RB Nathaniel Clyne: 6
Clyne wasn’t bad but he wasn’t as solid as he usually is. He did well to bottle Christian Eriksen in a general sense, but he was shaky on the ball again. A few misplaced passes and more wayward crosses. We jumped the gun after his assist against Arsenal, I suppose.
Again, I have literally no doubts that he’s fine and will be fine.
LB James Milner: 7
Had Milner not drifted out of position prior to the Tottenham goal, he’d have been Man of the Match. Overall he enjoyed an impressive game, even if you took away the cool, calm and confident penalty.
Milner knew when to step in well, picked his moments getting forward and didn’t make many mistakes other than looking to jump a short pass on the goal that ended up being a ball in behind him. Again, this is what comes with having a midfielder on the backline. But many will be quick to step in and say that Alberto Moreno would have been just as liable to drift out of position and probably much more frequently than Milner.
It really cannot be said enough how impressive it is that he’s even half decent at left back, being on his weaker side, him being on the weaker side of 30 years old as well as his preference to be in central midfield. Milner deserves all the credit in the world.
Next: Central midfielders