James, Watkins, and Grealish are perfect ten: Premier League

10:32am on Monday 5th October 2020
By Martin Macdonald

The fourth round of Premier League fixtures for the 2020/21 campaign will go down as one of the most remarkable in history.

Tottenham's 6-1 demolition of Man Utd in the afternoon was already making headlines, but crazier things were yet to come.

On Sunday evening, champions Liverpool were humiliated 7-2 by Aston Villa in what was one of the most bonkers league matches in years.

Two of Villa's players, Jack Grealish and Ollie Watkins, helped themselves to five goals between them, with the former also recorded a hat-trick of assists to earn perfect 10 FC Ratings.

James Rodriguez also scored a 10 FC Rating for his performance versus Brighton.

Fulham may have suffered another Premier League loss at the weekend, but this one was a little tighter, with Wolves only winning 1-0. It would have been more if not for the efforts of Alphonse Areola (7.3), who made four saves and 10 ball recoveries.

Two Chelsea players make it into the backline - Ben Chilwell (9.1) after a goal and an assist versus Crystal Palace, and Kurt Zouma (8.7), who also scored to complement a solid performance defensively.

Aaron Cresswell (9.0) makes the cut in the centre of defensive having featured in the left-hand side of a back three for West Ham recently. He recorded two assists as the Hammers impressively defeated Leicester 3-0 away.

Serge Aurier (8.6)was one of the players who helped himself to a goal against Manchester United for Spurs, as he slots in at right-back.

He is joined by team-mate Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (8.5) who enjoyed by far his best performance in a Spurs shirt against United. As well as recording an assist, he completed a superb 100/106 attempted passes.

Jorginho (8.8) makes the cut after his efforts to control the game for Chelsea versus Palace, while he also scored two signature penalties.

Undoubtedly the best team performance of the week goes to Villa after the humbling of Liverpool.

As well as Watkins (10) and Grealish (10)featuring after they combined to destroy the champions, John McGinn (8.4) was a bit of an unsung hero in midfield. He got on the scoresheet with a deflected effort from the edge of the box, but it was his endeavour in midfield which helped stifle Liverpool, forcing them into numerous mistakes. He won 9/13 duels and made nine ball recoveries.

James (10), meanwhile, continued his outstanding form for Everton as he scored two and set up another.

officialfootballcritic

Follow @criticfootball_