Watford and Crystal Palace dominate our London Team of the Week ahead of Arsenal

Capital gains: Watford have four players in our London Team of the Week
@WhoScored
Sam Long15 December 2015

Arsenal returned to the Premier League summit this weekend, albeit briefly, courtesy of their comfortable 2-0 victory over Aston Villa.

Although Arsene Wenger's side led the pack until Leicester piled more misery on Jose Mourinho to reclaim top spot, the Gunners were still outdone by one of their capital rivals in our London Team of the Week, compiled with WhoScored.com.

Newly-promoted Watford - whose impressive form has dipped under the radar due to the Foxes' exploits - secured their fourth away victory of the campaign at the expense of Sunderland to move up to seventh place in the table.

Quique Sanchez Flores and his side were expected to be little more than relegation fodder this year, but they're knocking on the door of the Europa places after 16 games.

Ian MacNicol/Getty images

Odion Ighalo's prolific form in front of goal has helped the Hornets solidify their place in the top half and he came up trumps at the Stadium of Light once again.

The 26-year-old's winner against the Black Cats was his 10th strike of the season and he leads our front line with a score of 8.30.

The Nigeria international is joined by three of his Watford teammates including Heurelho Gomes, who produced several saves to help his side record a clean sheet against Sam Allardyce's men.

Allan Nyom and Nathan Ake formed half of the Hornets' rearguard for the trip to Wearside and have also claimed a place in our London defence.

The duo are joined by Laurent Koscielny, who excelled at Villa Park, as the north Londoners moved ahead of the pack.

But, perhaps surprisingly, the French centre back is only joined by one of his Arsenal colleagues.

Mesut Ozil has missed out but Aaron Ramsey's performance in a central midfield role was enough to secure a spot at number 10 in our side.

Crystal Palace boast three representatives as match-winner Yohan Cabaye, who netted his fifth goal of the season against Southampton, is joined by Jason Puncehon and Damien Delaney.

Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images

Mauro Zarate is the only West Ham player deemed worthy of place after Slaven Bilic's side recorded a respectable 0-0 draw at home to Stoke.

The final central midfield berth is claimed by Chelsea's Nemanja Matic, who emerged from the Blues' chastening defeat to Leicester with some credit even if the champions as a collective did not.

WhoScored.com player ratings are based on each event recorded in the game calculated live automatically using our own algorithms, which comprise of over 200 raw statistics. All events are valued based on a researched perception of the effect on the outcome of the match. Positive events are valued against negative events.

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