 win over Nottingham Forest, but Chelsea’s revival came to an abrupt halt in a 2-0 West London derby defeat to Brentford.

Newcastle United also suffered from a European hangover as they drew 2-2 with Wolverhampton Wanderers, but Aston Villa’s continental exertions did not catch up to them as they briefly rose into the top four with a 3-1 win over Luton Town.

Elsewhere, Fulham came from behind to hold Brighton & Hove Albion to a 1-1 draw, Everton picked up a potentially priceless 1-0 victory at West Ham United, while Bournemouth boss Andoni Iraola got off the mark at the 10th attempt with a 2-1 triumph over Burnley.

Here, Sports Mole selects its Team of the Week for the 10th round of Premier League fixtures.

Despite shipping three goals in Sunday’s derby, Andre Onana was arguably the only Man United player who could hold his head up high, having made crucial saves to deny Erling Haaland and Phil Foden. However, the Cameroonian is pipped to the number one spot by Bernd Leno, who came up with five vital stops against Brighton to preserve Fulham’s remarkable unbeaten Premier League record against the Seagulls.

Perhaps unfairly demoted to the bench after his stellar showing in Seville, Takehiro Tomiyasu beamed the brightest smile at the Emirates towards the end of their Sheffield United battering, producing a sharp turn to score his first-ever Gunners goal off the bench while also making two interceptions during a memorable cameo.

Prior to the visit of Everton, no Premier League team had prevented West Ham from scoring at home in 2023, and Jarrad Branthwaite was key to ending the Irons’ hot streak. The 21-year-old kept West Ham at bay with 10 clearances, two tackles and two interceptions, as well as winning three of his four aerial battles in another highly promising performance.

Two Merseyside-based centre-halfs link arms in our latest Team of the Week, as Virgil van Dijk was as imposing as ever during Liverpool’s triumph over Forest, winning seven of his eight aerial duels, making two blocks and completing 93% of his passes to help the Reds survive a late surge from the Tricky Trees.

While not a left-back in the traditional sense, it certainly makes sense for Ethan Pinnock to occupy such a role in our selection given his storming run and bullet header to open the scoring against Chelsea, while he also came up with a pair of tackles and eight clearances to help Brentford become the first-ever team to win each of their opening three Premier League contests at Stamford Bridge.

Bernardo Silva’s effervescent display in the Manchester derby led to Pep Guardiola labelling the Portuguese lynchpin one of the best players he has ever coached, and it was easy to see why. Throughout the 90 minutes, Silva glided past Man United’s jaded troops with ease, created three big chances and provided the delivery for Haaland to head home his second goal in a midfield masterclass.

Ensuring that Brighton would be kept waiting for their first-ever Premier League win over Fulham, the dynamic Joao Palhinha produced a quintessentially domineering display at the Amex Stadium, rifling home his side’s equaliser in the pouring rain while making an astounding 10 tackles and five interceptions to stop the soaring Seagulls in their tracks.

Proving yet again that he is worth every penny of the £60m fee that Liverpool shelled out to RB Leipzig for his services, Dominik Szoboszlai ran the show once again during the crushing of Forest, cutting back for Darwin Nunez to fire home before adding another assist – in somewhat fortunate circumstances – to Mohamed Salah, as his long ball deceived a wandering Matt Turner and gifted the Egyptian a simple tap-in.

While Chelsea failed to find their cutting edge against Brentford, they could have done with taking a leaf out of Bryan Mbeumo’s book, as the Bees winger provided a pinpoint delivery for Pinnock to break the deadlock before finishing off another sweeping counter-attack with Robert Sanchez out of his goal.

Similarly, Man United’s off-colour forwards should have learned a few lessons in ruthlessness from the irrepressible Erling Haaland, whose Scandinavian colleague Rasmus Hojlund gave away a controversial penalty for the Norwegian to get up and running. Haaland shut out fans’ taunts over his dad before sending Onana the wrong way, and while he was then denied a second by the Cameroonian’s stunning save, he made it second time lucky with a carbon copy of that header before selflessly picking out Foden to make his mark on the Old Trafford turf.

Haaland did not manage to take home the match ball this weekend, but Arsenal’s Eddie Nketiah is now part of the esteemed Premier League hat-tricks club, two years on from scoring his first senior club treble in the EFL Cup. Constantly terrorising the Blades rearguard, Nketiah produced a neat touch and finish to draw first blood before finding the top corner twice in the second half – sealing his hat-trick with a 25-yard thunderbolt – but he passed up the opportunity to make it a fantastic four from the penalty spot.

Sports Mole’s Premier League Team of the Week (4-3-3): Leno; Tomiyasu, Branthwaite, Van Dijk, Pinnock; Silva, Palhinha, Szoboszlai; Mbeumo, Haaland, Nketiah