Premier League Awards: Sunderland stop Arsenal, Doku dazzles | OneFootball

Our Premier League Awards honour the best – and worst – of the weekend action, featuring late drama at Sunderland and Jeremy Doku’s dancing feet.

Moment of the Week

Arsenal had looked immovable in recent weeks and headed to Sunderland this weekend on a run of eight straight wins and clean sheets.

The Gunners have emerged as title favourites, but were given a real fright in the North East. Dan Ballard opened the scoring against the side where he progressed from the ranks, though Arsenal hit back to lead through Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard.

Sunderland, however, refused to give up. Their unbeaten home record remains in tact after Brian Brobbey’s last-gasp goal stunned the title hopefuls.

It was another evening in which The Stadium of Light was rocking, with newly-promoted Sunderland proving to be a handful for any opponent. Fourth in the table heading into November’s break, Sunderland are in dreamland. No side has shaken Arsenal more this season.

Player of the Week

When Jeremy Doku is in this mood, there’s not much that can be done to stop him. The Manchester City winger has not always had the end product to match his fleet feet, but the club’s 3-0 win over Liverpool was a performance in which it all came together.

Credit Conor Bradley, for sticking to his task, but while the 22-year-old locked down Vinicius Junior in midweek, he had no answer for Doku’s dazzling show. The Belgian became the first Premier League player in six years to end a match with a goal, 10+ dribbles, 10+ duels won, 3+ chances created and 3+ shots on target.

His ability to accelerate rapidly from a standing start is almost impossible to stop, while the feints, drag-backs, and more, leave defenders bamboozled. He was worth the admission fee alone this weekend.

Goal of the Week

After being sent out on loan last season, Emi Buendia is back in favour at Aston Villa and pushing for more minutes.

He made it three goals and two assists in just four league starts after scoring a sensational effort against Bournemouth this weekend. Buendia’s brilliant knuckleball free-kick opened the scoring as Villa thrashed the high-flying Cherries.

Save of the Week

Having earlier made a wonderful save to keep out Alex Scott’s looping deflected effort, Emi Martinez was the hero to preserve Aston Villa’s lead against Bournemouth.

Martinez guessed right to stop Antoine Semenyo’s spot-kick, ensuring the Cherries had no route back into the contest. A big save from the Argentine, who is now 31 games unbeaten at Villa Park.

Stat of the Week

This is a quite brilliant stat.

Maybe err on the side of caution next time, Richy.

A week to forget for…

Liverpool.

Lethargic and second-best at Manchester City, a crushing defeat at the Etihad leaves their title hopes under real threat. The Reds have lost five of their opening 11 games, the worst start of any reigning champion since 2016/17. Only Chelsea, a season earlier in 2015/16, have lost more of their first 11 games (6) as title holders.

As the international break arrives, Liverpool are eighth in the table and have an eight-point gap to bridge in the title race.

Read – Premier League Team of the Week – Martinez, Doku, Thiago

See more – The lowest points totals in Premier League history

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