There were enough ridiculous attacking performances across Europe this week that scoring a hat trick did not even guarantee Player of the Week.
Michael Olise scored three and added an assist as Bayern put seven past Union Berlin. Brian Brobbey scored three times at the Etihad. Manu Koné and Lautaro Martínez traded braces in one of the best games of the weekend.
Then there was Raphinha, who apparently decided one hat trick was insufficient.
Barcelona’s captain scored three against Racing Santander on Wednesday and another three against Sevilla on Saturday, giving him six goals in four days and making the Player of the Week decision considerably easier than it otherwise would have been.
The Best XI lines up in a 3-4-1-2, with Atlético Madrid supplying three players after a week that included a 4-0 win over Osasuna and, much more importantly, a 2-1 victory over Real Madrid in the derby.
Player of the Week: Raphinha, Barcelona
This is getting a little ridiculous.
Raphinha began the week by scoring a hat trick as Barcelona demolished Racing Santander 7-2. Two came from the penalty spot, but the larger story was another game in which Barcelona’s makeshift striker kept finding himself exactly where the goals were.
Three days later, he did it again.
Sevilla actually gave Barcelona some problems and took the lead after 18 minutes. Raphinha equalized four minutes later, scored again after halftime and completed a perfect hat trick with goals from his right foot, left foot and head as Barcelona won 3-1.
That gives him six goals in two games, back-to-back La Liga hat tricks and 14 goals in eight appearances across all competitions this season. Barcelona has spent the opening month of the season answering the question of whether it really needs a traditional center forward by simply moving Raphinha there and watching him score at an absurd rate.
The goals are not coming because he suddenly turned into a conventional No. 9. He still drifts away from the center backs, makes diagonal runs from wider starting positions and combines with Yamal and the midfielders. The difference is that those movements now consistently end with him arriving in scoring positions.
Olise and Brobbey had Player of the Week-type performances.
Raphinha had two of them.
Goalkeeper: Alisson, Liverpool
This was not a week overflowing with spectacular goalkeeper performances, but Alisson did exactly what Liverpool needed in a difficult 1-0 road win at Bournemouth.
Bournemouth made Liverpool work considerably harder than the score might imply, and Alisson’s best moment came in the first half when he denied Evanilson to preserve the clean sheet before Alexander Isak eventually found the winner after halftime. He finished with two saves and Liverpool recorded its third consecutive Premier League shutout.
Liverpool’s defensive improvement under Andoni Iraola has reduced the number of emergency situations Alisson is asked to solve, which is probably a good thing. He remains extremely useful when one appears.
Against Bournemouth, one did.
He stopped it.
Right Center Back: Jannik Schuster, Brentford
Brentford’s 3-0 win over Chelsea was one of the most impressive results of the Premier League weekend, and 20-year-old Jannik Schuster was at the center of it.
Schuster helped Brentford keep a clean sheet against a Chelsea attack that entered the game scoring freely, producing 12 clearances, three blocked shots and three aerial wins. He also contributed at the other end, heading a corner back across goal for Jaidon Anthony to score the opener.
The goal contribution was a bonus. What earned him this spot was how comfortable he looked dealing with the physical demands of the matchup. Chelsea never consistently pulled Brentford’s back line apart, and Schuster handled Danny Welbeck while repeatedly cleaning up balls into the penalty area.
Brentford already looks pretty smart for adding him from Salzburg.
Center Back: Gleison Bremer, Juventus
Bremer’s week consisted mostly of making sure Juventus did not concede and then scoring one himself.
He came on for the final half hour of Thursday’s 5-0 Europa League win over NEC, helping finish off the first of two clean sheets. He returned to the starting lineup Sunday against a considerably more dangerous Atalanta team and anchored another shutout.
Then, in the 77th minute, he finished the game.
Edon Zhegrova whipped a corner toward the near post and Bremer powered above the defense to head in Juventus’ second goal in a 2-0 win.
Juventus has been uneven early in the season, but this was a much more convincing defensive performance against an Atalanta team capable of causing problems. Bremer remains the defender around whom everything makes the most sense.
Two appearances. Two clean sheets. One goal.
Easy inclusion.
Left Center Back: Dávid Hancko, Atlético Madrid
Hancko only played the closing minutes of Atlético’s 4-0 midweek win over Osasuna, so his selection comes largely from what he did Sunday.
Atlético went into the Madrid derby needing a result to keep pace with Barcelona and produced a 2-1 victory in which Real Madrid generated very little danger for most of the afternoon. Madrid finished with just eight shots and 0.32 expected goals despite chasing the game in the second half. Hancko was one of Atlético’s strongest defenders and completed the full 90 minutes.
He also helped create the decisive turning point. Just after halftime, Hancko recognized Giuliano Simeone’s run and played him through into the penalty area. Dean Huijsen brought Simeone down, conceding the penalty and receiving a red card after VAR review. Grimaldo converted, and Atlético controlled most of what remained.
That is exactly the sort of contribution modern center backs are increasingly expected to provide. Hancko defended well, but he also recognized the moment to break Madrid’s shape with one aggressive forward pass.
Right Midfield: Giuliano Simeone, Atlético Madrid
Giuliano was only a late substitute against Osasuna on Wednesday. He made considerably better use of his opportunity Sunday.
Simeone’s relentless running has always made him useful, but there are fair questions about whether enough end product accompanies all that activity. Against Real Madrid, it did.
Early in the second half he exploded behind Madrid’s defensive line onto Hancko’s pass, forcing Huijsen into the foul that produced both the opening penalty and the defender’s red card. A few minutes later he created Atlético’s second goal, finding Jonathan David for the finish.
So in roughly ten minutes after halftime, Simeone essentially broke the derby open.
There are prettier players in Atlético’s attack. There are better passers and cleaner dribblers. Sometimes relentlessly attacking the space behind a defender until he makes a mistake works just fine too.
Central Midfield: Pascal Groß, Brighton
Brighton did not merely hand Arsenal its first Premier League loss of the season. They beat the defending champions 3-0, and the score arguably undersold how uncomfortable they made Arsenal.
Pascal Groß was at the center of it.
The 35-year-old opened the scoring after 31 minutes with a strike from distance, then delivered the corner Chema Andrés headed home for Brighton’s third. He finished with a goal and an assist while helping Brighton repeatedly turn Arsenal turnovers into dangerous attacks.
Groß has never been the type of midfielder whose value depends on athletic dominance. He finds spaces, moves the ball quickly and has enough technical quality to punish teams when they lose their defensive organization.
Against one of the best midfields in Europe, he did all of those things. He now has three goals and three assists in his last four league starts.
Apparently 35 is the new 28.
Central Midfield: Manu Koné, Roma
The Roma-Inter match created an unusual situation where two players from opposite teams both had undeniable Team of the Week cases.
Koné owned the first half.
He opened the scoring after only six minutes, arriving in the penalty area to finish a move created by Paulo Dybala and Nahuel Molina. Before halftime he did it again, taking advantage of another Dybala delivery to put Roma up 2-0.
It was the first brace of Koné’s senior career, and both goals demonstrated something increasingly important about his development.
He has always had the physical ability to carry the ball, defend large areas and win midfield duels. Adding well-timed runs into the box gives Roma another attacking weapon without sacrificing the characteristics that make him useful deeper in midfield.
Inter’s second-half comeback prevented it from becoming a perfect night. The first 45 minutes were still more than enough to make this team.
Left Midfield: Kang-in Lee, Atlético Madrid
Kang-in’s best performance actually came in the less glamorous of Atlético’s two games.
Against Osasuna on Wednesday, he was the best player on the field. Lee scored Atlético’s second goal in the 4-0 win, attempted six shots with four on target and created three chances while completing the full 90 minutes for the first time since joining the club. He repeatedly drifted inside from the left, combining around the penalty area rather than simply staying attached to the sideline.
The derby was less spectacular statistically, but he again played nearly the entire game as Atlético beat Madrid 2-1.
There is one caveat. Lee was fortunate to remain on the field after a heavy challenge on Federico Valverde, an incident Spain’s refereeing committee reportedly believed should have resulted in a red card.
That does not erase the rest of the week, especially the Osasuna performance.
Atlético signed Lee because Griezmann’s departure left them searching for another technical attacker capable of connecting midfield possession to the front line. Performances like Wednesday’s show why the idea made sense.
Attacking Midfield: Michael Olise, Bayern Munich
In almost any normal week, Michael Olise would be the Player of the Week.
Bayern destroyed Union Berlin 7-0 and Olise finished with three goals and an assist.
He scored Bayern’s third just before halftime, created Harry Kane’s second shortly after the break and then scored twice in three minutes late in the match to complete the hat trick. The first of those late goals was probably the prettiest of the bunch, with Olise racing onto Tom Bischof’s pass behind the defense, rounding the goalkeeper and finishing in off the post. Three minutes later, he completed the hat trick with a curling strike into the top corner.
Union was overwhelmed by that point, but Olise helped create the conditions that overwhelmed them.
Bayern already had Kane, Musiala and Luis Díaz occupying defenders. Olise continually found the extra pocket on the right, either receiving between lines or moving inside while the fullback provided width.
Three goals and an assist usually wins the headline. Raphinha somehow scored six.
Striker: Lautaro Martínez, Inter Milan
Inter went into halftime at Roma trailing 2-0. Lautaro Martínez needed about 30 seconds after the restart to change the game.
Marcus Thuram broke down the left and found Lautaro in the middle, where the Inter captain finished first time to cut the deficit in half. Then, with 11 minutes remaining, Lautaro reacted quickest to another loose sequence inside the Roma box and turned the ball past Mile Svilar for the equalizer.
This was more than two goals accumulated in a comfortable win. Inter was facing another unbeaten title contender, away from home, down two goals. Lautaro dragged them back into the match.
There are strikers who become less visible when their team struggles to control possession. Lautaro tends to become more important.
Striker: Brian Brobbey, Sunderland
Brobbey’s midweek contribution was modest. He came off the bench for the final 23 minutes as Sunderland beat AZ Alkmaar 1-0 in its first European match in 53 years without getting onto the scoresheet.
Sunday was slightly different.
Sunderland went to the Etihad and lost 5-3 to Manchester City. Brobbey scored all three.
His first came only three minutes after City had taken the lead, taking Enzo Le Fée’s pass in stride and finishing with the outside of his foot. He scored again in the 33rd minute and completed the hat trick shortly before the hour as Sunderland somehow kept answering a City team that looked ready to pull away.
Scoring three times and losing is obviously not the ideal striker experience, but doing it away against Manchester City is still one of the best individual performances of the week.
Brobbey’s physicality caused City problems all afternoon. He could occupy the center backs, protect direct passes and then still make the movements required to get into the box.
City eventually overwhelmed Sunderland at the other end. They never really solved Brobbey.
Team of the Week
GK: Alisson, Liverpool
RCB: Jannik Schuster, Brentford
CB: Gleison Bremer, Juventus
LCB: Dávid Hancko, Atlético Madrid
RM: Giuliano Simeone, Atlético Madrid
CM: Pascal Groß, Brighton
CM: Manu Koné, Roma
LM: Kang-in Lee, Atlético Madrid
AM: Michael Olise, Bayern Munich
ST: Lautaro Martínez, Inter Milan
ST: Brian Brobbey, Sunderland
Player of the Week: Raphinha, Barcelona