Premier League - Team of week: Di Michele flops

Eurosport - Mon, 11 May 16:31:00 2009

West Ham striker David Di Michele heads our flops' XI this week after he, and his reputation, took a spectacular dive at Upton Park.

FOOTBALL 2008-2009 Premier League West Ham-Liverpool David Di Michele Jose Reina - 0

HOW IT WORKS

We tot up the marks out of 10 awarded in five national newspapers - The Sun, The Mirror, The Mail, The Times and The Guardian - to create a total out of 50. The top player in each position will be rewarded with a spot in the Team of the Week, while the worst scorers will be named and shamed in our Flops XI.

TEAM OF THE WEEK (4-4-2)

Veteran shotstopper Dean Kiely got the nod to make his first appearance of the season a mere half hour before kick-off at The Hawthorns. But the Irishman did not disappoint Baggies boss Tony Mowbray, putting in a stand-out performance to keep the Latics at bay and earn himself our player of the week accolade. He even found the time to give an injured linesman a helping hand (pictured)!

Joining him on 40 points are strikers Carlos Tevez and Diomansy Kamara, the former making a point to Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson with a goal in the Manchester derby, while the latter netted a brace as Fulham continued their march towards Europe.

Tevez's team-mate Nemanja Vidic lines up at the back in our elite team this week after yet another imperious display at Old Trafford, while Bolton stopper Gary Cahill is flanked by full-backs Phil Bardsley - excellent for Sunderland - and Ashley Cole, who silenced the boo-boys at the Emirates.

In midfield, it comes as no surprise to see Steven Gerrard win a place once again, while Liam Lawrence's screamer for Stoke sees him fill the right hand berth. On the other side Florent Malouda gets the nod after a goalscoring performance in the drubbing of Arsenal.

GK: Dean Kiely (West Brom) - 40

RB: Phil Bardsley (Sunderland) - 35

CB: Nemanja Vidic (Manchester United) - 39

CB: Gary Cahill (Bolton) - 36

LB: Ashley Cole (Chelsea) - 36

RM: Liam Lawrence (Stoke City) - 37

CM: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) - 38

CM: Glenn Whelan (Stoke City) - 39

LM: Florent Malouda (Chelsea) - 36

FW: Carlos Tevez (Manchester United) - 40

FW: Diomansy Kamara (Fulham) - 40

FLOPS OF THE WEEK (4-4-2)

Di Michele takes the title of flop of the week for a poor all-round display against Liverpool, which he capped with a shameful dive (pictured). His club strike partner Diego Tristan did not fare much better, and he joins his pal in our losers XI.

David James dons the gloves once again for another below-par performance for Portsmouth, while three further Pompey players are included following the defeat to Blackburn - Hermann Hreidarsson , Richard Hughes and Nadir Belhadj.

Arsenal are punished for their drubbing at the hands of Chelsea with the selection of four players. Mikael Silvestre, Kolo Toure , Alex Song and Abou Diaby, hang your heads in shame.

Completing the line-up is Tottenham right-back Alan Hutton, who struggled in the goalless draw at Everton.

GK: David James (Portsmouth) - 24

RB: Alan Hutton (Tottenham) - 25

CB: Mikael Silvestre (Arsenal) - 24

CB: Kolo Toure (Arsenal) - 24

LB: Hermann Hreidarsson (Portsmouth) - 25

RM: Richard Hughes (Portsmouth) - 25

CM: Alex Song (Arsenal) - 25

CM: Abou Diaby (Arsenal) - 23

LM: Nadir Belhadj (Portsmouth) - 24

FW: David Di Michele (West Ham) - 19

FW: Diego Tristan (West Ham) - 22

TEAM OF THE SEASON (minimum 18 starts)

This week sees just one change to the team of the season, with Liverpool striker Fernando Torres dislodging Arsenal's Robin van Persie, now the Spaniard has made the required 18 starts.

GK: Shay Given (Manchester City) - 33.77 average

RB: Glen Johnson (Portsmouth) - 32.43

CB: Brede Hangeland (Fulham) - 33.53

CB: Martin Laursen (Aston Villa) - 33.84

LB: Leighton Baines (Everton) - 31.75

RM: Shaun Wright-Phillips (Manchester City) - 33.42

CM: Xabi Alonso (Liverpool) - 34.88

CM: Steven Gerrard (Liverpool) - 35.64

LM: Ashley Young (Aston Villa) - 33.01

FW: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) - 34.96

FW: Fernando Torres (Liverpool) - 35.44

FLOPS OF THE SEASON (minimum 18 starts)

Fulham's Zoltan Gera wasn't exactly poor in Fulham's win over Villa, but with Borja Valero putting in a decent performance for West Brom, the Hungarian takes a place in midfield. Joining him there is Wigan's Charles N'Zogbia who edges out Chris Brunt , after the Baggies midfielder also managed to improve his average this week.

GK: Scott Carson (West Brom) 29.76 average

RB: Andre Ooijer (Blackburn) - 28.66

CB: Carlos Cuellar (Aston Villa) - 28.48

CB: Fabricio Coloccini (Newcastle) - 27.88

LB: Jose Enrique (Newcastle) - 26.67

RM: Keith Andrews (Blackburn) - 28.28

CM: Zoltan Gera (Fulham) - 28.78

CM: Amdy Faye (Stoke City) - 27.47

LM: Charles N'Zogbia (Wigan) - 29.12

FW: Roman Pavlyuchenko (Tottenham) - 27.57

FW: Afonso Alves (Middlesbrough) - 28.00

Eurosport

Comment 37 - 56 of 56

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  1. team of the season

    11111111111111111111111van de­ sar111111111111111111111111111

    bosingwa111111111terry1­ 1111111111vidic11111111111111111111evra

    ronaldo1111111­ 111gerrard111111111lampard11111111111111111barry

    11111­ 11111111111torres1111111111teves11111111111111111111111­ 1

    From modernlifeisworsethenrubbish, on Sun 17 May 3:34PM

  2. N`ZOGBIA BEEN DIFFERENT PLAYER SINCE GOING TO WIGAN­ HE`D BE IN TOP PLAYERS ON POINTS FROM WIGAN GAMES AND­ YOU TOOK THE NEWCASTLE GAMES OFF

    From , on Fri 15 May 8:21PM

  3. koinzell85

    It shows that even Manchester United are­ champion they are not depend on single or more player­ but they are playing as a team and success comes when­ you get toghether and play all around. Did you see them­ when they pull down Tottenham 5-2 after 0-2 down at end­ of the first half. They have hunger of title and they­ do not want to growe up as best player but they want to­ grove like great team.

    after all its all about­ Fergie... He can take any club to the top even­ Newcatsle United if he leave Manchester.

    From Lucky, on Fri 15 May 7:25PM

  4. there are three liverpool player in the team of the­ season with gerrard the highest score....man u got 1 ,­ chelsea and arsenal = 0 ....this show what

    From koinzell85, on Fri 15 May 12:39AM

  5. Strange how there are sooooo many divers in the­ Premiere league I:E Drogba, Ronaldo etc but all they­ talk about is Di Michele...

    From stupot, on Wed 13 May 9:30PM

  6. ashleykeithhall. Your comparing Gerrard to Barry and­ Gallas. Gerrard is not only a much better player, but a­ much much much much MUCH better captain.

    Even if you­ aren't a Liverpool fan, you can't deny that.­ Who would you have as captain of your team: Gerrard,­ Barry, or Gallas?

    The Gerrard incident was not­ football related. Gallas was unable to control himself­ on the pitch. Barry was quite vocal about his dislike­ for the way Villa was treating him. Gerrard is a master­ class on the pitch. The best captain in the world in my­ opinion.

    From Dhritiman, on Wed 13 May 8:05AM
  7. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    48;john g
    Gerrard has only missed a quarter of the­ season because of his off the pitch actions, for him to­ maintain captain is a disgrace, the Liverpool-Barry­ saga last year saw him stripped of captaincy, Gallas­ huffing lost him the armband, yet when Gerrard assaults­ a LIVERPOOL fan he keeps the armband and is hailed by­ bellends like you, what an example..

    From ashleykeithhall, on Tue 12 May 10:33PM

  8. imuregod another set of totally useless braindead­ insulting comments from another success following never­ been to Manchester never mind Old Trafford so called­ Man U fan get a life.

    From john g, on Mon 11 May 10:45PM

  9. wong_spsunway BECAUSE GERRARD HAS MISSED A THIRD OF THE­ SEASON AND HE DOESEN'T DIVE ALL OVER THE PITCH YOU­ MUPPET

    From john g, on Mon 11 May 10:40PM

  10. just because some people play for the 'top­ teams' doesnt mean they should automatically go­ into the team of the season even if they have performed­ well consistently... just shows that all these­ 'fans' of the 'top teams' are blind to­ all else in the Premier League.
    if Ronaldo scored a­ hat-trick with 3 wonderful strikes, you would be raving­ about it for weeks or months, yet if someone else say­ Kevin Davies at Bolton did the same thing, it would­ only be thrown around for a few days or a mere week.

    From andrew, on Mon 11 May 10:19PM
  11. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    dear adamlink2001..... If u took away ronaldo's­ penalty goal, then u should take away gerrard's­ penalty goal too...both players are the penalty takers­ for their respective clubs,and they deserve to take­ their goals in their account.. How about ronaldo's­ free-kicks goal then?? Ronaldo is a very good player,as­ well as gerrard or lampard or rooney.. But at least,­ ronaldo did bring his team to the Champions League­ final and EPL trophy... What did LIVERPOOL achieve from­ gerrard???? do think before u comment... from rasta­ gunners

    From wong_spsunway, on Mon 11 May 6:49PM

  12. this is a big @#$%, no chelsea player in the team of­ the season, even Anelka and Ronaldo who has the highest­ goals scored in the premiership and chelsea the team­ who has conceeded the lowest goal in the EPL not in the­ team of the season, A BIG @#$%

    From sitamiky, on Mon 11 May 6:05PM

  13. Comment No 34 Read the instructions you dimwit

    From Dave, on Mon 11 May 5:09PM

  14. Ronaldo,Lampard and vidic are missing there.How come­ such omission was done,when a superb perfomer like­ Ronaldo,who started the season late at October 2008 but­ still come out as the highest goal scorer,tell me,who­ left him out of that list.Maybe the
    guys are all­ blind.Lets be fair in our judgement,the 3 mentioned­ guys above did work their socks off this season and­ deserve to be recognised.A man United fan that likes­ the players like Gerald,Lampard Farbrigas and Torres­ from other teams.

    From vthemba, on Mon 11 May 4:32PM
  15. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    bloody wanekers. united @#$%

    From B U T T S C R A T C H E R, on Mon 11 May 4:26PM

  16. comment 30 : I agree he's been instrumental in the­ play for us this season and where a mention should be­ due, you can't take it away from Liam. When i saw­ that goal only one word left my mouth, "WoW",­ It was a stunner!!

    From steve p, on Mon 11 May 4:24PM

  17. di michele is probably a stevie gerbil fan and dived as­ an homage to him

    From kok, on Mon 11 May 4:20PM

  18. adamlink you bindipper ronaldo is 3 ahead of stevie­ gerbil and if you take away his penalties as well as­ ronaldos ronaldo will still be in front you dirty­ smelly bindipper

    From kok, on Mon 11 May 4:17PM

  19. Every week when this is published people start, so and­ so should have been in it and what about him and him­ etc. Just read how the list is made up. Daily­ newspapers score players out of 10 for each performance­ of the week. Those scores are then added up and the­ highest score for each postition is in the team. It is­ not anyone's opinion, it is just adding up points­ awarded by 5 newspapers. Right, wrong or indifferent­ that is all it is. Just for information not opinion

    From trouble, on Mon 11 May 4:07PM
  20. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    How Can Ronaldo Not Be In There? Even Though Hes Not­ Been Good As Last Season Hes Still Top Scorer Again

    From r.turker, on Mon 11 May 3:52PM
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