6 games into the season, the most influential players for each team are elbowing their way up the charts to prominence.
As in the previous post covering games 1-3, I have reproduced the same report format to provide information on every team. In subsequent posts my intention is to produce these reports for discrete periods, e.g. games 1-6, then games 7-12,…etc to see if trends in these reports can give insight into changes in player form/influence or team tactics.
First up, I calculated a summary report of all players who have played over 270mins (~3 games) so far i.e. no Ozil who is on 248mins.
Sigurdsson, Ramsey and Yaya have all received praise for their performances at the start of the season and these measures support that (scoring goals certainly helps). Pienaar, Fellaini and Ward have all performed notably as well. Vidic has the highest defending/ball-winning score whilst hamstrung Pienaar leads the way in passing/retaining the ball.
Arsenal:
Unsurprisingly, Ramsey and Ozil lead the charts for Arsenal – although Gnabry takes 3rd place in terms of average rating. Few would doubt Flamini’s contributions so far this year off the ball, but he is a fair distance down the table by these measures due to their bias towards ball-related actions.
Aston Villa:
Injured Benteke and Okore top the charts for Villa, but they have still managed to win their previous 2 games without their influence.
Cardiff City:
The wonderfully named Théophile-Catherine has had a bright start to life at Cardiff.
Chelsea:
Terry, Hazard and Ivanovic stand out here, although despite playing relatively few minutes Mata has the highest involvement rating. This may be indicative of how important he is to Chelsea as a link between defence and attack.
Crystal Palace:
Ignoring 12 minute O’Keefe, defenders Ward and Jedinak have been Crystal Palace’s key players so far. J Williams deserves a mention for the highest non-O’Keefe attacker rating.
Everton:
Full-backs Baines and Coleman very prominent for Everton.
Fulham:
Fulham’s team stats have been much derided in the early stages of the season and player-wise there isn’t a lot to shout about either. They must be hoping for better from Hangeland, Berbatov and Ruiz as the season progresses.
Hull City:
An improvement from Curtis Davies in the last 3 games takes him to the top of Hull’s table.
Liverpool:
1 great performance from Suarez and he’s top. Sakho has impressed early on with his defending stats.
Manchester City:
Silva and Nasri are vying for most involved player, whilst Navas has had a very lukewarm start to life in Manchester.
Manchester United:
Some very strong scores at the top end of the chart for Man Utd – Evans, Smalling and Nani all making good cases for more game time. Carrick seems to be slightly less involved than observed last season as Fellaini has quickly become the main throughfare in midfield.
Newcastle United:
Mixed scores with Santon continuing to impress, Remy coming to the fore and Tiote heavily involved.
Norwich City:
Nowhere near as much influence this season from Snodgrass as Redmond and Fer have become important attacking midfielders for Norwich – interestingly the opposite end of the table suggests van Wolfswinkel isn’t offering the team a great deal so far!
Southampton:
Only 2 goals conceded by Southampton so far, owing much to Lovren and Fonte’s impressive pairing at the back.
Stoke City:
Keep-it-simple N’Zonzi and creator Charlie Adam catch the eye due to involvement and attacking attributes respectively.
Sunderland:
Cuellar achieved a score of 10 for defending and ball-winning in his only appearance of the season against Liverpool, but it obviously wasn’t enough to prevent Sunderland losing 1-3.
Swansea City:
Ben Davies’ marauding runs from left back and 2 goals lead him to the top of the Swansea player table.
Tottenham Hotspur:
Sigurdsson, Townsend and Walker lead the way. Eriksen scores highly in passing and involvement but according to the stats he hasn’t quite done enough to lift him above many of his teammates at this early stage.
West Brom:
Amalfitano and Sessegnon have begun the season quite well as defenders Ridgewell, McAuley and Olsson have earned 1 man-of-the-match award apiece.
West Ham United:
Difficult start to the season for West Ham, as they look very short in attack. J Cole and Morrison look to be their best outlets in forward positions until they can patch up Carroll.
thepowerof11 