Chelsea are represented in the latest Premier League team of the week that has been selected by BBC pundit Garth Crooks.
Actually Garth is now down as a ‘Football Analyst’ these days, a posh term for a pundit then!
The performance by Marcos Alonso in the two one victory over Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend at Wembley Stadium was enough to earn them a place in the side alongside the other, in the opinion of the former Spurs striker anyway, most impressive performers in the topflight over the latest weekend.
I think we’ll already know ourselves, and not just based on the latest performance, why Crooks, we’ll also not argue with it, selected Alonso as part of his team but explaining his choice he told the BBC.
‘All credit to Blues manager Antonio Conte for the way he reconstructed a side ravaged by injury and suspension to face Tottenham and beat them at Wembley. Premier League fixtures don’t come much bigger than this and managers need players with a strong mentality and bags of courage. Up steps Marcos Alonso. The wing-back could have easily ducked the moment and let Willian – also a dead-ball specialist – take the free-kick. But he didn’t, he took control of the situation and buried it. The Spaniard didn’t stop there either – his overall contribution to this Chelsea performance was immense. How this lad hasn’t yet emulated his father and grandfather and represented Spain is a mystery to me. This victory will also solidify Conte’s managerial position. Make no mistake, the Italian has not handled the Diego Costa situation well and his top scorer last season will be very hard to replace. But the way the Chelsea players have rallied behind their boss to win such an important game speaks volumes about the manager and his players.’
It’s always good to see the club represented in this way, and well played to Alonso for his recognition, but the most important thing about the weekend was of course the win.
Full Team:
Jack Butland (Stoke City), Andrew Robertson (Liverpool), Eric Bailly (Manchester United), Harry Maguire (Leicester City), Antonio Valencia (Manchester United), Aaron Mooy (Huddersfield Town), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Manchester United), Paul Pogba (Manchester United), Marcos Alonso (Chelsea), Javier Hernandez (West Ham), Jese Rodriguez (Stoke City).
