Premier League Team of the Week XXXVII feat. Sunderland and Southampton stars

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Steven Davis: The experienced Southampton midfielder scored two goals in the early kick-off on Sunday against Spurs, and in doing so, doubled his season’s tally in the Premier League during one ninety-minute match. Davis’ first came when he made a run towards the near post, escaping the attention of Toby Alderweireld, and was able to sort his feet out very quickly to send an effort goal-bound. Hugo Lloris will be disappointed that he could not block the shot with a stronger hand, but credit should go to Davis nonetheless. The second resulted from a quick exchange with Dusan Tadic before dancing around a couple of challenges on the edge of the area, allowing Steven Davis to unleash a well-placed finish into the bottom corner past the despairing dive of Lloris. In beating his opponent three times and rotating positions with Tadic, he was a significant influence on Southampton’s style of play and one that Tottenham found it very hard to stop.

Andy King: While the King Power Stadium was the location for Leicester City’s title celebrations, it was another King who could boast the finest performance. Andy King popped up with a goal himself and also laid one on a plate for Jamie Vardy early in the match. He is a subtly different type of player to Danny Drinkwater; who King replaced in the line-up, but in a 4-4-2 formation which mirrored that of Everton, the Welshman made the most of the space available to him and shone in the stormy conditions. King had a terrific awareness of his team-mates’ locations and what their intentions were all game long, demonstrating composure and class in possession of the ball. This was a thoroughly accomplished display that was capped off by a finish which displayed all of the aforementioned traits in one brief moment.

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Wahbi Khazri: Sunderland’s Tunisian international has recorded a number of good performances since his arrival in January, but these have been interspersed with some fairly anonymous displays too. Against Chelsea, it was one of his better ones fortunately for Sam Allardyce and their fans. Wahbi Khazri took the attack to The Blues from his position on the left of midfield, often picking up the ball and running at defenders simply because a better option had not presented itself. The midfielder brought Sunderland back into the game with a thunderbolt of a strike from outside the Chelsea penalty area to the left of centre. The fact that the goal was of such a high standard only helps to highlight it, but simply the fact that the ball managed to pass Thibaut Courtois was all that mattered for Sunderland. Khazri was a continual threat to Hiddink’s men, as he created three chances during their eventual 3-2 victory.

Ki Sung-Yeung: As Swansea went on to shock West Ham at the penultimate match at Upton Park, Ki Sung-Yeung had an integral role to play in each of Swansea’s first three goals. First, he picked out a perfectly flighted cross-field ball to Kyle Naughton, allowing the full-back to lay the ball across for Wayne Routledge to score. The visitor’s progressive play was knitted together by the South Korean international, frequently getting on the ball in West Ham’s half with his head up, and able to pick out 33 passes to team-mates in this area. The South Korean produced an excellent controlled finish on the volley for his goal – Swansea City’s third. This was his first strike in the top flight since Boxing Day but if he continues to perform like this, it is difficult to imagine a similarly lengthy barren spell being repeated. In addition to all of his superb attacking and creative play, Ki put in two blocks as well, completing his defensive tasks too.