EPL 100: Ranking of Premier League's Best Players After Matchday 10
We're 10 games into the Premier League season, and there are still three unbeaten teams. Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool are all hinting at an epic title race, with Arsenal not far behind them and Tottenham Hotspur still in the mix too.
To help you chew over all the action in Gameweek 10 and assess how every team and player got on, B/R returns with another season of the EPL100, ranking the best players in the Premier League by position.
Only performances in the 2018-19 Premier League season affect this ranking. Reputations, cup performances and European showings matter not.
To be eligible, players need to have started at least 50 per cent of the games—so, in this case, five out of 10 (or more). That means Lucas Torreira, Anthony Martial and Riyad Mahrez are finally eligible, but Leroy Sane still isn't.
Players who have appeared in multiple positions (example: Bernardo Silva) are categorized by the spot they've played most. If those values are level, they fall into the category they played most recently.
Goalkeepers
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Catching and parrying his way to the top of the goalkeeper rankings is Lukasz Fabianski, who continued his excellent start to life at West Ham United against Leicester City this weekend in the 1-1 draw.
That he's kept so busy helps him shine, and that's an advantage he has over the likes of Kepa Arrizabalaga and Alisson Becker, but he still has to produce the goods—and boy does he do it.
Entering the top 10 this week is Mat Ryan, who has played a significant part in Brighton's three straight 1-0 wins. Hugo Lloris' drop of six places reflects how tight it is between these players; one dodgy game can really set you back.
Biggest rise: Lukasz Fabianski (+6)
Biggest fall: Hugo Lloris (-6)
| Rank | Player | Club |
| 1 | Lukasz Fabianski (+6) | West Ham |
| 2 | Martin Dubravka (+1) | Newcastle |
| 3 | Rui Patricio (-2) | Wolves |
| 4 | Joe Hart (-2) | Burnley |
| 5 | Ederson Moraes (-1) | Manchester City |
| 6 | Alex McCarthy (-1) | Southampton |
| 7 | Ben Foster (New!) | Watford |
| 8 | David De Gea (+1) | Manchester United |
| 9 | Mat Ryan (New!) | Brighton |
| 10 | Hugo Lloris (-6) | Tottenham |
Right-Backs/Right Wing-Backs
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Selhurst Park bore witness to some super right-back play on Sunday, with Hector Bellerin and Aaron Wan-Bissaka both nailing their one-on-one defensive duties, and the former offering some good forward runs too.
A day later, on the opposite side of London, Wembley witnessed the opposite from Kieran Trippier, who struggled mightily with Raheem Sterling in a defensive capacity during Tottenham's 1-0 loss to Manchester City.
In that same game Kyle Walker endured a pretty mixed performance. He started well but eventually allowed his lust to have a big game against his old team get the better of him, leading him to try overambitious and overcomplicated things.
Biggest rise: Adam Smith (+2)
Biggest fall: Multiple (-1)
| Rank | Player | Club |
| 1 | Matt Doherty (Stay) | Wolves |
| 2 | Kyle Walker (Stay) | Manchester City |
| 3 | Cesar Azpilicueta (Stay) | Chelsea |
| 4 | Aaron Wan-Bissaka (+1) | Crystal Palace |
| 5 | Trent Alexander-Arnold (-1) | Liverpool |
| 6 | Hector Bellerin (Stay) | Arsenal |
| 7 | Pablo Zabaleta (Stay) | West Ham |
| 8 | Adam Smith (+2) | Bournemouth |
| 9 | Daryl Janmaat (-1) | Watford |
| 10 | Kieran Trippier (-1) | Tottenham |
Left-Backs/Left Wing-Backs
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Rarely will you see a defender who kept a clean sheet play as badly as Benjamin Mendy did on Monday night. He made two defensive errors that could easily have led to goals, passed badly and didn't attack with any belief or promise either.
He drops below Ben Chilwell, who was again a real physical presence on the left for Leicester City this weekend, and Luke Shaw has closed the gap on them both with another assured display in Manchester United's 2-1 victory over Everton.
Jonny's last two performances haven't been good; he's trending the wrong way.
Biggest rise: Ben Chilwell (+3)
Biggest fall: Jose Holebas, Jonny (-2)
| Rank | Player | Club |
| 1 | Marcos Alonso (Stay) | Chelsea |
| 2 | Andy Robertson (Stay) | Liverpool |
| 3 | Ben Chilwell (+3) | Leicester City |
| 4 | Benjamin Mendy (-1) | Manchester City |
| 5 | Luke Shaw (+2) | Manchester United |
| 6 | Jose Holebas (-2) | Watford |
| 7 | Jonny (-2) | Wolves |
| 8 | Danny Rose (Stay) | Tottenham |
| 9 | Lucas Digne (Stay) | Everton |
| 10 | Nacho Monreal (Stay) | Arsenal |
Centre-Backs
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One lapse in judgement aside, Aymeric Laporte had a stellar game against Tottenham and moves into second place in the rankings off the back of it. John Stones was even better, and he moves up into fifth.
The biggest jump this week is Issa Diop's, who was as brilliant against Leicester City as he has been for a few weeks now. He looked all set for a rocky start to Premier League life after scoring an own goal on his debut against Arsenal, but he's flushed that from the system and put together a really strong sequence of performances.
Nathan Ake has been similarly excellent of late, contributing heavily to Bournemouth's new-found defensive stubbornness.
Biggest rise: Issa Diop (+8)
Biggest fall: Jan Vertonghen (-6)
Defensive Midfielders/Central Midfielders
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This week was a victory for the deep-lying midfielders, with plenty who operate in that classic No. 6 position excelling for their clubs.
On Saturday Etienne Capoue and Declan Rice dominated; on Sunday Jorginho and Lucas Torreira bossed it; on Monday Fernandinho put in a monster shift to help stymie Tottenham.
There were some good No. 8 displays, too, with David Silva, Georginio Wijnaldum, Paul Pogba and N'Golo Kante all impressing to various degrees.
Mateo Kovacic's drop is a big one, but he's seemingly been relegated to Europa League duty, impacting less in the Premier League as a result, and that's reflected here.
Biggest rise: Multiple (+4)
Biggest fall: Mateo Kovacic (-9)
| Rank | Player | Club |
| 1 | Bernardo Silva (Stay) | Manchester City |
| 2 | David Silva (Stay) | Manchester City |
| 3 | Fernandinho (+4) | Manchester City |
| 4 | Etienne Capoue (Stay) | Watford |
| 5 | Georginio Wijnaldum (+4) | Liverpool |
| 6 | Jorginho (+4) | Chelsea |
| 7 | Joao Moutinho (-2) | Wolves |
| 8 | Ruben Neves (-2) | Wolves |
| 9 | Abdoulaye Doucoure (+4) | Watford |
| 10 | N'Golo Kante (+2) | Chelsea |
| 11 | Declan Rice (+3) | West Ham |
| 12 | Mateo Kovacic (-9) | Chelsea |
| 13 | James Milner (-5) | Liverpool |
| 14 | Lucas Torreira (New!) | Arsenal |
| 15 | Idrissa Gueye (-4) | Everton |
| 16 | Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg (-1) | Southampton |
| 17 | Philip Billing (+2) | Huddersfield Town |
| 18 | Jean Michael Seri (-2) | Fulham |
| 19 | Paul Pogba (New!) | Manchester United |
| 20 | Jonjo Shelvey (-2) | Newcastle |
Attacking Midfielders/Wingers
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Eden Hazard missed Chelsea's win over Burnley, but he's been far and away the best player in the Premier League so far this season, so for anyone to overtake him they would have needed a magical performance.
Raheem Sterling was the most likely bet to manage it, and while he did play well against Tottenham, assisting the only goal of the game, it wasn't enough.
Ryan Fraser, Roberto Pereyra, Gylfi Sigurdsson, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah all impacted their games in a notable way, ensuring the top 10 is packed with top performers.
Anthony Martial and Riyad Mahrez have now played enough games to enter the top 20. Leroy Sane (four starts) is still at least two weeks away after not featuring on Monday.
Biggest rise: Sadio Mane (+8)
Biggest fall: J.B. Gudmundsson (-10)
Strikers
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Sergio Aguero's blank at Wembley Stadium creates room for a new No. 1 among the strikers this week. Step forward, Callum Wilson.
The Bournemouth striker hit his fourth and fifth goals of the season against a sorry Fulham defence and worked hard when his side were in the defensive phase.
Moving into third is Glenn Murray, who also notched his fifth of the campaign on Saturday, and jumping into fifth is Wilfried Zaha, who was very lively against Arsenal, striking the post and winning a penalty.
Biggest rise: Wilfried Zaha (+5)
All statistics via WhoScored.com.
