Premier League: Team of Round 23

Round 23 of the Premier League was a fairly high scoring one at Superbru with the community average increasing thanks to there being so many goals around! We saw two 4-3's in this round as Wolves defeated Leicester and Liverpool beat Crystal Palace while Newcastle and Manchester City both picked up 3-0 wins.

It's not very often we see a five at the back formation in the TOTR but we have a 5-4-1 this week due to lots of defenders scoring goals as well as keeping clean sheets. Arsenal are the most heavily represented club in this XI following their important 2-0 home win against Chelsea.

Community average score in Round 23: 51.2
Community best in Round 23: 89
TOTR score: 142
Theoretical best legal score: 141

Defence

Ben Foster and Tom Heaton were the two highest scoring goalkeepers in Round 23 following the 0-0 draw between Watford and Burnley at Vicarage Road. Foster is the man to start in our TOTR having accumulated more points over the course of the season so far, and he plays behind the back five that consists of a pair of Newcastle defenders, a pair of Arsenal defenders and Manchester City's Danilo.

In addition to each keeping a clean sheet, these players all managed notable attacking returns to help their teams to victory. Hector Bellerin and Jamaal Lascelles each contributed with an assist, Danilo and Laurent Koscielny both scored and Fabian Schar scored twice! Given that it is hard to believe many of you predicted Schar (and even Newcastle) would find the net more than once and Koscielny would expertly score with his shoulder, it is this TOTR's full-backs that were the more feasible picks. That said, Newcastle defenders were certainly always clean sheet candidates and I myself am regretting switching from Lascelles to van Dijk in the 5-a-side fantasy!

A quick word on Hector Bellerin who is owned by 14% of you in our 11-a-side game but unfortunately ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament of his left knee during the game that saw him earn his place in this TOTR. The injury means he will play no further part in the rest of this season which is of course horrible to see and we wish him the best with his recovery.

Midfield

A very strong scoring midfield four features in this TOTR with three players scoring double figures in our games. Wolves' Diogo Jota has seen his fantasy popularity fall throughout the season after being tipped to do well in the Premier League ahead of the start of the campaign but his performance at the weekend against Leicester was a reminder of the talent he has. The Portuguese attacking midfielder bagged a hat-trick to seal a dramatic win for his team and become the R23 ideal Superbru captain.

A little later on Saturday, Mo Salah further increased his lead at the top of the list of Superbru's highest scoring players so far this season when he picked up 13 points against Crystal Palace in Liverpool's 4-3 win. Salah now averages a ridiculous 7 points per game. Meanwhile, Leroy Sane continues to be one of the fastest rising players on our points leaderboard as he picked up another 10 against Huddersfield thanks to a goal and an assist. Despite not starting a PL game until Round 5, Sane is now the fourth highest-scoring midfielder across our fantasy games.

Demarai Gray is the final midfield member of this TOTR as he bagged a respectable 9 points in that thriller at Molineux. Picking up points for a goal, three or more shots on target and three or more dribbles completed, Gray's performance was typically attacking but it's unlikely he'll perform as strongly in the next few weeks as Leicester face Liverpool, Manchester United and Tottenham.

Strikers

Finally, Alexandre Lacazette is the sole striker in this week's Team of the Round after scoring the opening goal against Chelsea in Arsenal's 2-0 victory. In a situation that isn't too dissimilar from Manchester City's Gabriel Jesus, Lacazette is a very strong striker who has found himself second in line to another very strong striker (Aubameyang) at times this season meaning he's a risky fantasy pick.

However, if Unai Emery continues to play Lacazette alongside Aubameyang as he did on Saturday, the Frenchman is a very good option. Lacazette (owned by 8% of players) has still managed to score 100 fantasy points so far this season - 28 less than Aubameyang who is owned by half of the Superbru community.

If you were to change this TOTR to feature the best possible legal team you could have selected in our 11-a-side game, Lacazette would be replaced by Bournemouth's Josh King who scored in their win over Everton and was awarded 8 fantasy points.

Premier League ideal 5-a-side teams by daily round during R23:

Saturday: Foster, Schar, Moutinho, Jota, Lacazette (57 points)
Sunday: Ederson, Danilo, Alli, Sane, Aguero (40 points)

We now enter the FA Cup fourth round weekend - make sure you've joined the predictor game for that if you haven't already - but be aware that there is a Premier League midweek round falling immediately afterwards next Tuesday (29th). That round will be split across two days in our 5-a-side fantasy, with six fixtures on the Tuesday and four on the Wednesday.

Click here to play Premier League Fantasy at Superbru

Click here to play Premier League 5-a-side Fantasy at Superbru