The Premier League team of the week has been revealed, and Aston Villa trio Matty Cash, John McGinn and Ollie Watkins have made the XI.
Selected by Alan Shearer, the Matchday 7 team of the week can be seen below, and it’s no surprise to see a Villa contingent following our superb 6-1 win over Brighton this past weekend.
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While several others perhaps came into contention, such was the impressive nature of the team performance and the individuals within that, three Villa players were included, with Cash, McGinn and Watkins getting the nod.
Given his hat-trick performance and impact on the game overall, Watkins is unsurprisingly named in the XI, as he built on his winner at Chelsea the previous week and is hopefully now starting to find his best form in front of goal.
With his pace and movement off the ball to stretch the Brighton defence and create openings not only for himself but also for his teammates, it was a decisive display from the Villa forward, and he’s rightly acknowledged in this line-up.
As for McGinn, he was significantly involved in most of our goals as he did a brilliant job of finding pockets of space in the opposition half and pulling the strings to unlock the Brighton defence.
We saw it for his ball through to Cash for our opener as well as for the third Watkins goal, and so coupled with his tenacity and energy in the midfield scrap to help us gain control, it’s certainly well deserved for him too.
As noted above, Cash provided the assist for the first goal after an excellent run down the right flank and delivery across for Watkins to tap home, but his energy and quality in both phases of the game really stood out.
He did an excellent job in limiting Kaoru Mitoma with aggressive defending, and it’s hoped that he can maintain that level moving forward to continue to make a real impact down our right side.
Villa do often seem to be neglected across the media even after an emphatic win over Brighton, and so while it could be argued that it’s nice to fly under the radar, it’s good to see this trio get recognition, and it’s hoped that we see several more involved in the discussion after Wolves on Sunday.
Alan Shearer's Team of the Week has arrived! 📬
What do you make of these picks? 👇 pic.twitter.com/v9Dcp3msSN
— Premier League (@premierleague) October 3, 2023
