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Premier League Team of the Week - Sadio Mane, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Wilfried Zaha

Sports Mole selects its final Premier League team of the week from a memorable 2018-19 campaign, including Sadio Mane, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Wilfried Zaha.

The curtain came down on the 2018-19 Premier League season this Sunday, with Manchester City being crowned champions ahead of Liverpool.

The Reds ensured that they finished on 97 points with their win over Wolverhampton Wanderers, but Man City came from behind against Brighton & Hove Albion to become the first team in a decade to retain the trophy.

Tottenham Hotspur secured the final Champions League spot still mathematically up for grabs courtesy of their draw at home to Everton, with Arsenal unable to enjoy the unlikely set of results needed to leapfrog their London rivals despite beating Burnley.

Manchester United's disappointing campaign ended in fitting fashion with a home defeat at the hands of relegated Cardiff City, while Huddersfield Town - also bound for the Championship - avoided equalling the Premier League record for most defeats in a single campaign by drawing with Southampton.

There were goals galore elsewhere on the final day, with Crystal Palace beating Bournemouth in an eight-goal thriller, and both Newcastle United and West Ham United hitting four in victories over Fulham and Watford respectively.

Indeed, the only game not to get in on the goalscoring action was Leicester City's match against Chelsea, which ended 0-0 but still saw the visitors secure third spot.

Here, Sports Mole selects its last team of the week from another unforgettable Premier League season.



PL TOTW GW38

It has been a difficult campaign for Cardiff both on and off the field, but they signed off in memorable fashion with their win at Old Trafford, and Neil Etheridge was every bit as important to that as the man who scored twice at the other end. The Bluebirds made no fewer than 10 saves to keep United at bay and earn a clean sheet which he will not forget in a hurry.

Newcastle's 4-0 triumph over Fulham sees them provide more players than any other club in this XI, and two of them come in defence. Fabian Schar helped himself to a goal in addition to keeping a clean sheet, while Matt Ritchie was equally effective in an attacking sense courtesy of his two assists from left-back.

Trent Alexander-Arnold is the assist king when it comes to full-backs this season, though, and he took the outright lead for most by a defender in a single Premier League campaign with another for Liverpool's opening goal against Wolves at Anfield.

It is a defence full of goal contributions this week too, and while Alexander-Arnold contributed to Liverpool's brief belief that things might fall for them, Aymeric Laporte helped to kill that off by giving Man City the lead just 11 minutes after they had fallen behind.

Jonjo Shelvey completes the trio of Newcastle players in this XI, having ended a disappointing individual campaign with a stunning volley in their comfortable win over Fulham - enough to see him selected ahead of Ilkay Gundogan, Gylfi Sigurdsson, David Silva and Alex Pritchard.

West Ham skipper Mark Noble joins Shelvey in the middle of the park, making our team of the week for the second time running. The Englishman scored twice at Vicarage Road, but his passing was just as impressive and he ended the game with a 97% success rate.

Noble's clubmate Michail Antonio is very unfortunate to miss out on a place in this XI following a performance in which he was a constant threat to the Watford defence, but the level of competition for wide places was huge this week and the likes of Riyad Mahrez, Nathan Redmond, Alex Iwobi and Felipe Anderson also deserve honourable mentions.

The performance of Nathaniel Mendez-Laing could not be ignored having scored twice at Old Trafford, leading to the mischievous stat that he has now netted more times at United's ground this season than Alexis Sanchez.

Wilfried Zaha could not get on the scoresheet himself, but he did provide two assists in Crystal Palace's 5-3 win over Bournemouth - including one which demonstrated how devastating his mix of strength and pace can be. If it is to be his final game for the club, he at least went out with a bang.

Leading the line this week are two of the three players who shared the Golden Boot award, having all finished on 22 goals. Sadio Mane and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang both caught up with Mohamed Salah courtesy of scoring twice apiece, although Aubameyang did squander a glorious chance to win the award outright and hit the woodwork too.

Michy Batshuayi also deserves a mention for scoring twice himself, while Sergio Aguero and Salomon Rondon were other options considered for the two striking berths.

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Vincent Kompany celebrates his crucial goal during the Premier League game between Manchester City and Leicester City on May 6, 2019
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Tables header RHS
TeamPWDLFAGDPTS
1Liverpool119112161528
2Manchester CityMan City117222213923
3Chelsea115422113819
4Arsenal115421812619
5Nottingham ForestNott'm Forest115421510519
6Brighton & Hove AlbionBrighton115421915419
7Fulham115331613318
8Newcastle UnitedNewcastle115331311218
9Aston Villa115331717018
10Tottenham HotspurSpurs1151523131016
11Brentford115152222016
12Bournemouth114341515015
13Manchester UnitedMan Utd114341212015
14West Ham UnitedWest Ham113351319-612
15Leicester CityLeicester112451421-710
16Everton112451017-710
17Ipswich TownIpswich111551222-108
18Crystal Palace11146815-77
19Wolverhampton WanderersWolves111371627-116
20Southampton11119721-144


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