Premier League Awards For Matchday 35: Best XI?

Matchday 35 Awards

There was plenty to unpack this weekend as the race for the Champions League spots has reached boiling point. Chelsea beat newly-crowned champions Liverpool at Stamford Bridge, City scraped past Wolves to start breathing down Arsenal’s neck for second place, while Newcastle failed to beat Brighton away in what was probably the most surprising result of the round.

At the bottom of the table, Leicester overcame Southampton in a stake-less basement battle, while the division’s Europa League representatives only secured one point between them.

As usual, you can click here to check out all our reports from this round’s action.

And you can visit our YouTube channel for previews of each matchday, as well as predictions and hot takes on current EPL topics.

But back to the task at hand: who earned our Premier League awards this time? Read on to find out.

Best Player

Finally Cole Palmer has played a proper game again. The weirdest thing is that he showed the confidence of a player on a long scoring streak, not the opposite of one.

He was at the heart of almost anything Chelsea did well, setting the stage for the early opener, hitting the post, scoring a penalty and generally just giving Liverpool hell.

He is too good of a player to be kept quiet for so long and it comes as no surprise that he has punished Liverpool so thoroughly.

Best XI

GK – Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa)

RB – Michael Kayode (Brentford)

CB – Dean Huijsen (Bournemouth)

CB – Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa)

LB – Josko Gvardiol (Manchester City)

CM – Cole Palmer (Chelsea)

CM – Youri Tielemans (Aston Villa)

CM – Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea)

RW – Kevin Schade (Brentford)

ST – Evanilson (Bournemouth)

LW – Julio Enciso (Ipswich)

Best Goal

A couple of worthy contenders, but we must simply admit that we have the deepest appreciation for Enciso’s ability to score absolute screamers.

The Ipswich attacker was at it again on Saturday, scoring this stunner to reduce his side’s deficit at Goodison Park.

Here it is, along with the game’s best moments: HIGHLIGHTS | EVERTON 2 TOWN 2

Best Game

Not much of a contest, really, when there’s a game that has seven goals, a team coming back from the depths to within inches of an equaliser in injury time, 11 shots on target and a total xG of 4.07.

Naturally, we’re talking about Brentford vs Manchester United, which was a joy to watch especially for the neutrals and will probably be remembered around the Gtech for years to come.

Wissa + Schade score in THRILLER 🤯 |  Brentford 4-3 Manchester United | Premier League Highlights

Best Stats

Jamie Vardy has drawn level with Robin van Persie for Premier League goals, with the two strikers now on 144. Vardy’s goal vs Southampton was his 199th for Leicester in all competitions. The King Power faithful will miss him, and rightfully so.

Alexander Isak’s 23 goals is the highest total for a Newcastle player in the Premier League since Alan Shearer in 2001/02.

According to Fotmob, Liverpool’s Wataru Endo has committed 8.0 fouls per 90 minutes of EPL football this season, but has not seen a yellow card. Sure, he has not played much, only coming on in the closing stages of games to secure results, but it’s still a pretty impressive stat.

Best/Worst VAR Decision

Some good and some bad this week, actually from the same game, Brighton vs Newcastle.

Chalking off correctly two penalties for Newcastle, one for the contact between Anthony Gordon and Tariq Lamptey taking place outside the box, the other for a Joe Willock dive that fooled the referee is exactly what VAR is supposed to do.

But why did it take so long to validate the Magpies’ penalty that finally stood? It was as clear a handball as you’ll ever see and yet we had to wait for what felt like an eternity for VAR to tell us what everyone already knew: that Newcastle were getting a penalty.

Best Substitution

George Hirst bagged an equaliser for Ipswich on Saturday roughly 10 minutes after coming onto the pitch against Everton. It was a nice moment for the Scotsman, who has not featured prominently for the Tractor Boys of late.

Funniest Moment

There’s only one man that this award is going to: Jamie Vardy.

We all know and love the fact that the Foxes’ legend works hard and plays hard, but blowing David Webb’s whistle to stop the game because the referee had collided with a player is just next-level funny.

For the sake of fun in the Premier League, we really hope that he signs a contract with one of the division’s sides this summer.