In a week in which the Arsenal goalkeeper situation was in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons, Manuel Almunia shrugged off the pressure with a solid display - and a clean sheet - in his team's weekend win over Sunderland.That was enough to earn Almunia a place in our Team of the Week, the best XI as voted for by FanHouse experts at all the weekend's games.
Even allowing for Sunderland's wretched run of form, it was an impressive enough performance from the Gunners as they bounced back from their midweek Champions League disappointments and full-back Emmanuel Eboue was the pick from a solid defensive display from Arsene Wenger's side.
Just below Arsenal in the Premier League table, the big game of the weekend in the battle for fourth place saw Liverpool travel to Manchester City for a desperately dour goalless draw. Neither team showed any adventure going forward but at least part of the reason for that was the quality of the defending on view. City's Vincent Kompany and Martin Skrtel of Liverpool were the pick of the eight defenders on show at the heart of their respective defences.
The TOTW is rounded off by the presence - for a second week running - of Tottenham left-back Gareth Bale, who beat out strong performances from Wigan's Maynor Figueroa and Nadir Belhadj of Portsmouth.
There were many contenders for the central midfield berths this weekend although Leon Osman's role in the most eye-catching result of the weekend - Everton's 3-1 humbling of Manchester United - made him an easy choice. And Wilson Palacios was the kingpin in Tottenham's easy 3-0 win over Wigan and merited a nine out of ten ranking.
For the second week running, a wide Fulham player turned in a great performance to make TOTW, although this time it was Republic of Ireland international Damien Duff - not Simon Davies - who made the line-up following his performance against Birmingham.
Meanwhile, the other winger position is filled by Morten Gamst Pedersen of Blackburn who is starting to show glimpses of the sort of ability that made him one of the Premier League's most talked-about emerging players three or four years ago.
Finally, in attack, there is a very familiar name partnered by a not-so-familiar one. Didier Drogba is in the midst of what may well prove to be a player-of-the-year standard season and his performance at Wolves was very much in keeping with that. Blackburn's Nikola Kalinic, in contrast, has had a much tougher campaign, plagued by injury. However, the Croatia striker was on the mark in his team's romp against Bolton as he claimed only his second league goal of the season.
Goalkeeper: Manuel Almunia (Arsenal) - FanHouse score 8
Right back: Emmanuel Eboue (Arsenal) - FanHouse score 9
Centre back: Vincent Kompany (Man City) - FanHouse score 8
Centre back: Martin Skrtel (Liverpool) - FanHouse score 9
Left back: Gareth Bale (Tottenham) - FanHouse score 8
Right midfield: Damien Duff (Fulham) - FanHouse score 9
Centre midfield: Wilson Palacios (Tottenham) - FanHouse score 8
Centre midfield: Leon Osman (Everton) - FanHouse score 8
Left midfield: Morten-Gamst Pedersen (Blackburn) - FanHouse score 8
Striker: Didier Drogba (Chelsea) - FanHouse score 9
Striker: Nikola Kalinic (Blackburn) - FanHouse score 8
