OneFootball
Dan Burke·16 January 2019
OneFootball
Dan Burke·16 January 2019
Even the best Premier League sides have some rotten apples and even the very worst have some diamonds in the rough.
But who are the best and worst players at each club? Here’s our considered opinion …
Best: Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang
The Gabon striker has been worth every penny of the £57m the Gunners paid for him last year and currently has an impressive 14 Premier League goals to his name.
Worst: Stephan Lichtsteiner
Lichtsteiner looked slow, cumbersome and over the hill about three years ago and his summer move to the Premier League has only further exposed those flaws.
Best: Ryan Fraser
Honourable mention for Callum Wilson and David Brooks but Fraser, above, gets the nod by virtue of the fact he’s just a lovely player to watch.
Worst: Marc Pugh
Hard to believe this guy is still kicking around a top flight club but somehow, he is. Zero Premier League appearances this season probably tells you all you need to know.
Best: Pascal Groß
Hasn’t quite hit the heights of last season yet this term but the German is still a class act and was recently linked with a move to Liverpool.
Worst: Gaëtan Bong
Bong, above, may have one of the coolest names in the Premier League but that doesn’t mean he isn’t one of the shoddiest left-backs.
Best: James Tarkowski
The England international centre-back, above, is quite comfortably the Clarets’ best player and is surely destined for bigger and better things, especially if they get relegated this season.
Worst: Phil Bardsley
You can never fault Bardsley for effort and aggression but one thing you can fault him for is talent. We wouldn’t say that to his face though.
Best: Callum Paterson
The Scot, above, has been labelled the “Premier League’s weirdest player” following his conversion from right-back to striker but he’s also the main reason behind the Bluebirds’ resurgence towards the back end of 2018.
Worst: Gary Madine
This fella is never a Premier League quality striker in a million years. He recently joined Sheffield United on loan for the rest of the season, which is much more his level.
Best: Eden Hazard
You don’t need us to tell you that Hazard is one of the finest players on the planet when he’s in the mood and just edges N’Golo Kanté as Chelsea’s best.
Worst: Victor Moses
The Nigerian international was decent in the Blues 2016/17 title winning campaign but he’s been dreadful ever since and can’t get a game for love nor money these days.
Best: Wilfried Zaha
Zaha is genuinely one of the best players in the league on his day and it’s quite miraculous that the Eagles have managed to keep hold of him for so long.
Worst: Alexander Sørloth
Recently joined Gent on loan having managed just one goal in 19 games for Palace. We’re no experts but we’d suggest that’s a pretty poor ratio.
Best: Richarlison
Has shone in one of the league’s most inconsistent sides this season at the tender age of 21, the Brazilian still has plenty of room for growth.
Worst: Oumar Niasse
Enjoyed a brief spike in form under Sam Allardyce last season but Niasse, above, is not, never was and never will be good enough for this level.
Best: Aleksandar Mitrović
The Serb, above, has bagged eight Premier League goals in a very poor team so far this season and is probably the Cottagers best hope of avoiding relegation.
Worst: Stefan Johansen
Johansen was one of Fulham’s best players in the Championship last season but it seems the Premier League was too big of a step up for him and recent links with Milan left many scratching their heads.
Best: Philip Billing
The Danish midfielder, above, has been the brightest spark in what has been a very disappointing season for the Terriers and will surely get snapped up by a bigger club if/when they are relegated.
Worst: Laurent Depoitre
His signing in the summer of 2017 confused supporters of his old club Porto and he has since managed a paltry six goals in 52 games, none of which have come this season. The fact he runs like he’s transporting a refrigerator on his back doesn’t help.
Best: Jamie Vardy
The England striker will never hit the heights he reached in 2015/16 again but he’s still the Foxes’ best player and their most reliable source of goals.
Worst: Adrien Silva
After the fiasco that was his botched deadline day transfer from Sporting in the summer of 2017, the Portugal international, above, has since made just 14 instantly forgettable Premier League appearances and now seems to be surplus to requirements at the King Power.
Best: Mohamed Salah
Liverpool’s squad is packed full of quality but Salah is their king. After that remarkable 32-goal season last year, he’s now on 13 for this campaign and is a constant danger.
Worst: Simon Mignolet
The Belgian has never been good enough to play in goal for a club of Liverpool’s stature and he reminded us of that fact in the recent FA Cup defeat to Wolves.
Best: Kevin De Bruyne
De Bruyne is one of the world’s most complete footballers and his return from injury could have a big say in where the Premier League title ends up this season.
Worst: Eliaquim Mangala
Pound for pound, Mangala is probably one of the worst signings in the history of English football but his time at City did at least produce one of the GOAT tweets.
Best: Paul Pogba
He may not have showed it nearly often enough during his time at Old Trafford, but Pogba is quite comfortably the most talented player on United’s books and with José Mourinho gone, he has finally begun to justify that mammmoth transfer fee.
Worst: Phil Jones
Jones isn’t just bad, he’s comically bad and for that, we are grateful.
Best: Martin Dúbravka
Signing the Slovakian goalkeeper on loan last January was a masterstroke and was probably the decisive factor in the Magpies staying up. They’d be in a lot more trouble this season were it not for him too.
Worst: Javier Manquillo
It’s difficult to say what the Toon Army dislike most about Manquillo: the fact he used to play for Sunderland or the fact he’s absolute trash.
Best: Danny Ings
Ings isn’t good enough to play for a club like Liverpool but he’s better than a relegation dogfight and will hopefully get the move he deserves when his loan deal expires at the end of the season.
Worst: Shane Long
The man, pictured above, who seems to be permanently offside actually bagged his first goal of the season at the weekend and subsequently produced this quite incredible stat …
Best: Christian Eriksen
Controversial, perhaps, but in a team containing the likes of Harry Kane, Son Heung-min and Dele Alli, Eriksen is the player who always makes Spurs games worth your time.
Worst: Vincent Janssen
The Dutchman is still hanging around north London like a bad smell and worryingly, he’s still under contract until 2020. Six goals in 39 games is a woeful return.
Best: Abdoulaye Doucouré
You don’t attract the attention of a club like Paris Saint-Germain without doing something right and Doucouré, above, has been the Hornets’ heartbeat in midfield over the last couple of seasons.
Worst: Stefano Okaka
The lumbering striker was recently shunted off on loan to Udinese having managed just five goals in 39 games and Watford fans will be hoping he doesn’t come back.
Best: Felipe Anderson
One of the signings of the summer in the Premier League, the 25-year-old Brazilian has been nothing short of superb since joining from Lazio and has an exciting future ahead of him.
Worst: Carlos Sánchez
The Colombian was dreadful when he played for Aston Villa, dreadful at last summer’s World Cup and his five performances for West Ham prior to picking up a knee injury in September weren’t great either. Very weird signing.
Best: João Moutinho
A genuine class act who has helped Wolves look like a very comfortable Premier League side this season. It’s only a shame that it took Moutinho, above, so long to arrive on these shores.
Worst: Léo Bonatini
The Brazilian was decent in the Championship last season but after failing to find the net in any of his seven Premier League appearances this term, it looks like he could soon be saying goodbye to Molineux.