All good things must come to an end eventually. While Jamie Vardy’s incredible goal scoring streak finally found its end over the weekend, it wasn’t enough to slow down Leicester City as they put together an impressive 3-0 win over Swansea City to maintain their position atop the table. Vardy couldn’t find the back of the net on his three shots but he did record an assist to extend his point streak. Meanwhile, it was a different Leicester players who stepped up in a big way. Here is a look back at the top individual performances by position from this past weekend in the Premier League.
GK: Arthur Boruc, Bournemouth
Leicester’s rise isn’t the only impressive story early on this season as Bournemouth has exceeded expectations as well. They recorded another impressive three points with a 1-0 win over Chelsea on Saturday and now have 13 points. While that ties them with Newcastle for the last relegation spot, the interesting news is that they’ve moved up to two behind Chelsea. The defending Premier League champions have been an absolute mess this season but they did force Boruc to make seven saves for the clean sheet win. Bournemouth had given up a whopping 30 goals in their first 14 games but Boruc’s perfect effort against Chelsea gives him the top goaltending performance from this past weekend. Honorable Mention: Jack Butland, Stoke City; Kasper Schmeichel, Leicester
D: Steve Cook, Bournemouth
The clean sheet definitely helped but Cook was all over the field for Bournemouth in their 1-0 win. He did just enough defensively to edge out his partner Adam Smith and West Ham’s Winston Reid for the best defender performance of the week in a relatively quiet week at the position. Honorable Mention: Adam Smith, Bournemouth; Winston Reid, West Ham
M: Riyad Mahrez, Leicester
Mahrez absolutely stole the show for Leicester this week with three goals on five shots to pace them to another lopsided win. There is no doubt that Leicester can no longer be overlooked as Premier League contenders. While Vardy has been the star of the show so far this season, it was Mahrez who stepped up with the most dominant fantasy performance for them this past weekend. This team is very competent at the offensive end and you have to be investing in their weapons each and every week. Their 32 goals actually paces the EPL and breaks down to a 2.1 per game average.
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M: Marko Arnautovic, Stoke City
Stoke City’s 2-0 win over Manchester City helped Leicester pull away at the top of the table and it was another top midfielder that made the difference for them in that game. Arnautovic scored both goals with five shots in the victory. Arnautovic almost doubled his goal total for the season and is now up to five in 14 games this season. Honorable Mention: Aaron Ramsey, Arsenal; Xherdan Shaqiri, Stoke City; Bamidele Alli, Tottenham
F: Troy Deeney, Watford
It isn’t every week that two Watford forwards combine to earn top fantasy honors at their position – especially since they’ve only scored 17 goals on the season – but Deeny and Odion Ighalo were impressive in a 2-0 win over Norwich City. Deeney scored the game-winning goal on a penalty kick in the 30th minute and then added an assist on Ighalo’s strike in extra time to clinch top honors. Watford has now moved up to 10th place in the table.
F: Odion Ighalo, Watford
Ighalo netted his ninth goal in 15 Premier League games this season but he certainly could have had more as he finished the match with six shots on target. He’s now scored more than half of Watford’s goals this season. His performance helped him edge out Vardy, Glenn Murray and Olivier Giroud for the second-best fantasy score among Premier League forwards from this past weekend. Honorable Mention: Glenn Murray, Bournemouth; Jamie Vardy, Leicester; Olivier Giroud, Arsenal
