The 50 Best Players in England Right Now

Being the best player in England is a title that ebbs and flows with form.

This article is NOT a look at the 50 best players in England in general, it is a look at the best 50 players based on recent form and contributions to their club.

Some you will agree with, others you won't, but in all cases I'll try to justify my inclusion—but not necessarily their order.

Charles N'Zogbia's recent flash of form for Aston Villa suddenly ended with a knee injury suffered in training last week.

Prior to that, he had managed two goals and an assist in his last six midfield appearances.

Showing signs.

Manchester City's David Silva has suffered a huge slump in form, largely due to exhaustion from the season so far.

Thankfully for the club, Yaya Toure is still looking relatively fresh and the midfield battler has ensured two shut outs and a scored a goal in his last five matches.

Enforcer.

Sunderland's revival under Martin O'Neil has been helped by the goalkeeping skills of Simon Mignolet.

The Black Cats stopper has four clean sheets in his last nine games, saving 24 efforts on goal in the process.

Cat.

Didier Drogba's return from the African Cup of Nations seems to have coincided with a return of his league form.

The Ivory Coast and Chelsea striker has struck twice with one assist in his last five appearances.

Warming up.

Arsenal defender Kieran Gibbs has returned from injury with aplomb.

Two clean sheets and a goal to his name in his last two matches has improved Arsenal's position in the standings.

Needed.

Queens Park Rangers signed Taye Taiwo from AC Milan in January and the defender has moved to repay Mark Hughes with one goal and three assists in his seven appearances to date.

Justified.

Midfielder Matt Jarvis is perhaps the only Wolves player worthy of being on this list at present.

Despite being deep in relegation trouble, Jarvis has found the back of the net three times in the last seven games.

Fighter.

Whilst Sergio Aguero hasn't reached the standards he displayed at the very beginning of the season, he is still getting goals.

Three goals and an assist in his last five league appearances show he hasn't conceded the title to Manchester United just yet.

Grinding.

If Blackburn Rovers have ever needed some help in propelling them up the table, then now is the time.

Morton Gamst Pedersen has three assists in his last three games for the club.

Timely.

Arsenal's Bacary Sagna missed much of the season with a broken leg, but now he's back and brought solidarity to the Gunner's back line.

Sagna has two clean sheets, two assists and a goal in his last five matches.

Useful.

Similarly to Sagna, Alex Song has also come good for Arsenal of late.

Despite a relatively poor start to the season by his standard, Song has found his attacking form with five assists in his last five matches.

Creative.

Two goals and an assist in his last seven matches have seen Mikel Arteta looking sharp for Arsenal.

Last week he struck a superb free kick against Aston Villa to settle the Premier League match.

Quarterback.

Manchester United have somehow ground their way to the top of the table without playing particularly well.

Ashley Young has contributed his bit with three assists and a goal in his past five games, that all following a lay off which saw him only play in five of the last thirteen games.

Fresh.

Arsenal's Thomas Vermaelen has a reputation for scoring goals after notching seven from defence in his first season in the Premier League.

After playing only 450 minutes of football last season, the Belgian has found his scoring touch of late with two goals and two clean sheets in his last three matches.

Versatile.

Queens Park Rangers new boy Bobby Zamora has been doing his best to help keep the club playing top flight football.

Zamora has managed four goals and four assists in his last 10 appearances.

Belief.

Chelsea have had a difficult season following the arrival and departure of Andres Villas-Boas, but Roberto Di Matteo seems to have the club back on the right track.

Cech has had five clean sheets in the last 10 games, saving 31 shots in the process.

Safe.

Wigan's only hope of survival surely rests on the form of Victor Moses.

Moses has managed a goal and four assists in the past eight matches.

Trying.

West Brom's Youssouf Mulumbu had only two assists in his previous two season with the club, but has now found his form with four assists in his last nine games for the club.

Evolving.

Benoit Assou-Ekotto has come on leaps and bounds for Tottenham Hotspur this season.

A defender that manages two goals, three assists and five clean sheets from his last 13 matches is alright with me.

Utility.

Swansea City's Michel Vorm is likely a candidate for Premier League goalkeeper of the season.

He has certainly done his chances no harm with three clean sheets in the past four games.

Wall.

Love him or loathe him, Nicklas Bendtner is in excellent form.

It seems when he wears in Batman-esque mask, he scores goals—well three in four games at least.

Clinical.

Martin O'Neil certainly seems to be getting more out of Stephane Sessegnon than former manager Steve Bruce ever did.

Five goals and five assists in his last 12 games is an excellent return.

Input.

James McClean has come from nowhere to take the Premier League by storm.

Four goals and three assists in 11 matches from the wing is more than respectable.

Newcomer.

Newcastle United manager doesn't always select Hatem Ben Arfa for his first team, but when he does the midfielder seems to deliver.

Ben Arfa has managed four goals and four assists in his last 11 appearances in the league.

Reliable.

You might think that Javier Hernandez has had a quiet year for Manchester United, but four goals and an assist in his last six appearances have reignited his season.

Willing.

Johnny Evans could be Manchester United's most-improved player this season.

Three clean sheets, a goal and an assist in his three matches cements that theory.

Developing.

Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea came in for a lot of stick when he started the season.

Alex Ferguson even favoured Anders Lindegaard over the Spaniard for a period until he got injured.

De Gea has been much improved since Lindegaard left the equation and has managed three clean sheets in his last three games, saving eight shots in the process.

Finally.

Manchester City's title charge has hit a rocky patch, and when that happens, you need players to step up.

Gael Clichy has done just that with two assists and a clean sheet in his last four games.

Supplying.

Fulham's January signing Pavel Pogrebnyak has certainly started his Premier League career well.

A five goal return in six games is pleasing for his manager.

Prolific.

Fulham's Clint Dempsey is enjoying his best-ever season in the Premier League and has struck six times in his last nine league games. He's also thrown an assist in there as well.

Go-to-guy.

Everton needed a striker and looked to Nikica Jelavic to replace the outgoing Luis Saha.

Jelavic has scored two in his last four games for the Toffees.

New Boy.

Chelsea's slight turnaround in fortunes has also coincided with the return to form of Juan Mata.

The Spaniard has four assists and a goal in his last seven games.

Heartbeat.

Chelsea's Gary Cahill didn't exactly set the world alight in his first few games for the club, but under Roberto Di Matteo, Cahill has managed a goal with three clean sheets in his last five matches.

Turnaround.

Bolton are probably wondering why Arsenal don't play Ryo Miyaichi week in week out, but Arsenal's loss is Bolton's gain.

Miyaichi has provided two assists in the last two games.

Loanee.

Blackburn's attempt at Premier League survival wouldn't be existent without Yakubu's contribution.

The Yak has got two goals and an assist in his last six games, which is actually a slump for him this season.

Hungry.

Blackburn Rovers look set to lose David "Junior" Hoilett in the summer due to his great displays on the wing.

The Canadian has stepped up his games over recent weeks with three goals in his last three games.

Timely.

Five goals and four assists are the statistics that Gareth Bale can demonstrate over his last 13 appearances.

Olympic.

Arsenal goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny is the man who finally solved the goalkeeping dilemma at the Emirates Stadium.

Two shutouts in his last two games will be pleasing to Arsene Wenger.

Problem-solver.

When's the last time you saw Joe Hart make a mistake?

Four clean sheets in his last seven games, coupled with 19 saves is impressive even by his standards.

The future.

Liverpool will be hoping that Luis Suarez has learnt from the mistakes he has made earlier on in the season.

His recent form suggests he's slowly returning back to his best with two goals and two assists in the last six matches.

Tireless.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard recently became the first player since Ian Rush in 1982 to score a treble in a league derby.

Gerrard has notched three goals and an assist in his last three matches.

Inspirational.

Three clean sheets and two assists in his last seven games shows that Patrice Evra is leading by example at this critical stage of the season.

Leader.

Norwich City striker Grant Holt has really come good for the club of late.

Many skeptics didn't think the big forward would be good enough for the Premier League, but five goals in his last six games has proved the doubters wrong.

Unfortunately, he's now suspended after being sent off at the weekend.

Fiery.

Gylfi Sigurdsson has only played 10 games for Swansea City since he signed, but he's certainly made an impact.

Five goals and three assist—all away from home—have endeared him to the fans already.

Traveller.

Swansea City have also benefitted from the loan signing of Steven Caulker of Tottenham Hotspur.

The young central defender looks a sure thing for Spurs first team action next season and has managed an assist and three clean sheets in his last four games.

Impressing.

Theo Walcott has never really been truly consistent, but the Englishman seems to be finding his form with four goals and four assists in his last seven games.

Speedy.

Newcastle United striker Demba Ba has hit a bit of a dry patch for his club, but thankfully Alan Pardew can still call upon January signing Papiss Cisse.

Cisse has struck five times in six appearances for the club with an assist thrown in to boot.

Frequent.

Manchester United midfielder Antonio Valencia is perhaps one of the most underrated midfielders in the Premier League.

In his last 13 league appearances for the club, he has managed an incredible three goals and 12 assists.

Damaging.

Wayne Rooney's form of late has been excellent, and both he and Antonio Valencia are the reasons why Manchester United are top of the table once again.

Rooney has scored eight goals and got three assists in his last eight league appearances.

Desire.

Whatever Robin Van Persie eats for breakfast in the morning is certainly working.

If you want to talk consistency, try 26 goals and 10 assists in 30 appearances.

Machine.

All statistics pertaining to goals, assists, appearances and clean sheets are taken from Premier League matches only, and all statistics were courtesy of www.premierleague.com.

Whilst the positioning of about 40-45 of these players could be argued in this list, the top 5-10 are certainly the form players on show right now.

Robin Van Persie's season is simply unbelievable, and it's meant that Wayne Rooney has crept up to 21 league goals for the season almost unnoticed.

With around eight fixtures remaining in the league, there is still time for some twists and turns yet.

Thanks for reading and be sure to check out 20 WAG's who are more famous than their footballer partners.

On Twitter? Follow me @petercwebster where I post all my B/R content.