Aston Villa sneak into Premier League team of the week dominated by Liverpool and Chelsea

The third-to-last full weekend of the 2023/24 Premier League season has come to a close and there has been some movement in key battles, albeit not at the top.

Arsenal and Manchester City retained their five and four-point buffers to Liverpool with dominant victories over AFC Bournemouth and Wolverhampton Wanderers respectively. The Gunners are in the lead but only by one point, perhaps not enough as City still have a game in hand.

Liverpool swept aside Tottenham Hotspur by four goals to two at Anfield on Sunday afternoon, a result that will have been cheered by Aston Villa. Unai Emery’s side were beaten 1-0 by Brighton & Hove Albion earlier in the day but Tottenham’s defeat means the seven-point gap remains in the top-four fight.

At the foot of the standings, Nottingham Forest earned a vital win in the relegation battle, beating Sheffield United away from home to move three points clear of the drop zone, ahead of Luton Town. It would take a sensational effort from the Hatters to survive now.

Chelsea ran out the biggest victors of the weekend, thrashing London rivals West Ham United by five goals to nil at Stamford Bridge. Other results included Brentford 0-0 Fulham and Burnley 1-4 Newcastle United.

With so many players impressing across the nine fixtures so far, it’s hard to pick just 11 to form a team of the week but WhoScored’s rating system does the hard yards for us. Without further ado, here’s how the third-to-final XI of the campaign shapes up.