Best Players in the Premier League

Posted by Rob Shepherd on Wednesday, May 3, 2017

The threat of the end of the season is getting closer, already the dread of “no footy weekends” is weighing heavily on my mind. In this article, I take a close look at the stats of the star players in England’s Premier Division. Here are the top 5 players that have been producing the goods this season.

Now it must be said that stats are not everything, if you just rely on stats then strange things are true in life. Facts such as “Sam Allardyce is the best England manager ever, his record as manager can never be beaten” and “Based on penalties missed, Alan Shearer was the worst ever player to have played in the Premier League”, so keep an open mind.

Number 5: Romelu Lukaku

There doesn’t seem to be a day that goes past in which Romelu’s future is not discussed. Rumours suggest that this could be Lukaku’s last season at Everton with many of Europe’s top clubs eager to sign the prolific Belgian striker.

Romelu started his career at Anderlecht, in 73 games he scored a respectable 33 times. In 2011 he joined Chelsea for £10 million (rising to £17 million with add-ons). He only made 10 appearances for Chelsea before joining West Brom on loan.

In 35 appearances for West Brom, he scored 17 goals. This included an incredible hat-trick against Manchester United in Sir Alex Ferguson’s last game as United manager. In the match, West Brom came from three goals down to draw 5-5 in the highest score draw in Premier League history.

Romelu signed for Everton (initially on loan) in 2013. He has played for Everton 162 times, scoring 86 goals. Romelu Lukaku is 23 years old.

This season, Romelu has been in top form! He currently leads the Premier League top scorers list with 24 goals. His shots on target rating stands at 64%. 

Player: Romelu Lukaku

Number 4: Roberto Firmino

Roberto Firmino actually started his career as a defensive midfielder but his immense speed, close control and his ability to spot a pass made him a natural for the more advanced role he is currently employed in at Liverpool.

Roberto started his senior career at Brazilian club Figueirense, during his time there he played 38 games and scored 8 goals.

In January 2011, Firmino signed for German team 1899 Hoffenheim. At Hoffenheim, it took Roberto quite a while to become the player we see today! Towards the end of 2011, Firmino was dropped from the first team for ill-discipline and would miss the game against Bayer Leverkusen.

The 2012-13 season would see a radical uptake in the Brazilian’s form. In 36 games, he would score seven goals and receive acclaim for his performances. The next season would be even better, his goal tally increased to 18 goals and Firmino was named as the league’s “Breakthrough Player”.

In July 2015, Liverpool agreed a fee of £29 million (including add-ons) for the attacking midfielder.

2017 has seen some fantastic individual performances from Firmino. A man of the match performance against West Bromwich in April turned a draw into a win for Liverpool, Roberto scored in that game.

He would provide an assist in the next two games he played after the West Brom game. Against Arsenal, Roberto once again gave a man of the match performance, as well as assisting a goal he also scored to secure a 3-1 win for Liverpool.

Although primarily an attacking player, his contributions defensively have helped Liverpool in their quest for a top 4 spot.

Player: Roberto Firmino

Number 3: Paul Pogba

Probably like you, I was surprised to see Paul Pogba’s inclusion in this list when researching! Not that he’s had a poor season but he has been guilty of missing some clear-cut chances this year, chances that you feel he would have buried whilst he was at Juventus. This is probably a bit harsh on Paul as he was signed as a defensive midfielder rather than his goal scoring prowess.

It is well documented that Paul Pogba started his senior career at Manchester United. He only made 3 appearances for United’s first team before moving to Juventus in a deal that saw a fee of £800,000 change hands. These 3 appearances would only amount to 67 minutes of game time. Although it is a pointless stat due to the small amount of time, Pogba’s pass success percentage was an incredible 95.3%.

United did not want to lose the young French midfielder but were powerless to stop him leaving Old Trafford after he refused to sign a contract. Lack of playing time was a key factor in Paul refusing to put pen to paper.

There was quite a lot of animosity by Alex Ferguson on the transfer who publicly stated that he felt the deal to Juventus had been agreed “a long time ago as far as we’re aware”. Ferguson also went on to say “It is disappointing. I don’t think he showed us any respect at all, to be honest. I’m quite happy that if they [footballers] carry on that way, they’re probably better doing it away from us.”

It didn’t take long for Pogba to show the class that would eventually see his former club pay £89 million to re-sign the player, he was named man of the match and scored a goal in 2013 Italian Supercoppa. Also, this year Pogba was named 2013’s Golden Boy for the best young player in Europe

Pogba was a central cog in a formidable Juventus team and Paul was receiving widespread acclaim for his dynamic performances. In 178 appearances for Juventus, he scored 34 goals. In his last league season at Juventus he played for 33 games, scored 8 goals and 12 assists. His shots per goal ratio was 3.5 with a passing success rate of 83.4%. He was named man of the match on 8 occasions with a rating overall of 7.81.

So, when you compare his stats at Juventus with his current stats, you see that they are almost the same. His current tally of 11 goals is a better return than at Juventus. Assists are a great deal lower this year, 6 compared to 12 last year. His passing success rate is slightly higher. So statically at least, Pogba looks like he is starting to replicate the form that he showed in Italy.

Player: Paul Pogba

Number 2: Alexis Sánchez

In what has been a season to largely forget, Sánchez has at least brought some joy to Arsenal fans. Rumours are suggesting that this will be Sánchez’s last season with Arsenal, his performances this year will ensure no shortage of suitors for the 28 year-old.

The Chilean striker is well travelled, stints at Cobreloa, Udinese, Colo-Colo (loan), River Plate (loan), Barcelona and Arsenal. Where ever Sánchez has played, he scored goals!

At Cobreloa he hit a modest return of 9 goals in 47 games (5.22 games per goal). At Udinese his tally was 20 goals in 95 games (4.75 games per goal). On loan at Colo-Colo he managed to score 5 in 32 games (6.40 games per goal). On loan, also at River Plate he managed to score 4 in 23 games (5.75 games per goal).    

In 2011 Sánchez signed by Pep Guardiola for Barcelona for a fee of €26 million. Pep said of Sánchez, “He can play in all three attacking positions, he shows intense defensive skills, he’s direct and from what I’ve been told, he’s a very nice kid.”

If his goal tally had been respectable but nothing spectacular, this would change whilst at Barcelona. In 88 games, he scored 39 goals (2.25 games per goal). It was then quite a surprise when Arsenal were able to obtain his services for £31.7 million in July 2014. The surprise was mainly since Sánchez was in good form at Barca, scoring 21 goals in his last season (plus the fact that tightwad Wenger actually managed to find the clubs chequebook).

In his first stint in an Arsenal shirt, Sánchez played 34 games and scored 16 goals with 8 assists (2.15 games per goal). He was also declared man of the match in 8 of those games. 

Recently a Sánchez extra-time goal knocked Manchester City out of the FA Cup and maybe even saved his managers job for a little while at least.

Another stand-out game in which Sánchez excelled was the clash with Hull City in February, his performance scored an incredible 9.2 as he scored both the goals in the 2-0 win at home. However, even this performance was over shadowed with his perfect 10 rating against West Ham away to West Ham. Scoring a hat-trick in the 5-1 win over their London rivals.

One criticism aimed at Sánchez was his erratic form, often you see a man of the match performance that is followed up by anonymous performances in the next game. If Sánchez can maintain his great form on a regular basis, then I wouldn’t be surprised if he isn’t in the top three for the Ballon d’Or.

Player: Alexis Sánchez

Number 1: Eden Hazard

Hazard has proved that he is one of the best players in the world and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as other world class players such as Ronaldo, Messi, Neymar, Suarez, Aguero and Neuer. Football’s “Mr Consistency” hit the ground running (pun intended!) since his first professional appearance when he was just 16 years old at French club Lille.

Such was the impact that Eden had at Lille that he was awarded National Union of Professional Footballers (UNFP) Young Player of the Year. He repeated this feat the next year as well, the first ever player to retain it.

The team and personal awards kept coming and in 2010-2011 he was named the UNFP Ligue 1 Player of the Year becoming the awards youngest ever winner. In eight years at Lille he played 147 times and scored 36 goals.

In 2012, Chelsea signed Hazard for a fee believed to have been £32 million.

It didn’t take long for Hazard to show Chelsea fans what he could bring. In his first few appearances he was either assisting or scoring. Many opposition defenders couldn’t handle Hazard’s pace and Eden won Chelsea a fair few goals.

Frank Lampard said of Hazard, “I’ve said to him he has got absolutely everything. He’s only 22, he has the world at his feet and with the way he’s playing and the ability he has on the ball, he is scaring the life out of people.”

This season, Eden has been in scintillating form. So, it’s no coincidence that Chelsea are sitting top of the table as season draws to a close, Eden’s performances have heavily contributed to this challenge for the League. 

Eden has been deployed in a variety of positions, what is astonishing about Eden is his consistently good performance no matter what position he plays, he’s a natural in at least six positions.

As a forward left he has played 18 games, scored 8 goals with 3 assists and a rating of 7.94. In the six games he was deployed as an attacking midfielder on the left, he scored once and assisted on four occasions with a rating of 7.78.

When Eden is deployed as an attacking midfielder in a central role his assists drop but his goals scored increases, in the six games this tactic has been used, Hazard scored four and assisted once with a rating of 7.69.

Interestingly Hazard has been deployed in an advanced striker position in two games and in both these games he excelled. He received an incredible rating of 8.77 in these games. Eden has been criticised in the past for his defensive contributions so perhaps a switch to centre forward could be an option, that’s a scary thought for the rest of the Premier League!