Liverpool and Man City both picked up wins this past weekend, and BBC pundit Garth Crooks was seemingly impressed by a number of their players.
The two sides look set to be involved in another Premier League title race this season having already opened up a slight gap between themselves and the chasing pack.
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Jurgen Klopp’s men still boast a perfect 100% record with four wins in four, giving them a two-point lead over City at this early stage heading into the international break.
Many questioned whether or not the Reds could repeat their brilliant level of consistency from last season, but they appear to be doing so thus far and they certainly impressed against Burnley.
With that performance in mind, Adrian, Virgil van Dijk and Roberto Firmino all get the green light from Crooks in his Premier League team of the week, as per his BBC Sport column, with the defensive duo praised for their timely interventions to help the Merseyside giants to a win.
As for the Brazilian forward, he was praised by Crooks for ‘orchestrating a masterclass’, and there is no doubt that Firmino was pivotal in leading Liverpool to all three points on Saturday.
In a bizarre move to try and fit all of his preferred choices in though, Crooks has deployed Firmino in midfield in his line-up, and so that will undoubtedly earn him some stick from readers as he often does pick some out-of-the-box formations and positioning to suit the individuals.
Meanwhile, he has again also gone for a number of goalscorers from the weekend, with Fabian Schar, Jannik Vestergaard, Kevin de Bruyne, Christian Eriksen, Jordan Ayew, Sergio Aguero and Jamie Vardy all included after finding the back of the net.
While some do undoubtedly deserve the nod for their key roles in positive results for their respective sides, it is something that Crooks often does and could be another reason as to why he faces some scrutiny over his selections.
Meanwhile, Jack Grealish is also included as Crooks singled out the Aston Villa captain for praise after his performance despite a defeat to Crystal Palace, as he also took the opportunity to hit out at the decision to disallow a late equaliser for the visitors, a move in which Grealish was key.
There isn’t too much to disagree with in the XI below, although it does seem as though a goal certainly puts you into Crooks’ thinking for the weekend…
Full XI: Adrian; Schar, Van Dijk, Vestergaard; De Bruyne, Grealish, Firmino, Eriksen; Ayew, Aguero, Vardy.
