🦁 Premier League Player of the Week: Good things come in threes | OneFootball

After another brilliant weekend of Premier League action, we now pause for the international break.

But before we do, it's time to reveal our Player of the Week ...

Evan Ferguson (Brighton)

It was a weekend of hat-tricks in England’s top flight.

Erling Haaland bagged his fifth in a Manchester City shirt in their win over Fulham, while Tottenham captain Son Heung-min also took home the match ball from his side’s victory at Burnley.

But it was the first Premier League hat-trick for one young man which caught the eye the most.

Evan Ferguson has now made 24 Premier League appearances in his short career but even among Brighton’s jewellery box full of gems, the 18-year-old Irishman stands out as an exceptional prospect with an incredibly bright future ahead of him.

His three goals in Saturday’s victory over Newcastle took his tally to 10 in the Premier League, and he averages a Premier League goal roughly every 117 minutes at the moment.

But it’s the way he carries himself that’s currently more impressive than his scoring output. At 1.88m (or 6'2'' in old money) he’s a big strong lad, but there’s a deftness to his touch and an explosiveness that you don’t always get with players of his size.

Comparisons with Haaland are not flattering. In fact, you could argue he’s already a better technical footballer than the Norwegian.

His first goal on Saturday was very Haaland-esque, when a shot was spilled by Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope and Ferguson was lurking on the edge of the six-yard box to tuck home.

The second was the pick of the bunch and the kind Haaland rarely scores. Ferguson received a pass, turned into space and from 30-yards curled a beautiful effort past Pope, which bounced on the goal-line before nestling into the corner.

And sure, his third goal was aided by a heavy deflection, but it was a well struck left-footed shot all the same and showed that he’s more than just a sweet right foot.

It won’t be long before bigger clubs start circling around Ferguson, and in the current market he’s surely going to move for north of £100m when he eventually does leave the Seagulls.

But there is a humility to his personality that he will do well to cling onto. He comes from solid football stock with his father Barry being a former well-respected professional in the League of Ireland and England’s Football League, and Evan spoke after Saturday’s game about his dad’s quiet influence on him in his younger days.

“My dad was one of them who would be standing in the corner with his jacket and the hood up saying nothing, but that helped me,” he said.

“If I did need anything I could go over and talk to him because he would know what he was talking about, but he never put any pressure on me.“

And the fact Evan’s mother is English means he could still elect to play for England, despite having already earned six senior caps for the Republic of Ireland.

By all accounts he only wants to play for his country of birth and he is in the Ireland squad for the upcoming Euro 2024 qualifiers against France and the Netherlands. FIFA rules dictate that he only needs to make one more competitive appearance for the Boys In Green before his allegiance will be officially set in stone.

Whether you’re Irish, a Brighton fan or just an admirer of good football, it’s impossible not to be excited by Ferguson’s potential. He is at a club who will only help with his development, and Saturday’s hat-trick was merely a tantalising taste of things to come.