Tuesday team 3: 09/12-15/12/2014

I somehow found myself in the company of others this week, meaning I didn't have enough time to watch an excessive amount of football. So I picked a team from just 4 games:

Crystal Palace 1-1 Stoke City (13/12/2014)
Arsenal 4-1 Newcastle United (13/12/2014)
Cruz Azul 3-1 Western Sydney Wanderers (13/12/2014)
ChievoVerona 0-2 Internazionale (15/12/2014)

Inter provided me with a goalkeeper and a defender. Samir Handanovic was competent enough to keep out Chievo's ventures forward, whilst Yuto Nagatomo pressed high up the other end of the pitch, and it was his cross that ended up at the feet of Mateo Kovacic for Inter's opener.

Arsenal provide four players, Hector Bellerin at right-back looking very confident in the win against Newcastle that I didn't end up writing about. Up front, Danny Welbeck could have had a few goals; if only he'd been as clinical as Olivier Giroud. As a side note, I think the singing of his surname to the tune of 'Hey Jude' is one of the most irritating chants in football - especially when other clubs use the same idea, except, rather than inserting the name of a player which rhymes with 'Jude', instead they sing something like 'Palace'. I hate that. Oh, and Santi Cazorla was also good.

On the other wing, Palace's Yannick Bolasie keeps his place, thanks to him tearing Stoke apart. He set up Palace's goal, a James McArthur header, in another game I saw (went to, even), but didn't end up writing about. Brede Hangeland also impressed me. Although Peter Crouch's equaliser was far too easy for him, thanks to the Palace defence's awful 'marking', generally Hangeland looked capable. At times this season, he has looked woefully off the pace, but on Saturday he was strong and often first to the ball.

Finally, three players from the world of watersports. Between Matthew Spiranovic (Western Sydney Wanderers), Gerardo Torrado, and Carlos Gimenez (Cruz Azul), not a single game of football was played. Morocco's Club World Cup quarter final was instead contested in a swimming pool, between the waterpolo champions of Asia and CONMEBOL. Adding to the general bizarreness of things, Matthew Spiranovic was sent off, but I thought he was generally quite good at throwing the ball up in the air and punching it. Gimenez was by far the most capable-looking poloist, and Torrado's two penalties were scored with the sort of composure that belies previous experience in this event.

Subs: McArthur (Crystal Palace), Guarin (Inter Milan), Kovacic (Inter Milan), Crouch (Stoke City), Water-Logged Pitch in Morocco.