Swansea City 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 performances by Alfie Mawson and Martin Olsson in the two nil victory over Leicester City at the weekend at the Liberty 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 the duo as part of his team but explaining his choice he told the BBC.
Mawson:
‘What a volley! I must say that had it been a centre-forward who had scored such an immaculate goal I couldn’t have given the striker higher praise. The reality is that Alfie Mawson is a centre-back and I can’t remember seeing a defender finish quite like that. What Paul Clement is doing at Swansea is quite remarkable. Their victory over Leicester was his third Premier League win in four games and underpins his January manager of the month award. As for Leicester, I have said it before and I will say it again – that the spectre of the Champions League is providing a false sense of security. Manager Claudio Ranieri has woefully failed to get his priorities right, lived off the kudos of relative Champions League success and all at the expense of their Premier League survival. It’s a dereliction of duty and he will pay the price.’
Olsson:
‘I don’t like playing players out of position but sometimes the occasion calls for it. Martin Olsson’s performance against Leicester is one of those occasions. I watched Olsson play at Norwich under Chris Hughton and liked his performances. He seemed more than comfortable in the Premier League so I am not the least bit surprised that he has returned to the top tier with Swansea. He is clearly very comfortable on the ball and calm in front of goal. He absolutely hammered his shot past Kasper Schmeichel to put Swansea 2-0 up and condemn Leicester to a relegation dogfight for the rest of the season. The look on Claudio Ranieri’s face at full-time said it all. He may have blown this.’
It’s always good to see the club represented in this way, and well played to both for their recognition, but the most important thing about the weekend was of course the victory.
Full Team:
Petr Cech (Arsenal), Eric Bailly (Manchester United), David Luiz (Chelsea), Alfie Mawson (Swansea City), Martin Olsson (Swansea City), N’Golo Kante (Chelsea), Juan Mata (Manchester United), Ryan Bertrand (Southampton), Sadio Mane (Liverpool), Manolo Gabbiadini (Southampton), Alexis Sanchez (Arsenal).
