Arsenal may hold a comfortable lead at the top of the Premier League table but the north Londoners have just two players in the current Team of the Season.
The Gunners are staggeringly five points ahead of Manchester City, whilst also possessing a game in hand over the Premier League champions, and are on course to end almost two title-less decades.
Missing out on a Champions League spot on the final day of last season, Mikel Arteta has masterminded a sensational resurgence to top the table just past the midway point of the season, boasting the division’s second-most prolific attack and second-meanest defence.
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Aaron Ramsdale, Thomas Partey and Bukayo Saka have all been instrumental in the Gunners’ remarkable turnaround but none of them feature in the Team of the Season so far (TOTSSO), calculated by OLBG based on the total number of points accumulated by players in Premier League Fantasy Football.
Arsenal do have two representatives in William Saliba (93 points) and club captain Martin Odegaard (119 points), but the Gunners have been outshone by Newcastle United, who surprisingly have five stars in the starting XI.
Undergoing a similar revival under Eddie Howe, the plucky Magpies have conceded just 12 Premier League goals since the start of the season and are eyeing a first Champions League campaign since the 2003/04 season – the same season in which Arsenal last won the Premier League.
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As a result, the rest of the defence in the TOTSSO is made up of Newcastle players with Nick Pope (105 points), Dan Burn (89 points), Fabian Schar (99 points) and Kieran Tripper (143 points) all included in the XI.
Alongside Odegaard, Kevin De Bruyne (108 points) and Pascal Gross (93 points) feature. The Brighton and Hove Albion playmaker is the only player outside the current top four in the 11.
Premier League powerhouse Erling Haaland leader at the top end of the pitch having amassed an astonishing 171 points. Marcus Rashford (120 points) and Miguel Almiron, the fifth Newcastle inclusion, (114 points) flank either side of the division’s top scorer.
Premier League Team of the Season: Nick Pope; Kieran Trippier, Fabian Schar, William Salima, Dan Burn; Martin Odegaard, Kevin de Bruyne, Pascal Gross; Miguel Almiron, Erling Haaland, Marcus Rashford
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