🦁 Premier League Player of the Week: Roaring in from the cold | OneFootball

The Premier League delivered a double-header of eye-catching results and performances over the previous seven days.

And our Player of the Week is …

Abdoulaye Doucouré (Everton)

Few people connected to Everton will look back on 2023 with any genuine fondness.

Life at Goodison Park over the past 12 months has been fraught with difficulty after a record Premier League points deduction, another scrap for survival and off-field turmoil.

For Abdoulaye Doucouré, too, it threatened to be an annus horribilis as his prospects in the blue half of Merseyside suffered a considerable nosedive at the turn of the year.

The writing appeared to be on the wall for the midfielder when he was frozen out by Frank Lampard while the Toffees battled against relegation for a second season running.

By his own admission, Doucouré came close to calling time on a three-year spell with the club shortly before the former England international’s departure in late January.

But a sliding doors moment allowed him to roar in from the cold and become an integral figure in the royal blue shirt, scoring the goal that sealed the club’s top-flight salvation.

Sean Dyche’s arrival as Lampard’s replacement afforded the 30-year-old a clean slate and a new way of operating with a more relaxed approach to his on-field role.

In the past week alone, the ex-Burnley boss continued to see tangible rewards as his side pulled clear of the relegation zone with wins over Newcastle and Chelsea.

Doucouré’s strikes in the back-to-back victories represented his best-ever goal scoring return, now averaging one every three games since being rehabilitated by Dyche.

On both occasions, he demonstrated why the Everton manager has publicly hailed him as a ‘Johnny-on-the-spot’; someone who is always on-hand whenever needed.

Against the Magpies, the Mali international seized on Kieran Trippier’s defensive error to deliver a late two-goal cushion that settled the Goodison crowd’s nerves.

He repeated the feat for Chelsea’s visit, on a 100th Premier League appearance for Everton, with a cool finish after Robert Sánchez fumbled Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s initial attempt.

Goals, however, tell only half the story of Doucouré’s growing influence for Dyche’s men, who have virtually overturned their point deduction with a trio of wins in eight days.

His assuring presence in the engine room, regularly haring down possession, is an invaluable commodity which will become more profound in light of Idrissa Gueye’s looming suspension.

Doucouré’s selflessness in favour of the greater good has also extended to a decision to already rule himself out of potential involvement with Mali for January’s Africa Cup of Nations.

Those qualities underline why Dyche wasted little time in tying down his future, both in the immediate and long term, since becoming reborn as Everton’s newest talisman.