Top XI: Most Improved Premier League Players

By Chris Wright
SOURCE: Who Ate All The Pies
With the end of the 2010/11 season just beginning to crown over the horizon, We presents a tip of the bonnet to the top flight’s most improved players throughout the course of this campaign…
(P.S – We’ve consciously tried to steer clear of the obvious choices, i.e, the Bale, Wilsheres and Nasris of this world, to give some of the Premier League’s ‘lesser lights’ their moment in the spotlight.)


11. Joey Barton, Newcastle

A divisive Marmite character who, according to Joey Barton, is hands down the best English midfielder in the business.
Pies wouldn’t go quite that far, but the snarling Newcastle schemer has undoubtedly been in fine fettle this season – filing several truly immense displays (and interviews) along the way, all the while running the jagged edge between unhinged genius and complete shit-for-brains thuggery.


10. Johan Djourou, Arsenal

While the recurring stat vis-a-vis the disproportionate number of goals that Arsenal have shipped without Djourou in the side is vastly distorted by the fact that is was usually the woeful Seb Squillaci that stood in for him, the Swiss centre-half has undoubtedly come along leaps and bounds this term after seeing the first few years of his burgeoning Emirates career stymied by a wretched string of injuries.


9. Chris Baird, Fulham

The man was an unmitigated liability a few years ago, with a series of hapless performances seeing him forcibly ejected from the Fulham first string and labelled as ‘easily the worst player in the Premier League’ on several occasions.
At that point, you could have forgiven him for disappearing back into the relative anonymity of the lower leagues, but Baird got his act together and has, in the space of two seasons, turned it around completely.
He sure-as-scheisse isn’t fashionable, but the sheer fact that Baird is now a dependable mainstay in Mark Hughes’ backline – even chipping in with the odd thunderous goal or two from time to time – shows just how far the Premier League’s ‘worst player’ has come on.


8. Dimitar Berbatov, Man Utd

After two years of near-merciless haranguing from the United support, Berba has somehow managed to pull 21 league goals out of the bag this season without really altering his game or attitude to any great lengths.
Sure, he’s still prone to pranging the odd sitter and do little more than saunter for games on end but the guy’s been leading the Premier League goal-scoring table for months on end – which is no mean feat.


7. Matt Jarvis, Wolves

Time will tell whether Jarvis’ England nod was just one of Fabio Capello’s periodical ‘token call-ups’, but it’s fairly safe to say that the Wolves winger has had the best season of his career to date and that he will almost definitely not be washing up on the shores of the Championship if/when Mick McCarthy’s side bite the relegation bullet.


6. Peter Odemwingie, West Brom

Like me, anyone who’s sole exposure to Odemwingie prior to his arrival in the Premier League was his craptacular performances for Nigeria in last year’s African Cup of Nations will have been amazed at his goal return in his debut season at the Hawthorns.
To my eye, the guy has gone from looking like a rickets-riddled newborn giraffe of a winger to a top flight striker with a 12-and-counting goal tally for a middling side – with most of those coming before Roy Hodgson arrived to shore things up at the Baggies.
Not bad, not bad at all.


5. Seamus Coleman, Everton

Seems like the license Blackpool gave young Seamus to raid forward from right-back during his year spent on loan at Bloomfield Road last season has paid dividends for parent club Everton – with David Moyes deploying the young Irish flanker on the right wing all season only to see him nominated for the PFA Young Player of the Year award alongside Nani, Gareth Bale and Jack Wilshere as a result.


4. Johan Elmander, Bolton

Bolton got sod all out of Elmander for an entire year after splashing out £8.2 million at the beginning of last season, only for the perennially sweaty Swede to suddenly burst into life at the start of 2010/11 with a flurry of goals.

His prolific scoring rate has tailed off as the season has rumbled on, but he’s now grafting away as an integral part of the hard-working support structure (along with Kevin Davies) that Owen Coyle has built around his free-scoring loanee, Daniel Sturridge.


3. Matthew Etherington, Stoke City

Etherington almost disappeared under the weight of a gargantuan gambling addiction, but Tony Pulis’ faith in the former West Ham winger has well and truly been repaid this season with a string of dynamic performances down the left flank – providing arcs of endless, Grade A ammunition to Stoke’s towering front line.


2. Stewart Downing, Aston Villa

Downing was on the verge of being dismissed as an also-ran after a slightly half-arsed debut season at Villa, but his excellent combination and support work on the right-hand side of the Brum club’s new-fangled ‘too good to go down’ three-pronged attack means that Gerard Houllier’s side are now thankfully teetering on the edge of being able to confirm that a shock relegation will not be on the cards at Villa Park this term.


1. Lucas Leiva, Liverpool

From outright joke to work-horse to midfield lynchpin, 2010/11 has been a landmark season in the Brazilian’s career at Anfield. Always undervalued and often played out of position to accommodate supposedly better players under Rafa Benitez, Lucas has benefited from captain Steven Gerrard’s injury-plagued year to step into the void that he should have been filling for quite some time now.

Photos via the PA.

Any player you feel we’ve missed and deserve a mention (to be fair, there are quite a few – though there will be more Top XIs coming over the next few weeks)?

Let us know all about it in the comments box below…

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Top XI: Players That Should Stay Where They Are This Summer

With the end of the 2010/11 season just beginning to crown over the horizon, J-EPL brings you a run down of the eleven Premier League players (bar one, for the time being) that should put some serious consideration into staying put as we gradually beckon in 2011/12…


11. Gareth Bale, Tottenham

Not that, for one moment, we’ve seriously entertained the thought that Bale will up-sticks and toddle off elsewhere over the summer as the nation’s gossip-hounds seem overly-eager to have us all believe he will from time to time – but, in Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham, the Welsh winger currently has the perfect tailor-made stage for his wildly unhinged, mercurially instinctive kick-and-leg-it stylings to blossom further.


10. Joey Barton, Newcastle

Regardless of how much stock should be put into them, those who keep a keen eye on Premier League news will have noticed that several premature transfer rumours doing the rounds over the past few days have linked Barton with a £5-ish million move to Liverpool over the close season – I’ll give you a moment to digest the enormous stupidity of that.


9. Danny Welbeck, Sunderland

One would assume that the Sunderland board have been in negotiations with their Manchester United counterparts for a good long while over trying to secure another loan deal for Welbeck in time for next season – and with good reason.
The 20-year-old forward has enjoyed a decent season, chock full of regular Premier League football, goals, assists and with a full England call-up thrown-in for good measure – feats he probably wouldn’t have achieved while enviously watching Chicharito hit the ground running from the bench at Old Trafford.
As with a certain Chelsea starlet further on up the list, surely another season-long loan deal would be the best course of action for Sunderland, Welbeck and his parent club.


8. Carlos Tevez, Man City

Despite his constant overtures to the contrary, Carlitos won’t be tearing up his mammoth City contract this summer. For starters the legal implications would be labyrinthine, but there’s always a nervy inkling that the Argentinian talisman could play the ‘personal reasons’ card and just pull the plug on his career at any time.
He shouldn’t. He’s doing rather well at Eastlands.


7. Alberto Aquilani, Liverpool

It looks like Aquilani will be swanning back to Juventus on a permanent deal once his loan expires in Turin, but the classy midfielder could slide ably back into in King Kenny’s newly energised side (a lot has happened since he’s been away) if he fancies giving life on Merseyside another crack – though the chances are admittedly slim.


6. Cesc Fabregas, Arsenal

‘Barcelona DNA‘ this, ‘returning to his roots’ that, yadda yadda yadda. He may well be the best central midfielder in the Premier League, but Captain Cesc still wouldn’t get in the team at the Camp Nou and he knows it.


5. Peter Odemwingie, West Brom

A surprise package of a striker with a decent strike rate is always going to attract interest from the clubs hovering above you in the table desperate for an additional goal-threat, and the fact that Odemwingie has impressed during his maiden Premier League outing is unlikely to have passed over the heads of clubs like Fulham, Everton, even Juventus.
However, I’m fairly certain that the Nigerian forward has found his level and a comfortable system in which to play at the Hawthorns, which is not to be sniffed at considering he’s not exactly a burgeoning starlet at the age of 29.
Who’s to say Roy Hodgson won’t have the Baggies competing up and around mid-table next season anyway?


4. Daniel Sturridge, Bolton

One of the shrewdest signings of the season, Sturridge’s loan move to the Reebok has seen him clamber off his high-horse and finally get a shot at some genuine first-team football – an opportunity the young striker has seized readily.
On his return to Chelsea, Sturridge will probably be left to stagnate in the reserves (save the odd League Cup appearance) somewhere underneath Salomon Kalou in the Stamford Bridge pecking order again next term – surely a renewed, season-long loan back to the Trotters would be mutually beneficial seeing as though it seems to suit every party involved down to the ground?


3. Ashley Young, Aston Villa

If the gossip columns had their way, Young would have joined Manchester United for £25 million several times over by now which, hypothetically speaking, represents a smart move on United’s part however I doubt whether there is anywhere in the world where the dainty winger would be allowed to flourish so prevalently than as part of the sparkling jewel in Villa’s pitted crown – their three-pronged attack anglais.


2. Adel Taarabt, QPR

The prissy Moroccan has made mincemeat of several Championship defences this season, partly because of his Youtube-friendly trickery and fine technique and partly because most Championship defences are pretty rickety and the standard of the league is worse than I can ever remember it being.
Given his goal-scoring exploits, his Championship Player of the Year award and the fact that he seems to think the entire cosmos and everything in it revolves around his fuzzy backside, you get the feeling that Taarabt may start believing his own hype and angle for a behemoth of a move befitting his intrinsic genius - but the truth is that he really isn’t all that great and would be wise to fully test the Premier League waters at a club where the fans are already on his side.


1. Didier Drogba, Chelsea

In my ‘umble opinion, Drogba is still a tyrannical forward on his day and will almost definitely still be cutting the mustard next season. It’s Nicolas Anelka that Chelsea really need to start phasing out of their frontline in order to give Fernando Torres the centre-stage he so clearly longs for.
I really wouldn’t be surprised if Nico decides to go and try his nonchalant luck in Italy or America this summer or perhaps, after six moody months spent playing second fiddle on the bench, the January thereafter.
He may well be tempted by a romantic return to Ligue 1 with Marseille but, even at 33, the Drog still has at least another season of top-level channel-running and scything half-volleys in him – he was always a late bloomer anyway.

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