Outside90’s Evan Morgan Grahame concludes our countdown on the Premier League’s 50 best players.
10. Wayne Rooney
We simply must try harder. We have to force ourselves to tear away the veil of unachievable expectation through which Wayne Rooney has been viewed for much of his career. Only then, once the vision is unmuddied, will we see Rooney for what he is and has been for a while; a stunningly effective Premier League player. How many times has it been pointed out, with damning bitterness, that Rooney never swept away the entire world like he was supposed to, as if one of his barnstorming runs or rocket-powered shots should have ruptured the Earth down to the core? Last term, Rooney became the first player to score 10 or more goals in 11 successive seasons. Rooney has repeatedly shown his ability to survive, to adapt to his own changing skillset, and to consistently be one of Manchester United’s most crucial champions.
He may not make the Earth stand still in 15/16, but he’ll motor on regardless, scoring as he goes.
9. John Terry
John Terry is proof that a footballing system can elevate a player to become more than the sum of his own personal assets. Terry has weaknesses, this is clear. We saw them on display during the doomed Villas-Boas era. But these can be, and indeed have been, concealed by the style that Jose Mourinho has put in place since his return two seasons ago. From the brink of irrelevance, Terry has once again become the best defender in the league. His lack of mobility now sits shrouded in the shadow cast by his more prominent virtues; leadership, positioning, the ability to organise, and an unmatched capacity to read the game.
His swansong has been postponed. Terry has forced the twilight back over the horizon as he strides into 15/16.
8. Diego Costa
His hair, tousled into slick ringlets by his own brand of immoral industry, hangs down over his forehead making him resemble a sort of demonic, corrupted cherub. Secretly, we fear that we don’t “love-to-hate” Diego Costa, we just plain love him. Rarely do imported strikers hit the ground running in the Premier League, and none have been quite so devilishly efficient as Costa was last term; 20 goals in 26 appearances. A campaign blighted by a ropey hamstring did not stop Costa being, for much of the season, the most outstanding goalscorer in the country. He and Mourinho form a villainous partnership, one already so far successful.
A healthier 15/16 campaign beckons, with Costa to leave a scorched trail of seething opponents and well-taken goals.
7. Cesc Fabregas
Cesc Fabregas is a very specific type of talent. He does only a few things, which is strange for a player expected to flourish under Jose Mourinho, who typically demands near-unattainable levels of versatility from his troops. But Fabregas does what he does oh so very well indeed. He needs the ball, and he was at his best playing alongside Matic last season, in a deeper midfield role, where the Serb could cover for Cesc defensively. Every touch he had sent a vivifying filip surging through the Spaniard. Even with his slightly problematic decline after January, Fabregas laid on 18 assists last season, two shy of equalling the league record.
He is highly specialised, but given the right players around him, Cesc can control a game like no one else.
6. David de Gea
The looming colossus of Real Madrid has cast a vast shadow over Old Trafford. Nervousness abounds, and with good reason – the fate of their goalkeeper is at risk. How long ago it seems, and how laughable it now is, that David de Gea’s future in this league was once questioned. He is the best goalkeeper in the country, and his elastic capacity to repel shots that seem, at first, inevitable net-bulgers, truly astounds. His performance last season against Everton was potent evidence of his brilliance, and of the tangible, points-saving importance of having a capable keeper.
Please stay, David. The league, and its highlight reels, will be so much poorer without you.
5. Nemanja Matic
“Defensive shield” hardly does Matic justice. You might as well refer to the ozone layer as a “defensive shield”; “indispensable celestial blockade” does a little better to describe the supreme shelter the Serb provides for his defenders. And, really, that’s only a summary of half of his skills. Those long, sinewy legs are just as capable of cogent forward passes as they are vigourous tackles, making Matic a peerless two-way player. He made more tackles than anyone else in the league last season, and made the third-most passes. And for all of his graft in the maw of midfield, Matic only missed two games in 14/15.
Expect Matic to maintain his Iron Giant-like levels of dominance and durability well into 15/16.
4. David Silva
At his very best, Silva seems to be a sort of shade-spirit on the pitch, able to glide in and out of mortal perception; everyone knows how dangerous he is in those space between the opposing midfield and defence, and yet he still finds a way to appear, like a sublime wight, in those very areas. Stunned, understandably, by the suddenness of the menace, before any defender can react, an impossibly adroit pass has been made, and the threat has been realised. There simply is no Premier League player better at dissecting an organised defence.
With Raheem Sterling locked and loaded to run in behind, Silva only has more options ahead of him this season. Rest assured, he sees them all.
3. Sergio Aguero
In what was largely a lacklustre 14/15 – albeit one that saw Manchester City finish second in the league – Sergio Aguero stoked a warming fire in the hearts of many a despondent citizen. 32 goals in 40 appearances last term reconfirmed it; the Argentinian still remains as sharp as ever. He squirms through non-existent spaces between defenders, and his finishing sets the benchmark for crispness. He has been the Premier League’s premier striker for the last four seasons.
The league still has no answer for a peak-form Aguero, and this season will surely be another 38 games worth of fruitless attempts to try and find one.
2. Alexis Sanchez
The Chilean certainly knows how to make a first impression. It might say something about the Premier League that a player deemed surplus to requirements at Barcelona can arrive on English shores and instantly become one of the most impressive players in the country. It might say something more telling, though, about Sanchez himself. He does seem purpose built for the Premier League, a furious tempest of a footballer. His work rate is Herculean. He has an insatiable thirst to be at the very epicentre of a football match, to create his own shockwaves, to burst breathlessly forth, searing his presence into the turf.
The slight dip in form that occurred at the end of last season was likely due to fatigue. A more prolonged, even more stellar campaign is expected this season.
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1. Eden Hazard
He didn’t explode into the league, in spite of a price tag that at the time, seemed rather large. Of course, now that Eden Hazard’s extended warm up has finished, the £32 million Chelsea paid Lille in 2012 seems an utter pittance. Hazard has stewed beautifully over the last three years, flavour intensifying slowly, caramelising around the edges into the league’s most deliciously dangerous player. He glints like a jewel in Jose Mourinho’s attack, every touch steeped in the potential for carnage. There is a reason why he is the most fouled man in England. At times, there seems no other way to stop him. Also, he’s still only 24.
Hazard’s ability to provide pure, game-changing injections of inspiration will remain unrivalled in 15/16.
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