Premier League Team of the Week: Andy Carroll makes first appearance of the season while Scholes, Bale & Modric star

The Liverpool striker was on target against Wolves on Tuesday, and is partnered up front by Sunderland striker Fraizer Campbell, who returned to Premier League action on Wednesday

2 Feb 2012 07:41:00

More On :  Chelsea FC, Liverpool, Manchester United, Newcastle United, Sunderland, Tottenham, Andy Carroll, José Bosingwa, Gareth Bale, Paul Scholes, Tim Krul, Luka Modric
EPL: Andy Carroll, Wolverhampton v Liverpool
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Liverpool striker Andy Carroll makes his first TOTW appearance this season after his goalscoring exploits in Tuesday’s 3-0 victory over Wolves.

The 23-year-old forward’s second-half strike sent Kenny Dalglish’s side en route to a key away win, while Manchester United midfielder Paul Scholes also features after guiding the Red Devils to a 2-0 victory over Stoke City at Old Trafford.

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The home win saw Sir Alex Ferguson’s side draw level on points with Manchester City, and not one player from Roberto Mancini’s makes the cut this week following their 1-0 defeat to Everton.

Tottenham duo Gareth Bale and Luka Modric feature in midfield, with the Welshman grabbing a brace either side of the Croatian’s effort in the 3-1 win over Wigan at White Hart Lane, which sees Spurs pull just five points behind the Manchester sides at the top of the table.

Swansea’s Nathan Dyer completes our midfield with his third TOTW appearance following the 1-1 draw with Chelsea, as team-mate Scott Sinclair, Aston Villa goalscorer Charles N’Zogbia and Liverpool’s Charlie Adam all just miss the cut.

In defence, Jose Bosingwa is rewarded for his performance at the Liberty Stadium. The Portuguese right-back provided the main thrust of Andre Villas-Boas’ side’s attacking threat and forced a late equaliser at the Liberty Stadium, while the Swans’ Ashley Williams lines up at centre-back.

Spurs’ Younes Kaboul partners the 27-year-old in defence, while Newcastle United left-back Davide Santon makes his TOTW debut following an impressive showing in the 2-0 victory over Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday.

Magpies keeper Tim Krul features in goal following his penalty save from David Dunn at Ewood Park, while Fraizer Campbell is included on his first Premier League start since August 2010 following a superb goal in Sunderland’s 3-0 victory over Norwich.

Honourable mentions go to Ledley King, who helped Spurs cement their third place position, as well as Darron Gibson after his winning goal for Everton against Manchester City.  Craig Bellamy once again put in a sterling performance for Liverpool, but the Welshman just misses out on our best XI.


KRUL
NEWCASTLE
vs Blackburn (A)
 Player Rating: 8
 TOTW Apps: 3

BOSINGWA KABOUL WILLIAMS
 SANTON
CHELSEA
 TOTTENHAM
 SWANSEA
 NEWCASTLE
vs Swansea (A) vs Wigan (H) vs Chelsea (H)
 vs Blackburn (A)
 Player Rating: 6.5
 Player Rating: 7.5
 Player Rating: 7.5
 Player Rating: 6.5
TOTW Apps: 2
 TOTW Apps: 3
 TOTW Apps: 1
 TOTW Apps: 1

DYER SCHOLES MODRIC
 BALE
SWANSEA
 MAN UNITED
 TOTTENHAM
 TOTTENHAM
vs Chelsea (H) vs Stoke (H) vs Wigan (H)
 vs Wigan (H)
 Player Rating: 8
 Player Rating: 8
 Player Rating: 8.5
 Player Rating: 8.5
TOTW Apps: 3
 TOTW Apps: 1
 TOTW Apps: 5
 TOTW Apps: 6


CAMPBELL CARROLL


 
 SUNDERLAND
 LIVERPOOL
 
 vs Norwich (H) vs Wolves (A)
 
 Player Rating: 8
 Player Rating: 8

TOTW Apps: 1
 TOTW Apps: 1

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Live!
England 1-0 Belgium, Netherlands 4-0 Northern Ireland - follow all the international action LIVE! ahead of Euro 2012
With countries across the continent gearing up for their final warm-up games ahead of Euro 2012, join us for all the action from Saturday's friendlies. Get in touch with us via Twitter with your reaction.

Hosted by Joe Doyle
19:59 BST
Unfortunately for Northern Ireland, they are trailing the Netherlands 4-0 at half-time. Looks like that one's all sewn up then.
19:54 BST
We're still getting plenty of Hazard chat on Twitter. A few are now saying that he's not worth the hype, others saying he was brilliant(!?) and others (which I agree with), saying he created much of his own hype. What do you think? Get involved!
19:46 BST
Joe Hart has also been giving his thoughts after the Belgium game: "It was a really tough game, a good run out. I thought we played well, [but] we were a little bit bitty at times.

"But, we came through. Obviously there were a lot of changes so it's good to get the result.

"Belgium are a very, very strong side who are going to be really good in the future. Vincent [Kompany] told me about them and said that they were coming good and I totally agree with him."
19:38 BST
Here's Roy Hodgson's reaction to the result and some injury chat: "I'm very pleased, it's been a hard week and we've used a lot of players. There was a lot of disruption in the second-half with substitutions – some forced upon us, some we wanted to do. But it's still a very good end to the week playing against a good Belgian team here. Arguably even stronger than the Norwegian team we played last week and I've got to be more than happy that we've come out with another victory."

"[Gary] Cahill I suppose is slightly more of a concern for me because it is a jaw injury. We're desperately hoping the CT scan doesn't show any fracture and it's just going to be a bruising situation, which will be bad enough, but won't stop him taking part in the tournament. As far as John's [Terry] concerned he felt his hamstring a little bit. Again it wasn't a major thing when he came off but we still need to scan it just to be 100 per cent sure."

Suffice to say, if Cahill has broken his jaw, he won't play any part in the tournament.
19:35 BST
And another point from today: Eden Hazard wasn't great. Don't think you can judge him on one performance though. What do you think? Is it just a case of too much hype around the Chelsea-bound Belgian?
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