Madueke, Moyes dominate Premier League winners as Manchester City, Spurs jinx and Leeds shamed
Noni Madueke, David Moyes and Rodrigo Muniz are Premier League winners. Unai Emery, both Manchester club and a Spurs jinx are big old losers.
Premier League winners Nottingham Forest On their way to the title. Brighton Their last 10 Premier League wins have been to nil, through 25 unanswered goals.
If Brighton score first, the game is basically done. And if Brighton field Pascal Gross, as they invariably do, or Diego Gomez is able to shoot from anywhere outside the area, as he often is, and everything is in front of Luka Vuskovic so he doesn't have to run too far, unless he finds himself in the opposition penalty area,the second-best team in the countrywill score first before OOPing you into oblivion.
Noni Madueke When the longreads on one of the more clearly and obviously signposted Premier League title wins are published, the succulent Madueke filling in an international break sandwich will provide one of the more compelling chapters. Mikel Arteta said"the best player in training in the last 10 days"gave "no option" but to start him when the club season resumed in October.
Heading into November's pause for an England squad far less understandably shorn of the Arsenal forward, his manager praised "a different Noni". No player has been as influential for the champions in a gruelling run of nine games in 28 days.
In the Premier League alone, Madueke has directly contributed to four extra points with the only goal against Nottingham Forest and the shot which forced the breakthrough against Hull. He was the irrepressible difference against the Tigers: no player had more shots (four) or won more duels (eight); he had at least five more touches in the opposition penalty area than any other player; he completed as many dribbles (six) as everyone else combined.
No-one has created more chances per 90 in the entire division. And that infuriating overcomplification of a late chance forged by a stunning team move still points to ample room for improvement.
Madueke's reaction to his last England snub was to take it upon himself to fly out to Portugal and go from undesirable to undeniable. It's hard not to feel for whichever defenders happen to be in his way after another fortnight of relentless self-development fuelled by pure hatred for Thomas Tuchel.
David Moyes Say what you want about Moyes - and for the best part of two and a half decades most have - but the fella knows how to sodding profile and platform a goddamn Premier League centre-forward. Thierno Barry is just the latest in a long line of bafflingly uber-effective line-leaders either repurposed or refined by Moyes when few others were blessed with the requisite vision.