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The second week of Premier League comes to an end with after a lot of thrills and spells.
Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur played out a highly enthralling 2-2 draw at the Etihad Stadium as Arsenal and Liverpool made it 2 wins in 2 wins. Chelsea, despite putting up a good show against Leicester, lacked the cutting edge as they dropped points yet again. Sheffield United earned their first win after return to top-flight as did Norwich City, while Aston Villa succumbed to a second consecutive loss.
We are back with the Power Rankings for week 2.
There are some massive changes in the rankings following the developments in England after the second matchday. Kevin de Bruyne's lethal performance, a hattrick from Norwich's Teemu Pukki, the impressive goal-scoring run of Ashley Barnes, all are major factors in deciding the Power Rankings this time out.
Raheem Sterling sat at the top in Power Rankings for Week 1. Here are the rankings for week 2.
#10 Harry Kane
Harry Kane's 2 goals on the opening week had propelled him to the 3rd spot last time around. He scored late goals which won Tottenham Hotspurs the game against Aston Villa. One of them was a screamer from outside the box.
But Manchester City smothered him all over and didn't let him flex a muscle. He put up a horrendous performance against the reigning champions and was contained very neatly by the defence. He was very gingerly in his movements, no real threat on the counter-attack, no movements to drag the defence here and there and at least give them something to think about.
Kane's stagnant movement didn't help Spurs' cause but Lucas Moura in his 30-minute cameo was far more lively and made good movements. Lucas Moura had more dribbles and duels won in 30 minutes than Kane had in the whole game.
A strange fact is that Kane registered only 1 shot in the whole game, that too off-target. He had no dribble attempts, lost 6 out of his 8 duels and lost 100% of his aerial duels. Kane slips 7 places to the 10th spot.
#9 Sadio Mane
Sadio Mane made his first Premier League start against Southampton after being reduced to a substitute role against Norwich City. Needless to say, he delivered what was expected of him - a 5-star performance.
Mane's first contribution was the opening goal. Finding himself at the edge of the box and two defenders in front, he feinted a movement inside and then continued to move along the box, and when he found enough space for himself, he released the trigger before the defender got to him. Mane's shot curled out of the keeper's reach and ended up in the back of the net.
Mane could have had an assist on a break but Roberto Firmino managed to miss the target from 12-yards out after he got to the sweeping ball into the box. However, Firmino didn't disappoint the second time and put the ball into the net after Mane won the ball near the box and found him.
A goal and an assist on the first start that he got, in a 2-1 win, what more could you ask for?
#8 Dani Ceballos
Coming in at #8 is a man new to English soil - Real Madrid's player on loan at Arsenal, Dani Ceballos. Dani Ceballos came into limelight when he played for Real Betis and was taken note of by top LaLiga clubs. After being in contention to join both Real Madrid and Barcelona, he decided to join the former. Although Madrid lacks depth in the midfield, they took a somewhat strange decision of loan Ceballos to Arsenal.
Unai Emery gave the Spaniard his first start against Burnley and he was impressive in his first game. He won the most number of duels in the game (9), completed all of his attempted dribbles (4/4), registered three key passes and assisted both the goals. Ceballos also made two tackles in the game. His passing percentage stood at 90% while he completed 63 accurate passes.
The game against Burnley earned his a Man of the Match award and also the 8th spot in the Power Rankings.
#7 Marcus Rashford
Marcus Rashford was placed at #4 after his tremendous goal-scoring efforts and a terrific performance. Rashford's counter-attacking threat was immense in the victory against Chelsea in the 1st week. He scored 2 goals on the opening day.
Against Wolverhampton Wanderers, away from home, Rashford retained his goal involvement streak. He linked up with Anthony Martial to create United's first goal and got an assist as a result. In the first half, he was good, winning all three ground duels that he attempted, and completing 32 passes at an 84% accuracy.
Paul Pogba might have got ahead of himself when he took the penalty responsibility upon himself and ended up missing. The penalty gave United a chance to take the lead again but was saved by Rui Patricio, and Rashford was silent in the second half, mostly dominated by Wolves.
There were no holes in the defence to hit them on the break, which cancelled out the effectiveness of Rashford and James. Wolves defended in numbers against United and held them to a draw.
Rashford will drop three places on the account of not winning against Wolves and also not following up his stupendous performance on opening day with another one.
#6 Anthony Martial
Anthony Martial missed out on the top 10 spots in the first week, however, he has broken into the top 10 this time around.
Martial scored a goal in the opening day against Chelsea. Against Wolverhampton Wanderers, he started as the lone striker but his movements were more diverse than a #9, as he made a lot of movements on the left-hand side too.
He made a good run through the defensive lines to get on the end of Rashford's pass and he thrashed the ball into the net - an immaculate finish. Apart from the goal, Martial won 6 out of 13 ground duels.
Martial will have to keep up his scoring for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side if they are to do well, since Alexis Sanchez is reportedly heading to Inter, and Romelu Lukaku is already at Inter. Even though he isn't a natural striker, he is playing well up top, and hopefully, he'll capitalize on the start he has received to the season.
#5 Virgil Van Dijk
The Dutchman never seems to get tired of his defensive duties and Liverpool owes a lot to him for his defensive work. He had a good day out against Southampton but not without errors and not without toil. His wow-moment was the slick flick with his boot to stop the lobbed ball.
Virgil van Dijk blocked 3 shots, made 3 clearances and won 3/5 aerial duels. He also made 2 interceptions, one of which he flicked back in style. However, he had his share of mistakes too which would have been on him if a goal was conceded.
One of the aerial duels that he missed was during a corner where he was beaten in the air by Maya Yoshida allowing him a free header on Adrian. Another time he let Che Adams get a clean header on the ball. In the second half, Danny Ings sneaked from behind him to try and tap the ball in, while Van Dijk did nothing to try and intercept the delivery.
It was a performance which you'd otherwise call a solid one but it was not without its share of flaws. So van Dijk will move up 2 places from his former position and stay ahead of the new entrants on the back of his performance in week 1.
#4 Kevin de Bruyne
Kevin de Bruyne spent last season dealing with injury problems pertaining to his knees and hamstring. With the first game of this season, he showed that he's out to reiterate his status as one of the finest midfielders around.
Although Riyad Mahrez's brillance and Raheem Sterling's hattrick stood above his performance against West Ham United, no other player was close to him against Tottenham Hotspur. The Etihad pitch was all about de Bruyne on the ball, with his impressive passes and movements, and his immaculate assists.
He assisted Sterling for the first goal with an ingenious piece of play - hanging back after passing to Bernardo Silva and then looping the ball first time with the return pass. He took on Tottenham's defence and whipped a low cross in towards Aguero to get the second goal.
Other than his assists, he broke Tottenham's defensive lines a lot of times and dished 9 key passes on the day, which City failed to capitalize upon, especially Bernardo Silva who was 1v1 against Hugo Lloris and saw his shot saved. De Bruyne could have gotten a goal or two of his own but he snatched the chance too early on the first occasion and just missed the target in his second attempt.
Despite the draw, Kevin de Bruyne was the star of the show.
#3 Ashley Barnes
Ashley Barnes finished in 2nd place in the Power Rankings for Week 1 after his two goals which won Burnley the game. Barnes was on the scoresheet again this past weekend, against Arsenal.
After going 1-0 down to Alexandre Lacazette's early strike, Barnes pulled things back with his goal just before halftime, although Arsenal added another goal which resulted in the final scoreline reading 2-1 to the Gunners. Ashley Barnes' stats were very good for a striker.
He won 6 aerial duels against a centre back partnership which had David Luiz and Sokratis Papasthapoulous. Also, he won possession twice in the opposition half and won 3 out of his 7 ground duels.
Barnes scored 12 goals last season and 9 of them came after the year 2019 started. After netting twice against Southampton to open his account and scoring again, this time against Arsenal, Barnes has notched up 12 Premier League goals in 2019. He is tied with Jamie Vardy and just 2 goals shy of Mane at 14 and Aguero at 13 goals.
#2 Teemu Pukki
29-year-old Teemu Pukki has jumped a long way to 2nd spot on the Power Rankings. Those at Anfield would surely recognize the name as he denied them a clean sheet on matchday 1. Norwich City fell to a 4-1 loss to Liverpool in their first game, where Pukki notched up his first Premier League goal.
This week, however, he put on a show for the home crowd. Playing in the role of a classic #9, Pukki only touched the ball 29 times, but his movements were spread very well in and around the box. He had 7 shots at goal and got 6 of them on target. He completed 2 dribbles and 10 passes, both at 100% success rate.
He volleyed a ball with tremendous power behind it to get the first goal for Norwich, which he followed up with a good low shot into the lower corner of the goal from the edge of the box. He completed his hattrick with an easy finish after Todd Cantwell set up the ball for him in the box.
Pukki's 3 goals shoot him to the second spot on the Power Rankings.
#1 Raheem Sterling
Raheem Sterling still sits pretty at the top of the Power Ranking list, and it has to do with an impressive showing yet again, putting his cumulative performance grade above everyone else.
Sterling ran riot on the left-wing against Tottenham Hotspurs. He beat Kyle Walker-Peters easily with his pace and found himself behind the lines a lot of times. His sleek one-touch pass and instant motion for the return pass was on full display.
When Kevin de Bruyne delivered a loopy ball into the box on the far post, Sterling was the first one to connect and finish very calmly to give Manchester City the lead. He also registered 2 key passes and 2 successful tackles. His pass percentage stood at 84% while he completed 32 of them and also won 5 ground duels out of 12.
With the goal against Tottenham, Raheem takes his goal tally to 4 for the season and he would be hoping for more of the same.
