Four Manchester City stars make it into the Premier League’s worst XI for matchday 12 after their shambolic performance against Tottenham Hotspur.
This team is based on WhoScored’s player ratings…
GK: Bernd Leno (Fulham) – 5.16
Wolves showed signs of life under Gary O’Neil before the international break and they hit another gear in their 4-1 win against Fulham to move out of the relegation zone. Matheus Cunha was superb and Leno could not have done much more to prevent the forward’s two goals. The goalkeeper just edged out Man City’s Ederson for the No. 1 spot in this team.
RB: Kyle Walker (Manchester City) – 5.90
Telltale signs of a player’s decline on their road to retirement are not usually as blatant as we are seeing with Walker, who was outpaced and outthought by Timo Werner for Spurs’ fourth goal at the weekend. The England international has been on a downward spiral for over a year and his frailties continue to be exposed in this Rodri-less Man City side.
READ: 16 Conclusions on Man City 0-4 Spurs: atrocious Walker and Gundogan, brilliant Kulusevski and Maddison
CB: Marcos Senesi (AFC Bournemouth) – 5.70
High-flying Brighton’s free-flowing football opened up Bournemouth in their 2-1 win on Saturday. Senesi – after he struggled in the 3-2 loss to Brentford – was taken off after 65 minutes at the weekend after only completing 76% of his passes, while he was dispossessed and dribbled past far too often.
CB: Manuel Akanji (Manchester City) – 5.88
The Switzerland international jokingly said in November that he could “retire” next year amid this season’s “more complicated” fixture schedule. Based on the evidence of his performance against Spurs, that wouldn’t be a bad idea.
Before this campaign, he’d rightly been considered a huge bargain at £15m but the 29-year-old looks leggy and was fortunate to avoid being sent off in the harrowing 4-0 loss.
LB: Josko Gvardiol (Manchester City) – 5.92
Brilliant going forward, but can be suspect defensively and his performance against Tottenham was comfortably his worst of the season.
Dejan Kulusevski outmuscled the Croatia international for the first goal and the left-back’s stray pass led to James Maddison netting his second shortly after.
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CM: Christian Norgaard (Brentford) – 5.47
Sean Dyche edged nearer to being sacked on Saturday as his Everton side failed to beat Brentford – who played the whole second half with ten men – at Goodison Park. Norgaard was dismissed following a VAR review for catching Jordan Pickford with his studs when challenging for the ball inside the penalty area. It looked nasty but wasn’t intentional and was pretty harsh.
CM: Carlos Baleba (Brighton and Hove Albion) – 5.46
Another centre-midfielder included after a dubious red card, Baleba – who is on track to earn a Big Six move – was dismissed for two bookings against Bournemouth. He can consider himself unlucky as there was limited – if any – contact with Milos Kerkez for the second incident.
RW: Phil Foden (Manchester City) – 5.71
After he struggled for England at Euro 2024, Foden has looked a shadow of the player who was Man City’s best performer for much of last season.
The 24-year-old is taking a while to get up to speed and went missing against Spurs. He has just one goal involvement in nine Premier League games this season.
His woes have exposed Man City’s overreliance upon Erling Haaland, who failed to give Guardiola’s under-performing side a chance at the weekend. The usually prolific striker misfired in front of goal and is now miles away from the 2024 top scorer in Europe.
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CAM: Justin Kluivert (AFC Bournemouth) – 6.12
The Dutchman with a famous Dad has been outshone by Antoine Semenyo this season and was the only one of Bournemouth’s front four taken off against Brighton.
The game passed him by as he had far fewer touches than Semenyo and Marcus Tavernier. His place in the starting XI could be under threat by David Brooks, who scored off the bench to grab a late consolation for the beaten hosts.
LW: Callum Hudson-Odoi (Nottingham Forest) – 6.25
For the second game week in a row, former Chelsea winger Hudson-Odoi makes it into our worst Premier League XI.
Nottm Forest were ineffective in attack in their one-sided 3-0 loss against Arsenal at the Emirates. Hudson-Odoi arguably had their best chance when the game was goalless but he failed to make contact with a cross from Ola Aina inside the opening five minutes.
ST: Jamie Vardy (Leicester City) – 5.84
The 37-year-old’s best days are behind him but he’s been a standout for strugglers Leicester this season with four goals and an assist in the Premier League. The defeat at Chelsea was a game to forget for the veteran (and sacked Steve Cooper), though.
Vardy was rushed back from injury to feature against Chelsea, but he needn’t have bothered. The 2-1 scoreline flattered Leicester as their striker did not manage a single shot and was taken off with around 10 minutes remaining.