Squawka’s Team of the Week from Premier League Gameweek 2: Chelsea, Liverpool and Man City dominate
The second week of the 2024/25 Premier League season saw 32 goals, five clean sheets and two hat-tricks.
Man City, Brighton, Arsenal and Liverpool all made it two wins from two, while five sides are all still waiting to get their first point of the campaign.
Erling Haaland and Noni Madueke both took home the match ball and Cole Palmer was involved in four of Chelsea’s goals, including a hat-trick of assists all for Madueke.
But which players made the Squawka Premier League Team of the Week for MD2? Here are our 11 picks and the reasoning behind each selection. Every pick is based on the stat leaders for metrics relevant to each position across the gameweek.
GK: David Raya (Arsenal)
The Arsenal goalkeeper made one of the saves of the season to deny Ollie Watkins to make it eight clean sheets in his last nine away games in the Premier League. Based on the quality of the shots he faced, David Raya prevented 1.05 goals during the game, the highest of any ‘keeper to keep a clean sheet during MD2.
RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
After only returning to Liverpool late into pre-season after being away with England at Euro 2024, Trent has been eased back in to the side by new manager Arne Slot. It was clear he was unhappy for being subbed against Brentford after impressing during his time on the pitch.
He created more chances (4) than any other defender in gameweek 2, whilst also winning four of his five duels and completing two of his three take-ons.
CB: Cristian Romero (Tottenham)
Cuti Romero has now scored more Premier League goals than any other defender since the start of last season (6). He rose highest to head past Jordan Pickford from an inch perfect James Maddison corner to put the cherry on the top of an excellent performance vs Everton.
The Argentine won 10 duels, made six tackles, three clearances, had three touches in the opposition box and had three shots as he dominated in both boxes.
CB: Ibrahima Konate (Liverpool)
Against Ipswich, Arne Slot was angry with Jarell Quansah for not winning his duels so Ibrahima Konate was handed the starting sport alongside Virgil van Dijk against Brentford and he was definitely paying attention.
The Frenchman won all three of his duels, made four clearances, six ball recoveries, two tackles and misplaced just three of his 76 passes.
LB: Diogo Dalot (Man Utd)
The Portuguese full-back has once again found himself on the left-hand side for Manchester United and is one of the only players that can hold his head high after his side’s defeat to Brighton.
As well as putting in an inch-perfect ball into the box for Amad in the first half, Diogo Dalot also cleared the ball off the line, won six duels and wasn’t dribbled past once against a very tricky Brighton forward line.
CM: Lucas Paqueta (West Ham)
We’ve all seen the viral clip of Lucas Paqueta from West Ham’s 2-0 win over Crystal Palace where he sprinted to take the ball from Palace’s free-kick, but maybe what you haven’t seen is just how good he was during the match.
The Brazilian made the second-most ball recoveries of any midfielder this week, made eight final third entries, won all seven of his ground duels and made five tackles in all-round fantastic midfied display.
CM: Kevin De Bruyne (Man City)
KDB is an unstoppable creative machine.
In 2024 alone, the Belgian has created at least 10 more big chances than any other player in the Premier League (23), provided 11 assists in just 19 appearances and created the joint most chances of anyone else. Against Ipswich he created four chances, created two big chances, provided an assist and scored to make it 26 Premier League matches in which he has both set up a teammate and found the back of the net. Since his Man City debut in 2015, only Mohamed Salah (31) has done this more often.
RW: Noni Madueke (Chelsea)
After upsetting the home fans before the game with an Instagram story that was not very complimentary about Wolverhampton, Noni Madueke knew he had to put in a good performance and boy did he deliver.
The Chelsea forward secured his first ever senior hat-trick with three goals in the space of just 14 second half minutes at Molineux, becoming just the third Englishman after Frank Lampard and Tammy Abraham to score a Premier League hat-trick away from for Chelsea.
No.10: Cole Palmer (Chelsea)
Ice cold.
Provided all three goals for Noni Madueke’s hat-trick as well as finding the back of the net himself in the first half. He is now the only player to in Europe’s top five leagues to be directly involved in 25+ goals in 2024, which is at least seven more than any other Premier League player. No player has more goal involvements in the English top flight so far this term (4).
LW: Luis Diaz (Liverpool)
The Colombian was involved in both of Liverpool’s goals against Brentford, opening the scoring in the first half and assisting Mo Salah in the second. He also completed 100% of his passes (28/28), won six duels and created four chances, the joint most of any player on the pitch.
No player has created more chances from open play in the Premier League so far this season than Liverpool’s number seven.
ST: Erling Haaland (Man City)
Another game and another hat-trick for Erling Haaland.
The Norwegian has now scored 67 goals and seven hat-tricks in just 68 Premier League appearances for Manchester City, averaging a match ball once every 9.7 matches and becoming just the second player after Harry Kane to score against every side he has faced in the competition (12/12), taking just 12 minutes to add Ipswich to the list this weekend.
He had 11 touches in the opposition box, which was five more than the entire Ipswich side combined, seven shots, four shots on target and three big chances as he secured yet another match ball at the Etihad.
