Aside from seeing Rangers struggle, there's not much that seems to please Chris Sutton, one of the more active and notoriously opinionated pundits around.
That's not a complaint, by the way, and any regular readers of Balls.ie will know we're fans of the former Celtic and Blackburn striker and his clear desire to wind up whichever pundit he is working alongside, so when the man himself picked his Premier League team fo the season so far for BT Sport Score, we were pleasantly surprised to see an Irishman included.
Shane Duffy has been monumental for Ireland over the past 12 months, but he's been absolutely terrific for Brighton & Hove Albion too which has seen him attract the attention of Jamie Carragher in the MNF studio and Jermaine Jenas on MOTD, and now another pundit has recognised the outstanding efforts of the Derry man.
Alongside half of the Man City team as well as Herry Kane and Mohammed Salah, Duffy was singled out as one of the top two centre-backs in England's top league by Chris Sutton.
Duffy
Salah
Sane
Kane
Chris Sutton has given us his team of the season so far...
Let us know what you think! #BTSportScore pic.twitter.com/Ermd8DZXWo— BT Sport Score (@btsportscore) November 24, 2017
The absence of David De Gea is questionable, but it's nice to see Irish players recognised as stand-outs in the league, even if we are only a few months into the season. As was pointed out on Twitter, it's a surprise he didn't include any Celtic players.
It may not seem like much, but when was the last time we had an Irish player in the discussion for any sort of Premier League team of the year? You'd possibly have to go back to Seamus Coleman being a candidate for young player of the year.
Hopefully Duffy can keep up his superb form and by the time the team of the year discussion comes around, he'll still be in with a shout.
