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Tottenham rules the chicken coop …
10) Jamie Vardy (Leicester)
If Jamie Vardy doesn’t donate his body to medical research, all of this will have been for nothing. He sees the suggestion that footballers outgrow him in his 30s and treats him like that corner of The Hawthorns, taunting him with the enthusiasm of a man fueled by port, Red Bull and ham and cheese omelettes.
Only Teddy Sheringham (77), Frank Lampard (82), Alan Shearer (84) and Ian Wright (93) have scored more Premier League goals than Vardy (76) after turning 30. The Leicester forward is hunting Shearer’s record for most strikes at age 33 as if it were a Manchester City center midfielder defending a long ball overhead. Surely there are no players who keep things so simple. There are certainly none that remain as effective against all kinds of opposition.
9) Patrick Bamford (Leeds)
It took Patrick Bamford two and five weeks, respectively, this season to surpass the total goals and starts of his entire previous career. The 27-year-old once scored on four separate high-level spells with Crystal Palace, Norwich, Burnley and Middlesbrough, the end of each reading as a football-themed rhyme to remember the fate of Henry VIII’s wives: finished, relegated, over-educated, relegated.
Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds have given new life to a player who had long been in purgatory between the Championship and the Premier League, forever destined to share shooting exercises with Jordan Rhodes and Sylvain Ebanks-Blake. its hat-trick surprise It might soon seem perfectly predictable if that shape turns out to be as permanent as its kind.
8) Leander Dendoncker (Wolves)
Nuno found Max Kilman on the back of his Portuguese sofa But Leander Dendoncker has long been hidden from view of a first team with more obvious talents. Raúl Jiménez, Adama Traore, Ruben Neves, Joao Moutinho and Conor Coady round out the headlines, but the Belgian offers one of the most compelling stories.
Dendoncker started just 17 Premier League games in his first season before appearing in every Wolves game outside of the League Cup in a debilitating 2019/20, as his ability to play both central defense and midfield established him as a crucial and versatile option. The 25-year-old has started five league games this season, and the Wolves lost the only two in which he was completely out (the 4-0 loss to West Ham) or only as a late substitute (the 3-0 loss). -1 against Manchester City). They’ve only conceded once with him on the field: Jacob Murphy’s latest free-kick for Newcastle last month. Gone are the days of the unshakable Neves-Moutinho tandem.
7) Mo Salah (Liverpool)
“Mo has played an incredible season so far, and he developed again as a player from that pure scoring machine to a more connected player, very important to us. He’s the one who works the hardest, he can come and go, he uses his speed but also his technique between the lines. “
Jurgen Klopp is right. In terms of combined shots made and opportunities created, Salah (50) leads the way ahead of runner-up Harry Kane (45) so far this season and even manages not to endanger opponents when trying to win vaguely questionable penalties. It’s absolutely sensational, definitely underrated and should keep ignoring those who keep pretending that selfishness is an undesirable trait in an elite athlete that automatically raises the bar of every teammate who adorns with their presence.
6) Son of Heung-min (Tottenham)
José Mourinho may not have listed his theoretical transfer goals in order of preference when, in december 2018, regretted that Manchester United could no longer exercise its market authority over teams like Tottenham. But just under two years later and with the Portuguese having swapped managerial roles, it’s puzzling how Son could have gone after Dele Alli or Christian Eriksen, either unconsciously or by design.
Those two were more important and predominant in different Tottenham teams, of course, but Son has combined the best traits of both – skill, creativity, technique, frankness – with a flawless finish, remarkable team ethic, and speed of thought and action, to become almost the archetypal Mourinho player.
5) Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton)
Maybe Wayne Rooney was right on Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s international perspectives. England might have come to appreciate a player with no discernible weaknesses, but Everton have had faith in someone whose development has been far from linear.
Calvert-Lewin was signed by Ronald Koeman after spending the previous season in Leagues One and Two. He has played for six different coaches at Goodison Park, paying his dues on the wing before anyone imagined that the fast, strong, 6’1 ″ boy with a prodigious jump and magnetic feet could do well as a center forward. Carlo Ancelotti has only perfected the 23-year-old even further, simplifying his game to that of a pure scorer. With goals in wins, draws and losses against the champions, fodder in the middle of the table and teams promoted in just seven games, few would say it has been anything but a resounding success.
4) Jannik Vestergaard (Southampton)
In a season that has sought to challenge the entire concept of defense, Jannik Vestergaard is the outlier. He is the exception to the struggling media rule, helping to get Southampton off to an excellent start after coming into halftime from a 1-0 loss at Crystal Palace in which the Saints were already behind, as he was given a seat on the bench for the 5-2 loss to Tottenham.
Ralph Hasenhuttl has restored the Dane to his starting lineup in each of the five Premier League games since then and Southampton’s record of W4 D1 L0 F12 A6 in that time shows why. “He is a role model to never give up and to develop his game,” said the coach of a player whose reputation was seemingly hopelessly shattered last season said last month. The rebirth has been wonderful.
3) James Rodriguez (Everton)
Thanks to Mr. Ancelotti he did not seek the summer advice of Richard Keys, thus avoiding an alternate reality farce in which Everton signed the Neil Custis-Bait Troy Deeney instead of the slick, graceful, and graceful James Rodriguez. The one with the hairy hands was correct in suggesting that ‘it will look great when the Toffees are 2 up at home’ but underestimated how good the Colombian would be in close wins at Tottenham or Crystal Palace.
It’s easy to poke fun in hindsight at those who ‘weren’t convinced’ Rodriguez would adapt to the Premier League, but few honestly thought he would acclimate to a new environment so quickly. It has challenged perceptions as effectively as defenses.
2) Jack Grealish (Aston Villa)
No right-back can definitively claim to have had the best of Jack Grealish this season. Stuart Dallas was the closest to Leeds but still failed to stop the 25-year-old at times during one of the Aston Villa captain’s most disappointing performances. The rest, from George Baldock to Timothy Castagne and Kyle Walker-Peters, with disastrous detours in Kenny Tete and Trent Alexander-Arnold, were completely outmatched.
Grealish has been phenomenal, arguably Villa’s best player in each of his six games so far. If you’re not skewering a team with a crisp shot or incisive pass, you’re piercing them with hypnotic footwork – Bukayo Saka (9) is the only Arsenal player to have completed more dribbles all season than Grealish. achieved against Leicester in 90 minutes (8). Most concerning or exciting, depending on loyalties, is the fact that it’s only getting better.
1) Harry Kane (Tottenham)
“That has to be … it has to be Kane,” Vince McMahon shouted in October 1997 when he predicted who would be the best player after seven games of the 2020/21 Premier League season. It really is difficult to argue with him in all honesty.
It’s not even particularly close. Kane has been almost immaculate at times, hitting and receiving at the tip of a Tottenham attack, most felt that Jose Mourinho would inhibit rather than encourage. The 27-year-old has refined that latent creative dimension of his game at no cost to his ruthless instincts, a forced layoff at the end of last season that merged wonderfully with a deeper and more varied front line to form a player than anyone else. expected realistically. to enhance what was already approaching generational brilliance. Yet here we are, with Kane completely straddling the Premier League and having his way with those who dare to challenge him once again.
Matt stead
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