Guglielmo Vicario in WhoScored European team of the week | OneFootball

On Sunday afternoon, Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester United 1-0 at home, to secure back to back Premier League wins for the first time since September, and back to back clean sheets for the first time since October 2023, when they beat Luton Town and Fulham.

Although it was not the best collective performance, there were some good individual performances in there. The likes of Djed Spence and James Maddison (even aside from his goal) were really good on the day.

However, the performance of the returning Guglielmo Vicario in the Spurs goal - was the one that has been recognised by WhoScored, with his display so good that the algorithm has stated he was the best goalkeeper across the whole top five leagues last weekend, earning a place in their European team of the week.

The full team reads as; Guglielmo Vicario; Yankuba Minteh, Dayot Upamecano, Kim Min-jae, Aaron Martin; Ethan Nwaneri, Juanlu Sanchez, Ryan Christie, Omar Marmoush; Amine Gouiri, Mika Biereth.

Across the 90 minutes, the Italian goalkeeper made six saves, two punches, and two clearances. One second half save in particular, to deny a low driven Alejandro Garnacho shot towards the near post, was just sublime - showing incredible agility to get down so low, especially as someone who stands at around 6'4 tall. For the final minutes of the game, he took the captains armband from the substituted Heung Min-Son.

It is so typical of Spurs' season that he missed three months of the campaign. Plenty make the argument that Ange's training methods, and high intensity style of play lead to, at least some, of the injuries sustained this season. Whether that is right or wrong, it can not be argued that a goalkeeper requiring ankle surgery is just truly bad luck.

During his time out of the side, Spurs used three other goalkeepers - Fraser Forster, Brandon Austin, and Antonin Kinsky. Three keepers of different ages, and at different stages of their career. Performance wise, Forster and Kinsky had some good and bad moments, whilst Austin did not do much wrong, whilst making one or two impressive saves.

Nevertheless, it is just so good to have Vicario back between the sticks. At 28-years old, for a goalkeeper, his best years should be still to come, which is very exciting. If this is not him at his peak, you can only look forward to how it will look, whilst hoping that it comes in a Tottenham Hotspur shirt.