As the final whistle blew at the Stamford Bridge, the picture for the top four became pretty much clear. Manchester City need just another win to seal the title and the relegation battle at the bottom is intensifying with each passing game. With the matchweek done and dusted, we look at the top three players from the weekend:
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Alexis Sanchez
After what was a difficult start to his Manchester United career, Sanchez finally seems to be settling into the team. Against Swansea on Saturday, Sanchez’s attacking moves were more fluid as he interlinked better with his teammates. Playing in his favoured left-wing role, Sanchez first set up Lukaku’s goal with a simple square pass. He then stormed around the box to capitalize on Jesse Lingard’s ball and scored his first goal from open play for United with a cracking shot.
For the first time in weeks, Sanchez looked adept as he was crucial in both attacking and defensive aspects of the game as he tracked back to win the ball whenever he was dispossessed. He oozed energy and confidence and thrilled the crowd with his neat yet effective play. Fans can only hope that this performance acts as a catalyst to boost up his display in the Manchester derby next week.
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Marko Arnautovic
Ahead of the weekend, all talks were about the virtual 6-pointer between West Ham and Southampton. Both teams were lingering around the relegation zone and it was important for them to secure a win to boost the chances of their stay in the Premier League. David Moyes has endured a tough time in the past few months and hence it was necessary for his team to deliver a strong performance.
Accordingly, summer signing Marko Arnautovic raised the bar to perform at his best when required the most. The Austrian scored a brace against his former manager Mark Hughes with whom he shared a frosty relationship. Arnautovic was decisive in front of the goal and came up with a fitting performance to justify his talent at such an important point of the season.
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Dele Alli
With Harry Kane on the bench, Tottenham needed inspiration from elsewhere to dismantle Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. Given Spurs’ poor record at Chelsea’s home ground, not much was expected of Mauricio Pochettino’s men. However, Dele Alli, who has been criticized often lately and was even dropped from the first team for England last week delivered an emphatic statement which would have pleased Southgate.
His technique and control to score the first goal was commendable. Then he showed some good composure and awareness to knock in the second goal and hence made it extremely difficult for the Blues to bounce back in the match. Alli has time and again shown that writing him off would be a huge mistake, and yesterday was another such display.
