http://football.fanhouse.co.uk/2009/12/31/team-of-the-week-its-wayne-rooney-and-wayne-rooney-in-attack/ said:
Team Of The Week: It's Wayne Rooney and Wayne Rooney in Attack!
With two holiday fixtures from which to compile our Team of the Week, we were always liable to leave ourselves open to freak occurrences.
And so it came to pass when FanHouse experts compiled their Team of the Week from the two sets of Christmas fixtures and found that the unavoidable conclusion was that Wayne Rooney was deserving of TWO starting places in the line-up!
The England striker had a hand in all four goals in Manchester United's 3-1 win over Hull on Sunday, single-handedly willing United on to win the game after he had gifted the home team their equaliser. And Rooney carried that form directly into the 5-0 victory over Wigan over Hull three days later.
There is the unavoidable conclusion that he is heading towards the best season of his career so take your pick from either game when reviewing our team.
Thankfully, for commonsense at least, there was another nine-star performance out there, from Rooney's former team mate Carlos Tevez at Manchester City, although not for his two-goal showing against Wolves but, rather, for his tireless role, and goal, in the 2-0 win over Stoke on Boxing Day.
There were five more nine out of 10 showings over the week. Starting in goal, Joe Hart's clean sheet against Chelsea had him being tipped for a place in England's World Cup squad and just sees him edge out Jose Reina for no other reason than the Birmingham keeper seemed to make more high-quality stops than his Liverpool counterpart.
Stephen Hunt, of Hull, was an inspiration in his team's battling 2-2 draw, from two goals down, at Bolton on Tuesday while Cesc Fabregas's display against Aston Villa may have come at a cost for Arsenal (in terms of his fitness) but was still a virtuoso performance of breathtaking quality.
Finally, for those players on a nine, Richard Dunne, no stranger to these FanHouse teams, managed to keep Liverpool quiet for 93 minutes with a commanding display at the heart of the Villa defence until his team conceded a late winner.
The rest of the defence was a tough selection, with Fulham's John Pantsil just edging out Dunne's Villa team mate Luke Young in the right-back berth, following the London club's plucky display against Chelsea on Monday. Chelsea also brought the best out of Birmingham centre-half Roger Johnson in that goalless draw between the clubs two days earlier.
And Patrice Evra, Manchester United's only recognised defender in the last handful of games, remained imperious at left-back in his team's win at Hull although having Wes Brown and Nemanja Vidic back alongside him surely helped.
Numerous players were competing for places alongside Hunt and Fabregas in our midfield this week but the panel of experts picked out Marouane Fellaini, a late scorer in injury-hit Everton's decent point at Sunderland, and Aaron Lennon, a tormentor of West Ham down Tottenham's right wing, to complete the line- p. Here's our Team of the Week in full:
Goalkeeper: Joe Hart (Birmingham) - FanHouse score 9
Right back: John Pantsil (Fulham) - FanHouse score 8
Centre back: Roger Johnson (Birmingham) - FanHouse score 8
Centre back: Richard Dunne (Aston Villa) - FanHouse score 9
Left back: Patrice Evra (Manchester United) - FanHouse score 8
Right midfield: Aaron Lennon (Tottenham) - FanHouse score 8
Centre midfield: Marouane Fellaini (Everton) - FanHouse score 8
Centre midfield: Cesc Fabregas (Arsenal) - FanHouse score 9
Left midfield: Stephen Hunt (Hull) - FanHouse score 9
Striker: Carlos Tevez (Manchester City) - FanHouse score 9
Striker: Wayne Rooney (Manchester United) - FanHouse score 9