Difference Makers: The Best of the Premier League

This week at the office the ESPN-World Sport staff was broken into Panels to choose their Premier League squad for their season.I was paired with Liverpool legend Steve McMahon and Ex-Newcastle player John Beresford.

We have gone on and on about what makes the best of the Premier League,the best eleven from the top flight of England in the current season. It does not necessarily have to be from the Big 4 (Liverpool's decline has now started to make it the Big 3). From all 20 clubs including Derby County.What is the squad of 11 players and 5 substitutes that makes it to this list? (The chosen players are presented in bold)

We kickoff with goal keepers and thoughts swamp your mind..Almunia? Cech? Reina? Personally,I would keep David James as my first choice keeper because even at 37 he has been remarkably consistent.Now to the sub goal keeper,Edwin Van der Sar is undoubtedly one of the greatest goal keepers to have graced the Premier League but I think,hey! if he's not starting,he's not the type to benched! So my Substitute goal keeper would probably be Everton's Tim Howard,boy! This lad is responsible for the battle for fourth place with Liverpool

Now to our right back.Who's it going to be? Belleti? Sagna? Arbeloa?.Well,Alan Hutton only just came in January so I think if it's not Glen Johnson from Portsmouth(good but not very consistent) or Micah Richards from Manchester City (he's been injured long.It has got to be Man Utd's Wes Brown.

My first choice for a central defender is wrapped up by Nemanja Vidic without a problem.Kolo Toure of Arsenal fights of competition from Ricardo Carvalho,Rio Ferdinand,Jaime Carragher,Jonathan Woodgate and Joleon Lescott for the second center back place.

The left back position is hard to choose from because you think Patrice Evra,Nicky Shorey,Pascal Chimbonda(recently playing LB) are all good enough for that particular position but I feel Arsenal's Gael Clichy deserves that spot because he has matured greatly as player this season.

In Midfield from the right we have unanimously chosen Manchester United's Cristiano Ronaldo,seriously over 30 goals already,he had only to fight off competition from Blackburn's David Bentley and Tottenham's Aaron Lennon which he easily did.In the middle there were various contenders including Chelsea trio of Frank Lampard,Micheal Ballack and Micheal Essien,Man Utd's Paul Scholes,Everton's Mikel Arteta,Bolton's Kevin Nolan,Man City's Elano and West Ham's Mark Noble but the two spots were snatched by Liverpool skipper Steven Gerrard and Arsenal's Cesc Fabregas.Chelsea's Joe Cole was chosen the left winger with Middlesborough's Stewart Downing,Man Utd's Ryan Giggs and Liverpool's Ryan Babel and Blackburn's Morten Gamst Pedersen left out.

The two strikers were not the hardest to choose actually with Liverpool's Fernando Torres immediately taking up the first spot.However,the second striker option gave me a bit of a headache.Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez from Manchester United,Chelsea's duo of Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka,Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor were all considered.Even Darren Bent,Robbie Keane,Yakubu,Santa Cruz and McCarthy were considered but Spurs freely scoring striker Dimitar Berbatov forced us to give the spot to him.

Steven Gerrard is chosen as captain.

The Substitutes :

Tim Howard (Everton)

Ricardo Carvalho (Chelsea)

Mikel Arteta (Everton)

David Bentley (Blackburn)

Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)