Marcos Alonso receives a 3 match ban

Chelsea met Southampton last Saturday and the London team came out the victors with 3-2 score line. Southampton failed to build up on their win against Arsenal in the previous week. An issue was raised to the Independent Regulatory Commission board concerning the clash between Marcos Alonso and Shane Long on the 44th minute in the match that was played during the weekend. Initially, the referee gave no card to the Chelsea defender because he did not have a clear view of how Alonso caught the English forward but a lot was expected from the fourth official, Roger East, who was directly in front of the pair when the incident happened. The Spanish left-back has been charged with violent conduct which can be seen in video replays as he stepped on Long’s calf when he could retain the ball from the striker. The ban is set at 3 matches and the player still denies the charge. This means that Alonso will not be available for selection against Southampton again in the FA Cup semifinal as well as Premier League matches against Burnley and Swansea City. This could be the chance that new signing Palmieri would take as he is expected to replace the Spaniard in defense and make a claim for a starting spot for next season.

The Premier League (PFA) Team of the Year is out

The Premier League started off in a good style with many teams looking like they were ready to mount a title challenge. In the end, it was only one horse left in the race with Manchester City out to fight against the records because the other teams had failed dismally. It comes as no surprise that the Manchester club dominated the PFA Team of the Year which was announced by PFA on their twitter account. The most obvious inclusions in that team were those of David De Gea, Kyle Walker, Otamendi, David Silva, Eriksen, Kevin De Bruyne, Mo Salah, and Kane. That’s about 8 positions that were uncontested due to their outstanding performances this season. Everyone else, is questionable. The other players that made it to the 11 include Marcos Alonso, Vertonghen and Aguero who was placed on the left flank instead of the centre-forward position where he plays. There seems to some form of bias because a player like Aguero, although he scored 22 goals in the league, he does not deserve to be in that team because his direct competitor in Kane has already scored 26.

That left-wing position should have been left to his colleague in Raheem Sterling who has had an outstanding season with Manchester City having scored 16 league goals and provided 8 assists. Furthermore, Marcos Alonso has been playing for a struggling club in Chelsea who are failing to make it to next season’s UEFA Champions League. The most consistent player in their Chelsea team was Kante by far, but still, that player could not make it into the PFA team of the year. Instead, credit must be given to Ben Davies who has been called upon to deliver for Tottenham in the absence of Danny Rose who has been injured for the greater parts of the season. That decision to leave out Davies is very questionable.

Finally, we end with the inclusion of Vertonghen in the heart of the defence alongside Otamendi. What we have realised is that the team is dominated by the teams in the top 5 of the league but yet there are other teams who performed beyond expectations and still had players who were outstanding. The player in question should be replaced by Burnley’s Tarkowski who has had a remarkable season this year representing Burnley who are 2 points behind Arsenal and sitting on the 7th spot. Do you think anyone else should have been included in the team? We want to know. Drop those comments below.