Premier League: Team of the Week X

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Centre-Defensive Midfield: Ilkay Gundogan (Manchester City)

The German international has been subtly brilliant since his arrival at Manchester City from Borussia Dortmund, but he put in a fantastic display to let out a statement of his quality. He helped himself to two goals and an assist in a 4-0 walkover over West Brom at the Hawthorns, the first time he has scored two in a match since his brace for Dortmund at Greuther Furth back in 2013.

He has settled nicely as an unsung hero in Pep Guardiola’s new-look Manchester City set-up and has offered an effective solution defensively to the conundrum surrounding Yaya Touré’s position at the club. If Gundogan can replicate the Ivorian’s goalscoring exploits after this showing, then City are in with a real shout at achieving something this season.

Right-Attacking Midfield: Ross Barkley (Everton)

Much has been made of Ross Barkley and his ability to step up on the big occasion. The latest challenge came from his own manager Ronald Koeman, who challenged the player to fulfil his potential for the sake of his future at Everton. He duly obliged against West Ham with a tremendous display, he was full of running and even got a goal for his troubles, which he took well.

The challenge now for the young England international will be to sustain this form, for which Koeman heaped praise on the midfielder. His performance also pulled up an interesting statistic: Ross Barkley has been involved in 19 Premier League goals since the start of last season (10 goals, 9 assists), the third highest total for an English midfielder in that timescale. The only English midfield players who have had a hand in more are Dele Alli (22) and James Milner (21).

Left-Attacking Midfield: Philippe Coutinho (Liverpool)

Liverpool oozed class in Saturday’s late kick-off at Selhurst Park and were unlucky not to have won by a more convincing margin. Once more at the heart of everything that they produced was Brazilian attacker Philippe Coutinho, whose incisive runs and passing picked holes in the Crystal Palace defence all evening. He clocked up two assists on the day, and was lucky not to have had a hat-trick of them after an inch-perfect through-ball found Sadio Mané, but Steve Mandanda was up to the challenge with a superb save.

The Brazil international has provided assists twice or more in a Premier League game on six occasions now since making his debut, which is the joint highest total of any player in the competition in that time-frame, an honour he shares with Mesut Ozil and David Silva.

Centre-Attacking Midfield: Gastón Ramirez (Middlesbrough)

Gaston Ramirez netted his first Premier League goal since December 2014 against Bournemouth, and what a goal it was. He accelerated at goal with the ball at his feet before cutting sharply inside and curling the ball beyond Artur Boruc. It was a quality finish and superb solo run which put the ‘Boro in the driving seat on the day, and it put the gloss on what was overall an energetic and dynamic performance in the Number Ten role.