This is a new series that will aim to highlight the best and the worst performers from each Premier League gameweek along with an honourable mention for both the categories. The recently concluded gameweek 23 was a relatively dull affair in terms of statistics.
19 goals were scored between the 20 teams, and half the games resulted in stalemate including two goalless draws. Amongst the top nine in the league standings, only Manchester City managed to grab maximum points and are obviously the biggest winners from this match week.
In terms of individual performances, a couple of the performances grabbed all the limelight but were not the best performers this week, and there were no clear frontrunners for the worst of this week. Some of the performances that stood out this week but are unfortunate to not earn the best player of the week tag are Michael Keane in defence against Leicester, Antonio Barragan against Middlesbrough and Eldin Jakupovic against Manchester United.
On the other hand, some of the worst performers of the week but find themselves fortunate to not earn the tag are West Ham’s trio of Darren Randolph, Aaron Cresswell and Pedro Obiang against Manchester City and Liverpool’s James Milner.
Honourable Mention for Best Player of the Week – Gabriel Jesus
A first start for the 19-year-old Brazilian sensation for the blue half of Manchester produced the assist for Manchester City’s first of the four goals and a simple tap in as well. The entire attacking unit for City had a memorable game, and it can be contested that David Silva was, in fact, the best player on the night.
But considering that the youngster has just joined up with his new team a few weeks back and was chosen to lead the line over Sergio Aguero, the responsibility and pressure on the youngster’s shoulder help him pip the Spanish maestro to the second best player of the week tag.
Honourable Mention for the Worst Player of the Week – Harry Kane
His performance against relegation contenders Sunderland was simply a lacklustre and half-hearted effort one. The majority of the Tottenham squad had an off-day in front of goal, with no incisiveness in the attack. But the expectations from Kane to perform is always high, and he had a miserable night.
He was missing the entire night, as can be seen from some of the statistics. As per whoscored.com, Kane had 1 shot the entire game that too was blocked, no dribbles or take ons, and no aerial duels won. In comparison, his teammate and defensive midfielder Victor Wanyama had thrice the number of shots attempted.
Worst Player of the Week – Oumar Niasse
A lot of attention from last night’s stalemate between Manchester United and Hull City focuses on Manchester United’s inability to take advantage of the points dropped by most of the rivals and Eldin Jakupovic’s performance in goal for Hull. But on the other end of the Hull’s formation, Oumar Niasse had a shocking performance.
In the 68 minutes he lasted on the pitch, the forward had a total of 30 touches and completed just 8 passes. Besides one pass to Lazar Markovic outside the box that put the Liverpool winger one on one with Marcos Rojo, it’s hard to see even a decent contribution from the on-loan striker.
The Senegalese national had zero successful dribbles and aerial duals while on the other hand completed one tackle out of four and committed four fouls. The worst aspect of his performance was after getting booked for a late tackle on Rojo, he managed to stay on the pitch only because of the referee, Mike Jone’s poor decisions.
Niasse could have been sent off on two occasions, one in the 27th minute for a reckless challenge on Michael Carrick and another in the 63rd minute for a late tackle on Daley Blind.
It can be argued that Hull had just 33% possession and were tactically lined up defensively that could have limited his attacking side of the game, but with a performance score of -59, Squawka nevertheless rates his performance as the third worst statistically for the gameweek.
Alongside the ranking, Niasse has been credited with four of the awards given for the match against United – Worst attack, worst man in team, worst possession and the worst man of the match. The only ‘worst’ award he did not win is the worst defence one.
Player of the Week – Gylfi Sigurdsson
Is there any player in the Premier League who is as influential for his club as Gylfi Sigurdsson? The only other player that could be on the same level as the Iceland midfielder in that category is Jermaine Defoe for Sunderland. Sigurdsson has had a direct role in 14 of the 28 goals scored by Swansea this season.
In this gameweek, Swansea managed to upset Southampton 2-1 and once again, their No. 10 was the primary reason. With just over 5 minutes left to play in the first half, Sigurdsson curled in from a corner kick and Alfie Mawson pounced at the opportunity to head home the breakthrough goal.
Southampton managed to equalise early in the second half via Shane Long but in a deja vu - like moment, Sigurdsson popped up at the right time on a counter attack move led by Luciano Narsingh. Narsingh’s cross ended up behind the Icelander but he slotted home the semi-volley on the turn with his left foot past Fraser Forster.
There are 15 games left in the season and Swansea are very much in the midst of a relegation scrap and gaining three points in a week where each of the three teams below them got a result was crucial. The orchestrator of the win was Sigurdsson and the statistics agree as well.
With a performance score of 77, Sigurdsson ranked number one this gameweek and if given a little support from his teammates, he will carry Swansea over the relegation hurdle this season.
[Note: All statistics gathered from squawka.com unless mentioned otherwise]
