The best and worst of African players abroad

Too Good: Trezeguet

Having failed to score in the Premier League since early December, the stars finally aligned for the Egypt star in Aston Villa’s 2-0 success over out-of-form Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Trezeguet scored not one but two against the London outfit, with his first coming on the stroke of half-time while his brace came just before the hour.

It was Villa’s first win in 11 league games (their last victory came against Watford in January) but it, oddly, came on a weekend where every side from 16th to 19th all picked up victories.

The upshot of Sunday’s success means that it’s 'as you were' for Dean Smith’s side who remain 19th, four points from safety with three games to play.

Too Bad: Nicolas Pepe

The Ivorian winger returned to the starting line-up for Arsenal’s trip to Tottenham Hotspur but failed to show anywhere near his best at the home of the Gunners' fierce rivals.

Mikel Arteta’s men lost 2-1 in the 200th North London derby, and the ex-Lille attacker was replaced by Bukayo Saka with 20 minutes of normal time to play.

In truth, it was surprising he lasted that long despite underwhelming, and a few supporters questioned the Gunners' boss for not starting Saka from the off.

Arsenal have now failed to win in two games, jeopardising their chances of ending in the Europa League spots.

Too Good: Said Benrahma

The unstoppable Algerian was at the double in Brentford’s 3-1 win over Derby County on Saturday, which leaves them three points behind West Bromwich Albion who dropped points at Blackburn Rovers.

Benrahma is now up to 17 goals in the Championship this season and 25 goal contributions in total (two behind teammate Ollie Watkins’ 27) after an exemplary campaign.

With Brentford seemingly impossible to stop right now, Thomas Frank will want his side to continue their seven-game winning run as they seek to rein the Baggies in for that automatic promotion spot.

Too Bad: Younes Belhanda

Galatasaray’s poor run since the Super Lig’s restart continued on Sunday as they suffered an embarrassing 1-0 defeat by Ankaragucu.

Belhanda wasn’t convincing till his substitution in the 77th-minute, losing so many duels and failing to complete a few of his attempted dribbles.

The Algerian also missed the Yellow-Reds’ best opportunity at Eryaman Stadyumu, thus inflicting last year’s champions' eight loss of the campaign.

Fatih Terim’s troops have now failed to win their last eight matches in the league, with three successive losses leaving them in fifth outside the European spots.

Too Good: Thomas Partey

In truth, Atletico Madrid should have won by a higher margin than the eventual 1-0 win against Real Betis on Saturday night.

They got the win eventually, despite being down to 10 men, and Partey was imperious in the middle of the park, winning six of seven duels all match.

In addition, the Ghanaian’s reading of the game was second to none, while he was strong in the tackle, too (four interceptions and three completed tackles).

Atleti’s victory means they’ll be competing in next season’s Champions League, and their run after the restart was impeccable especially as their top four hopes seemed under threat before the lockdown.

Too Bad: Yves Bissouma

Brighton & Hove Albion were thrashed 5-0 by Manchester City on Saturday and Bissouma was particularly disappointing.

The Malian midfielder was off the pace and struggled to get to grips with the pace of the game, failing to win a plethora of his duels (losing nine of 12) and committed a horde of fouls (four).

Brighton weren’t expected to win, but their showing was extremely poor, considering they gave as good as they got against Liverpool a few days earlier.