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 Gary Cahill in the two one victory over Stoke City at the weekend at the Bet365 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 Cahill as part of his team but explaining his choice he told the BBC.
‘Chelsea boss Antonio Conte was absolutely right when he said ‘you can’t go to Stoke and expect to win a game without a fight’. For someone who is in his first season of management in the Premier League, he’s worked that out very quickly. Gary Cahill, on the other hand, will know all about the Potteries and what it takes to win at the Bet365 Stadium. The Chelsea captain gave a penalty away but redeemed himself and his team with a well-taken goal which puts the Blues in what I consider to be an unassailable position at the top of the table. This time there was no Eden Hazard to bully, so Diego Costa was Stoke’s target, and boy did they give it to him. If it wasn’t Bruno Martins Indi dishing out the punishment then it was Ryan Shawcross who was putting Costa on notice that this was not the place that would suffer the Spaniard’s antics. However, it was Phil Bardsley who stood out amongst the would-be assassins having taken a piece out of Costa earlier in the contest before totally disgracing himself with the sort of lunge on Cesc Fabregas normally associated with WWE. It’s perfectly obvious to everyone that Chelsea are the team to stop – any further advance toward the Premier League title and sides like Stoke are not going to be pleasant about it.’
It’s always good to see the club represented in this way, and well played to Cahill for his recognition, but the most important thing about the weekend was of course the points.
Full Team:
Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City), Craig Dawson (West Bromwich Albion), John Stones (Manchester City), Gary Cahill (Chelsea), Allan Nyom (West Bromwich Albion), Antonio Valencia (Manchester United), Christian Eriksen (Tottenham Hotspur), David Silva (Manchester City), Sadio Mane (Liverpool), Romelu Lukaku (Everton), Jesse Lingard (Manchester United).
