7 Greatest Premier League Players In EVERY Position & All Time XI

it was in may 1992 just over 30 years ago that the premier league was officially formed and it was in august 1992 so a little under 30 years ago that the first premier league fixtures were contested the opening weekend saw sheffield united beat manchester united 2-1 norwich city 140 away at arsenal chelsea drew one all with oldham athletic who were relegated from the football league this season and leeds united won 2-1 against a team that no longer exists john barnes was the highest paid player in the league on 10 000 pounds a week blackburn rovers were the league's big spenders manchester city were skinned and hadn't spent a single penny all summer and there wasn't a single manager in the entire division who had been born outside of the british isles it would be fair to say therefore that a fair amount has changed over the last 30 years and to mark the 30th anniversary of what is now certainly the richest and most watched and is arguably the best football league on the planet depending upon what that word means to you in that context i have been looking back at those 30 years as a whole and as some of the greatest players and managers to have graced the division during that time and today i have put all of those thoughts together into one massive video taking a look at the seven greatest players of the premier league era in each position the seven greatest managers and the league's all-time greatest eleven all inclusions and their rankings are based upon the quality and quantity of each player's performances in the premier league talent longevity impact and consistency are therefore all taken into account among other factors and performances and accomplishments in other competitions outside of the premier league have been disregarded if you want to know why the premier league was actually created in 1992 as a breakaway league which split from the football league in a move orchestrated by the leagues six supposedly biggest clubs at the time i will leave a link to a video explaining that in the video description of this video and i'll include a link to it that will appear on your screens at the end of this one without further ado though here are the seven greatest players of the premier league era in each position from goalkeepers through to center forwards the seven greatest managers and the league's greatest ever eleven in my opinion and in my opinion only naturally we start with goalkeepers the footballers who until recently weren't really footballers at all but now often appear to be as comfortable on the ball and in the past as most offenders i'll try to explain my thinking and give some honourable mentions and naturally you will disagree with some of my selections here and indeed throughout this series and that is a good thing it doesn't mean and i repeat it does not mean that you have to email me telling me to eat a bag of dicks got that rexio all right then let's get started here are the seven greatest goalkeepers of the premier league era as far as i'm concerned pepe arena i would say with some certainty that seventh place was the toughest of fill in this seven the other six were quite firmly planted in my eyes it was just a case of how to order them but there are at least five keepers who i think could make quite compelling cases for deserving to feature in the overall seven i will come to who they are with my honorable mentions though the only one i will name now is you see escalating who is in my eyes the most underrated goalkeeper of the premier league era and undoubtedly one of the 10 best in the end though uc and a handful of others are just pipped to seventh place by pepe rayner who is another often underrated goalkeeper i think at least not during his time in the premier league so much at liverpool at least where i think everyone appreciated just how good he was but for some reason the passage of time doesn't seem to have been particularly kind to the perception of him in fairness rainer typically had a pretty solid backline in front of him and he often played in quite conservative liverpool teams which might part explain why he has the highest clean sheet percentage of any goalkeeper with over 100 clean sheets in the history of the premier league the spaniard kept clean sheets in 45.79 of his premier league games which is pretty phenomenal and whilst that wasn't solely down to him he was a major reason behind it rainer joined liverpool in 2005 immediately replacing 2005 champions league final hero jessie dudak that was a tough act to follow but reina soon cemented his place in the hearts of liverpool fans he won the premier league golden glove in each of his first three seasons at anfield and in addition to being amongst the most dependable shot stoppers in europe rayner also had really quick feet and smart distribution at least by the standards of the time for all my love of yaskalanan i think rayna perhaps just had a little bit more about it so i went with my head and not my heart on this one neville southall one of the greatest goalkeepers the british game has ever produced wales and everton legend neville southall is arguably the best goalkeeper in this seven and he is certainly among the top four why is he only in sixth then well because he actually played his best football prior to the breakaway of the premier league but he still did enough after the greed parade began to secure a spot in sixth one of only four goalkeepers to ever win the fwa footballer of the year award alongside bert troutman pat jennings and gordon banks which isn't bad company to be in southall was a supreme shot stopper who wasn't particularly tall at six foot one but looked about ten foot tall to any centre forwards who were bearing down on his goal sometimes mocked for gaining weight in the latter years of his career no one who witnessed southpaw's talents would dismiss him so easily or so foolishly a goalkeeper with meticulous attention to detail southport spent far more than 10 000 hours perfecting his craft and even borrowed tips relating to reaction speed balance and spring from other sports the result was an almost unbeatable presence at his best and although he only played six seasons of premier league football by virtue of the fact that he was already 33 years old when the division was created it is a mark of the man that he still sneaks in i'm also well informed that he is an absolutely lovely bloke but that had no sway over his ranking david seaman another man who played plenty of football prior to the creation of the premier league i think david seaman is another goalkeeper who gets a bit of an unfair rap from football fans and particularly from fans who are around my age and only really saw siemens later years up close and personal for people my age their earliest memory of watching semen live or at least their outstanding earliest memory of him will likely be his unfortunate lob courtesy of ronaldinho at the 2002 world cup as england were narrowly beaten by a team who went on to win that world cup with ease even that wasn't an enormous blunder i don't think but even if you do think that it was it hardly reflected siemens talents more broadly for starters the yorkshireman was on the verge of turning 39 at that time so he was hardly in the prime of his career five years younger than southall seaman began his career a decade before the premier league was born but unlike the welshman he did play his best football in the newly formed breakaway league all but 19 of siemens 344 premier league appearances and all but three of his 141 premier league clean sheets came at arsenal where seaman is rightly heralded as having been one of the gunners greatest players of all time a big man with great big hands though not quite that big that was an advert for adidas seaman was just brilliant at the goalkeeping fundamentals his reflexes handling and agility were all superb and most of his supposed blunders were extremely isolated incidents of him getting caught out due to his advance starting position which i would be willing to bet prevented more goals than it led to so old safe hands takes fifth in my seven and his save against sheffield united admittedly in the fa cup rather than the premier league remains the greatest save that i can ever remember watching live david de gea there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that this will be the most controversial inclusion in this seven but it is one that i'm more than willing to stand by had david de gea departed manchester united at any of the numerous stages in which real madrid attempted to sign him when he was arguably the best goalkeeper on the planet he would undoubtedly have gone down as one of the finest shot stoppers of the premier league era why then just because his standard has dropped since 2018 should we rewrite history and pretend that wasn't the case you could argue of course that de gea has sullied his legacy somewhat with too many sub-par performances but his best years can stand for themselves and there have still been some gems in there even from the last two to three years an unorthodox goalkeeper in some respects deja had and indeed still has a particular ponchon for using his feet to deny opponents and at his best he was absolutely brilliant at it when he first arrived at manchester united de gea looked both lanky and a little bit lost and alex ferguson even had to rotate him with anders lindegaard at times for his own good it would be after ferguson retired however and manchester united fell on less successful times the de gea played his best football for the club between 2014 and 2017 i would maintain the de haya reach the highest peak level of performance attained by any goalkeeper in the history of the division it is all too easy to forget how much of a basket case manchester united really were at times and without some truly super human performances by de gea they could easily have spent two three maybe even four seasons outside of the champions league and europa league so whatever you think of him now de gea is or at least was a rare talent an exceptional goalkeeper and one of the finest that we have seen in the english game during my lifetime at least edwin van der sar i think david de gea at his best was certainly better than edwin van der sar at his best but in terms of a safe dependable and complete pair of hands you couldn't wish for a much better goalkeeper than edwin van der sar perennially brilliant vandasar first arrived in the premier league in 2001 when he joined fulham after being replaced at juventus by gianluigi buffon there are probably little more than a handful of goalkeepers in my entire lifetime good enough to leapfrog edwin van der sar in a club's pecking order but jan luigi buffon was certainly one of them juventus loss was most assuredly fulham's gain though and following four seasons in which he looked completely out of place at a mid-table team the dutchman joined one looking to regain their mantle at the top of the division a three-year title drow prior to the summer of 2005 constituted manchester united and alex ferguson's longest of the premier league era and the wily old scot wasn't alone in identifying goalkeeper as a problem position where roy carroll and tim howard have been battling it out for a starting birth van der sar came in and immediately brought a sense of calmness to the manchester united backline both as tall and thin as he was brilliant vandasar had excellent positioning he commanded his six yard books brilliantly and he was a trailblazer during the 1990s and early 2000s in terms of his skill and distribution with the ball at his feet a first class professional vandasar made 313 premier league appearances and i doubt he had more than 10 that were below a 7 out of 10 in terms of his performance his record of 90 clean sheets in 186 premier league appearances for manchester united is outrageous and his spot in third and this seven was pretty much set in stone peta check it's almost six years to the day since petr cech broke the premier league's clean sheet record and the chelsea legend went on to win another 32 premier league clean sheets after that making him the division's undisputed clean sheet king i think an outstanding case could be made in favor of petr cech having been the greatest goalkeeper of the premier league era and i suspect that had his skull not been fractured in that collision with stephen hunt ruling him out for an extended period of time and resulting in him wearing a scrum cap for the rest of his career he would almost certainly be considered the league's greatest goalkeeper by something like 90 plus percent of supporters only chelsea's second signing of the jose mourinho era czech rapidly became one of the chelsea boss's star men and he remains one of the division's all-time greatest pieces of transfer business signed for just 7.1 million pounds from ren it should be said that chelsea already had a very good goalkeeper at the time in the form of carlo cuda cheapy meaning that only form of the highest caliber would see czech cemente starting birth his form went above and beyond even the most optimistic of chelsea fans expectations though and in his debut campaign czech conceded just 15 league goals the fewest any premier league team has ever conceded in a single campaign a brilliant character leader and above all else goalkeeper czech really was the complete package gianluigi buffon called check the greatest goalkeeper of his era which is high praise indeed and whilst i would probably put him in a bracket only narrowly behind the likes of buffon casius and neuer he absolutely deserves to be mentioned alongside those greats and he's excellent value to be our runner-up in this seven at the bare minimum peter schmeichel predictable tedious correct it is all of the above as far as i'm concerned when it comes to crowning peter schmeichel as the greatest goalkeeper of the premier league era petr cech kept more clean sheets and edwin van der sar was better with the ball at his feet but all round in terms of what they brought to a team peter schmeichel topped the lot of them capable of winning almost 10 points a season through his own individual brilliance it was at euro 1992 that a lot of people rarely sat up and took notes across europe of just what a sensational goalkeeper peter schmeichel really was by that stage which was also the year in which the premier league was created it was already too late for anyone to snatch michael up since he had already signed for manchester united for an absolute bargain 505 000 pounds from bromby in 1991. schmeichel only actually spends eight seasons at manchester united and therefore only seven in the premier league and i say only solely in comparison to petr cech's 11 seasons at chelsea and david seaman's 13 years at arsenal nonetheless the role that he played in cementing alex ferguson's side as the dominant force within the english game was as great as the contribution of any goalkeeper to a single club in the history of football in this country schmeichel was on his day almost unbeatable he is the only premier league goalkeeper who multiple world-class centre-forwards routinely admit to having dreaded playing against due to his size reflexes and general aura for my money which admittedly isn't that much he is the best there has been in the premier league so that is it for my seven but honorable mentions above all else go to my boy uc askalinen of course along with shay given tim howard hugo laurice jens lehmann david james mark schwarzer and nigel martin perhaps the trickiest keeper to leave out was actually joe hart who is tired with petr check for the record of having won the most premier league golden gloves though i don't believe his peak was anywhere near to czechs or de geas and his drop-off came much earlier and was much more dramatic than de hayes nonetheless i think you could make a case for including him ahead of pepe rayner in 7th i just wasn't quite convinced current premier league shot stoppers allison and edison are also deserving of honorable mentions and could easily both crack mass 7 in years to come if they maintain their standards or reach yet greater ones ultimately the fact that edison has only played four full seasons of premier league football and allison only three along with the fact that i don't think the standard that they have set has been that vastly superior to a pepe reiner for example prevented them from featuring but they certainly came close 7th cesar azpilicueta as ever choosing who to leave out of this seven entirely was a much tougher task than ordering the seven that i have included it is a mark of cesar azpilicueta's consistency and his longevity in particular therefore that he is the right back who i opted to include in seventh it should be said given cesar azpilicueta's versatility that i'm only considering players for this series in one position and only in what has statistically been their primary position james milner and jamie carragher for example have both played plenty of games at right-back in the premier league but unlike cesar azpilicueta it is not where they have played the bulk of their football chelsea have spent more than a billion pounds on players since roman abramovich acquired the club in 2003 smashing transfer records to sign the likes of andrei chevchenko and fernando torres and yet they have completed few better deals during that time than the seven million pound acquisition of cesar aspell equator from marseilles in the summer of 2012. brought in immediately after chelsea won the champions league during this same summer as eden hazard and oscar arrived as per equator arrived to little fanfare as well equator has since played 449 games for chelsea 309 of them in the premier league he has won the club's player of the year award the premier league title twice and the champions league as chelsea's captain positionally brilliant and incredibly well disciplined azpilicueta is among the most solid and consistent defenders to have played in the premier league whether that be a right back left back or as part of a back three but ultimately it is right back where he has played most of his football and as such he gets us started in this seventh sixth lee dixon as with a number of players who were active during the start of the premier league era and who will feature in this series it is a bit trickier to rank lee dixon than the others in this seven dixon played his best football probably in the last three to four years of the first division winning two top flight league titles as a stalwart in an excellent arsenal back line and making the pfa team of the year in three of those four seasons nonetheless despite being 28 years old when the premier league began the gunners legends still played over 300 games in the newly rebranded breakaway league dixon along with the likes of tony adams and his opposite fullback nigel winterburn most likely have arsene wenger to thank for that fact with the lifestyle changes that he implemented at arsenal in terms of their diet discipline and psychology wildly felt to have played a role in their longevity i spoke in the introduction about how the right-back role has changed but lee dixon was very much a marauding full-back by the standards of the time a tireless runner up and down the right flank dixon was quick thinking dogged in carrying out his defensive duties and he could cross a ball that arsenal back line was certainly greater as a whole than the sum of its parts as dixon would be the first to admit but that is not doing down his ability as a fullback rather it is even higher praise of their collective brilliance were dixon 18 when the premier league began rather than 28 he'd likely trouble our top three but in the real world having made his premier league debut before some of the players in this seven were even born he takes sixth fifth rob jones the least obvious and therefore perhaps the most controversial inclusion in this seven rob jones is rarely talked about in conversations surrounding the best rate backs to have played in the premier league unless you ask anyone who played alongside him liverpool have always had a history of great right backs one that they are continuing to this day and when rob jones joined liverpool in 1991 from crew alexandra he was tasked with replacing an anfield legend in the form of steve nicholl who had himself replaced one of english football's all-time great right-backs namely filnick it was a tough task particularly for a 19 year old his only previous experience was of playing in the old fourth division but rob jones was a natural on his debut for liverpool he kept manchester united's rising young star at ryan giggs quiet in a nil mill draw he quickly endeared himself to the anfield faithful through his committed performances fantastic defensive nows and his confidence on the ball steve mcmanaman called jones the best defender he ever played alongside naming him in his all-time teammate 11 alongside the likes of roberto carlos and zinedine zidane so why is jones so often overlooked well that's because his career was cut so drastically short jones suffered from a recurring back injury and a particularly persistent knee injury which still couldn't be fixed despite three operations from the age of 24 onwards he officially retired at the age of 27 though by that point he hadn't played a single premier league fixture in over two years jones played only 155 premier league games in total which restricts him to a spot in fifth but it is anyone's guess where he would have ranked were not for those crippling injury setbacks and it would have been interesting to have seen who made the right back position their own for england between him and gary neville jamie carragher has always said that it would have been jones having played alongside both but then again he would say that wouldn't he fourth pablo zabaleta from a right back whose career was sadly curtailed by injuries very early on to one who seemingly never suffered a long-term injury setback pablo zabaleta was a superb fullback in manchester city's first summer under shakeman saw's ownership they signed robinho for a british record transfer fee as well as securing the return of club legend sean wright phillips from stamford bridge however it was a 23 year old right back from argentina who was signed for less than 6.5 million pounds from espanol who would end up being the city's outstanding piece of business that summer pablo zabaleta went on to spend nine years at manchester city narrowly missing out on a testimonial though he would play a further three seasons of premier league football at west ham united there have been better attacking and defensive fullbacks to have played in the premier league but all round in terms of their attitude application and turning in consistently excellent performances few can lay a glove on the archetype zabalata played over 300 games of premier league football in total and though he only made the pfa team of the season once in the 2000 and 1314 campaign i suspect most impartial observers would pick him up right back in a premier league team of the decade between the years of 2010 and 2020. all things considered given the quality and consistency of his play in the league zabaleta is unfortunate to miss out on our top three ultimately i think just missing out to three superior footballers third trent alexander arnold i said earlier that liverpool are currently continuing in their tradition of having excellent right backs though that is just about the only thing that can be described as being traditional about trent alexander arnold i have seen efforts made to downplay the significance of the liverpool man but i don't think that there is any real precedence in football for what he has done over the last four or five years obviously whether it be kafu or marcelo alexander arnold is not the first extremely attack-minded full-back but for an elite level football team and let's be clear here that is exactly what liverpool are to be as dependent on their right back as liverpool are alexander arnold in terms of providing them with creativity i think that is quite unusual it's funny in some respects because alexander arnold was my primary example of the futility oftentimes when comparing players based on their positional designations since he does not carry out what we would consider to be most of the primary functions of a fullback even in the modern era i think alexander arnold is probably liverpool's second most important player now and if not then he is at the very least third which again is not normal for a fullback in such a brilliant team the only thing holding him back in this seven is his age trent is still only 23 though he has already made 147 premier league appearances and he has already recorded 42 premier league assists by the time he retires and quite possibly a good few years before that i suspect alexander island will be a nailed on inclusion in most premier league era 11s for now though he has to settle for a spot in third as right-backs go but even that is pretty remarkable for a 23-year-old second karl walker i must admit i've always been quite hard on kyle walker because i've found him to be so frustrating particularly for england despite being among the most experienced defenders in the game having started out so young walker was always prone to the odd rash decision and moment of madness hence why i think pep guardiola didn't trust him in some of the bigger fixtures earlier on during his reign my personal view is that the carelessness and rashness within his game always came as a consequence of walker's blistering pace which he felt afforded him such a luxury to not always take up the exact right positions or to be fully alert of course that is fine 99 of the time particularly against lesser teams and lesser players and walker's recovery pace is probably the most remarkable that i've seen from a defender in my lifetime but against the really top players when it mattered most he could be caught out i no longer feel as though that is the case and at both the euros or when manchester city faced psg early this season when i have had the pleasure of watching him up close and personal i never felt the walker was on the verge of making a big mistake indeed up against killian and bappe the frenchman looked genuinely frightened to try and take him on it will be interesting to see how walker matures now age 31 once that pace just slowly starts to desert him and perhaps that is why we are seeing more measured and seasoned performances from him now either way even if he never played another game of premier league football with 328 premier league appearances to his name right now and having made the pfa team the year three times only restricted from making a couple more appearances by the man who preceded him in the seven walker is undeniably fantastic value for a spot in second first gary neville it's boring it's predictable but like my top spot in our opening seven looking at the premier league's greatest goalkeepers it is also correct gary neville is not the most gifted fullback to have played in the premier league and that is one of the reasons why i think trent alexander arnold and others may well go on to exceed him but he is still the greatest for the time being physically neville wasn't much to write home about he wasn't the quickest tallest or strongest player at any age group technically also there was little to split him and at least 10 others in manchester united's so-called class of 92 many of whom you have never heard of mentally however neville was superb both in terms of his effort application and devotion of the sport but also in his understanding of the game defensive positioning and sixth sense for danger he may have committed the odd blunder in his exactly 400 premier league appearances but ask almost anyone who played against him on a frequent basis and they'll tell you neville was a nightmare to come up against relentless in his defensive work he didn't give forwards or wide players an inch and had he been just a bit taller he could easily have been a top-class centre-back though neville wasn't the quickest he certainly got up and down the right flank forming a famous partnership with david beckham for a number of years among neville's finest attributes was the very fact that he knew his limitations and was therefore highly accomplished in playing to his strengths in the modern game i suspect neville would have to transition to centre-back since the top teams want something out of their full-backs that he couldn't give them but for 19 years at manchester united he was as solid as they come at right back he made the pfa team of the year five times and he deservedly made both the premier league team of the decade and the overall premier league greatest 11 that was compiled for the premier league's 20th anniversary 10 years on now in the 30th year since the premier league's breakaway neville still comes out on top in terms of premier league right-backs as far as i'm concerned thankfully he doesn't quite come out on top in terms of youtube channels just yet currently on 345 000 subscribers which is a solid 100 000 behind yours truly though he has only uploaded 37 videos still at least i'm not sponsored by a betting firm so you do right to subscribe to me instead admittedly you can subscribe to both and according to my youtube analytics quite a lot of you do i don't blame you because you know despite the gambling ads the overlap is quite good that may be it for my seven but honourable mentions go to the likes of brana slavavanovich backery sagna sheamus coleman glenn johnson steve finnen stephen carr gary kelly lauren dan petrescu and joao cancello i think ivanovic and petrescu are particularly unfortunate to miss out meanwhile this seven came just a little bit too soon for cancelo who has only played 65 games of premier league football to date 7th virgil van dyke i gave you that little spiel about the quality and quantity of a player's performances in the premier league in the introduction and that is especially relevant when discussing virgil van dyke the liverpool man has only played 181 games in the premier league which is fewer than the likes of michael keane and harry maguire and also happens to be the fewest of any inclusion in this seven that is simultaneously a justification for why van dijk only comes in seventh for the time being at least whilst also speaking to how good he has been during those 181 games in order to make this seven at all not only has van dijk only made 181 premier league appearances only 114 of those appearances have come at liverpool where he has competed at the top end of the division age 30 one suspects and indeed one would hope that van dyke still has plenty of football left in him and i see no reason why he couldn't theoretically end up ranking as one of the say three greatest centre-backs of the premier league era certainly in his first two and a half years at liverpool van dyke was as good as any centre-back that we have seen in the top flight of english football during my lifetime a giant of a man who rarely needed to get out of second gear van dyke has very few weaknesses when he is at the top of his game given how complete he is physically mentally and technically juxtaposed with his lack of game time compared to others in this seven i think he had to feature but i couldn't justify putting him any higher than seventh sixth vincent company i suspect most people would agree that at his best virgil van dijk is a superior centre-back to vincent company and i would agree in fact even vince and company would agree in may 2020 companies stated that he thought van dyke was the greatest premier league centre-back of all time however company has played a lot more premier league games than van dijk 84 more games at this point to be specific and he spent almost all of that time competing at the top end of the division company arrived at manchester city in the summer of 2008 before shakeman saw but he would be one of the few to survive the overhaul that was carried out under the city's emirati royal over the next few years company german city as a defensive or even central midfielder but he soon transitioned to centre-back becoming the club's talismanic an inspirational leader for the next decade i don't think that there is a single attribute the company would rank as being the best at in this seven but he was just rock-solid all-round quick strong intelligent dominant in the air vocal and an excellent role model company rarely let manchester city down when it mattered most and even popped up at the other end of the pitch to score some crucial goals most notably one against manchester united and what was effectively a title-deciding wonder goal against leicester city injuries prevented company from completing a full season at the etihad during the second half of his decade at the club but even then he's still managed to make a telling contribution often at key moments so he takes sixth fifth nemanj sir alex ferguson had a reputation for getting his transfer business done early during the summer window and of typically overlooking the january window entirely when teams tended to be more desperate and fees were often inflated he broke with that tradition in january 2006 and for very good reason as manchester united signed nemanja vidic and patrice evra just five days apart both would go on to become club legends but it is vidic who is the focus of this seven village was in many respects the perfect partner to rio ferdinand brought in from spartak moscow as a 24 year old across his first five full seasons in the premier league i would say vidic was the outstanding centre-back in the premier league a throwback in many respects vidic was tough brave and very aggressive always first to the ball invariably he would win it and on the rare occasions in which he didn't ferdinand would be on hand to sweep up village was the first offender to be named as the premier league player of the season and he remains the only defender to have won that award twice the only other two-time winners are thierry henry and cristiano ronaldo in any position which you know isn't bad company for a no-nonsense serbian centre-back to be in alongside village made the pfa team of the year four times which is the joint's second most appearances of any centre-back during the premier league era and in 2012 he was voted by the public into a 20th anniversary premier league era best aladdin village's last few seasons at old trafford were disrupted by injuries and he wasn't quite the physical force of his earlier years but with 211 premier league appearances under his belt at least 150 of them of the very highest caliber he takes fifth for me fourth tony adams purely defensively in terms of the fundamentals of defensive positioning organization man marking aerial ability blocking shots and dispossessing opponents i would say tony adams is the toughest centre-back to come up against and therefore surely the greatest in that respect that we have seen in the premier league for that reason when i did my first draft for this seven creating a 33-man shortlist before whittling them down to just seven i penciled tony adams in at second place and that is where he would have remained had he spent like every other player in this seven his entire career playing during the premier league era unfortunately tony adams began his professional career in 1983 and he was soon to turn 26 at the time of the premier league's breakaway from the first division he still went on to play 255 games in the newly formed league keeping a remarkable 115 clean sheets during that time as the key cog in an outstanding defensive unit at arsenal adams became arsenal's club captain in 1988 at the age of only 21 and he would captain them for the next 14 years his four championships two of which came during the premier league era give him the unique distinction of being the only player to captain a team to winning top flight league titles in three different decades adams wasn't the quickest or most gifted of centre-backs though he did become more confident on the ball under arsene wenger but when it came to blocking shots timing his tackles and generally just keeping the ball out of his own net arguably the premier league has not seen anyone better third sol campbell soul campbell is among the finest centre-backs from the premier league and indeed beyond during my lifetime and i am always a little bit bemused when he isn't recognized as such alright maybe i can understand why spurs fans wouldn't want to recognize him as such but no one else the complete centre-back campbell was tough intelligent and a fantastic athlete he broke through young at tottenham initially filling in at both right back and left back but he soon settled at centre-back which was always his strongest position the season in which campbell made his debut was also the premier league's debut campaign and before long he was one of the outstanding defenders in the division and they nailed on starter for england a three-time pfa team of the year inclusion campbell was also the only player from a star-studded england team to make the team of the tournament at the 2002 world cup four years later he became the first player ever to represent england at six consecutive international tournaments campbell made a grand total of 503 premier league appearances the third most of any centre-back just five games off top spot and the 13th most of any player in any position ahead of the likes of wayne rooney and paul scholes of course campbell very famously or infamously depending upon your club allegiances ran down his contract at tottenham before joining the club's north london rivals on a free transfer the move earned campbell the nickname judas among spurs fans though it also saw him win two premier league titles and three fa cups whatever your views on him as a person though campbell was a sensational centre-half and his spot in third was pretty ironclad based upon my criteria second john terry if i were to hazard a guess i think the common perception among most football fans in england is that john terry is the greatest centre-back of the premier league era and i must admit it is an opinion that i can completely understand and indeed it is one that i used to hold with age most centre-backs gain a greater understanding of the game and positional sense which can compensate for the fact that their speed is starting to desert them in the case of john terry however he just seems to have been born with first class positional instincts and a remarkable defensive nows positionally i think he is the best centre-back that we have seen in the premier league and that wasn't all that he had going for him a fantastic leader and a talismanic captain at chelsea terry was a commanding presence incredibly brave and committed not a giant at six foot two inches tall terry possessed a fantastic determined leap attacking the ball with real purpose which made him a titan in both boxes and saw him score a career total of 74 goals deceptively quick at least up until his early to mid 30s terry was typically partnered with a more technically gifted centre-back a both club and international level but whilst he was not a bonafide ball playing centre-back his distribution was almost always safe and accurate even if it wasn't as incisive or as adventurous as his comrade at centre-back terry played 492 games of premier league football all of them coming at chelsea and he won more premier league titles as a club captain than any other player a four-time pfa team of the year inclusion and five-time thief pro world 11 inclusion terry was a formidable centre-back and i think most people would agree that he would have to make a best 11 of the premier league era or at the very least make the bench first rio ferdinand as i said just a moment ago i think if you polled followers of the premier league on who is the greatest centre-back in the history of the division most would go with john terry however if you were to put that same questions of players and managers at least those who played and managed jordan ferdinand's time in the premier league i suspect a majority would go with him ultimately i think ferdinand is the greatest premier league and english defender of my lifetime and i think he would come very close to making an all-time england 11. a born footballer who simply had it all ferdinand might have become a center forward or a number 10 were not for his size and presence on a football pitch gifted and incredibly composed in possession of the ball ferdinand was unlike anything the english game produced in at least 30 years i have a soft spot for ball playing center halves which always gave ferdinand the edge in terms of this seven but i do think that he just had that bit extra above every other defender that we have seen in the premier league starting purely with the numbers ferdinand played 504 premier league games the second most of any centre-back in the history of the division trailing jamie carragher by just four appearances during that time he broke the british record transfer fee twice before he had even turned 24. he made the pfa team of the year six times which is a record among centre-backs and puts him level in terms of inclusions in that side with thierry on re and were it not for an eight-month ban that he received right at his peak his position in top spot might be even more unassailable within this set my only regret when it comes to rio ferdinand as i've mentioned previously on this channel is that glenn hoddle didn't get longer to work with him at international level hoddle loved technically gifted footballers and had ambitions of turning ferdinand into a continental almost franz beckenbauer star sweeper where i strongly suspect he would have flourished in the end he became a more traditional centre-back just one that was very good on the ball but in spite of the what-ifs he still managed to become to my mind the greatest centre-back that we have seen in the premier league so that is it for my top seven but i implored you to stay tuned for my most honorable of mentions and thank you sincerely for doing so chelsea trio marcel desai ricardo carvalho and gary cahill all came close to featuring and say and carvalho in particular had they spent just a bit longer in the premier league likely would have made the cut steve bruce and gary pallaster full victim only to having played a lot of their football prior to the creation of the premier league though i still think palestine can consider himself unfortunate to have missed that similarly paul mcgraw was as good as anyone in this seven at his best but only managed five seasons in the premier league and probably played his very best football in the final years of the first division yap stam's inclusion was explained in the introduction and both reuben diaz and america laporte missed out for similar reasons elsewhere the likes of jamie carragher silvan distan colo torre ledlie king phil jagielka jonathan woodgate william gallas sammy hippia jamba tongan toby aldevareld mark wright colin hendry and gareth southgate just go to emphasize the quality of centre-back that we have been fortunate enough to witness in english football over the past three decades woodgate and king it must be said without injuries could have been as good as just about anyone and would have made for some really interesting selection dilemmas for various england managers in addition to me with regards to this seven of course sadly ledlie king had a glass knee and jonathan woodgate was built out of honeycomb but they still managed to make my shortlist and for very good reason seventh andy robertson i was always in a bit of a lose-lose situation when it came to andy robertson there will be those who don't feel he has done enough yet to feature ahead of some of the players who only earned honourable mentions whilst others particularly some liverpool fans i suspect might argue that he is already one of the best defensive left-backs that we have seen in the premier league in the end instead of trying to appease anyone i just put robertson where i actually think he deserves to rank which is sort of the purpose of this series we'll start with the negatives robertson has so far only made 205 appearances in the premier league which is the fewest of anyone in this seven and by some margin what's more more than 50 of those appearances came during his time at hull city where he was relegated in each of his two premier league campaigns as a whole city fan who watched almost every one of robertson's games in a black and amber shirt i can say that he was nowhere near the player that he has become at anfield during his time in east yorkshire he already had a tremendous ability to whip dangerous balls into the box particularly those ones with pace that curl right around the last offender but he was still incredibly raw and a bit defensively naive as i have often said on this channel it is a testament to young klopp's management skills liverpool's coaching team and most of all to robertson's own willingness to learn and improve that he has become one of the best fullbacks in the world at anfield i don't believe there is another team in world football where robertson would look as brilliant or be as effective as he is at liverpool but that is a rather redundant point in many respects since the vast majority of his premier league appearances have indeed come in this liverpool team by the time he hangs up his boots given the fact that he is still only 27 i think robertson should rank among the three greatest left-backs of the premier league era for now though based upon my criteria he has to settle for an extremely creditable spot in seventh place sixth nigel winterburn going straight from the youngest player in this seven to the oldest nigel wintervan had already won two top flight league titles at fa cup and played the last of his games for england before andy robertson was even born the arsenal backline of dixon bold adams and winterburn is among the finest defensive quartets that we have witnessed in the english game let alone solely join the premier league era and three out of the four have now featured in this series with bold having received a richly deserved honorable mention as i said earlier in this series the whole was certainly greater than the sum of its parts when it came to that arsenal defensive unit but that is only because the whole was so outstanding nigel winterburn was an exceptional left back in his own right racking up an incredible 352 premier league appearances despite the fact that he made his league debut almost a decade before the premier league was founded arsenal have long had outstanding left-backs and winterburn maintained that tradition incredibly professional committed and consistent winterburn had a terrific engine he was first in the tackle and his defensive positioning was outstanding he almost never lets arsenal down across his 584 games for the gunners and even after he left the club age 36 to join west ham he still went on to enjoy three rock solid seasons of premier league football for his sheer longevity and consistency there is simply no way in which i could leave him out fifth graham lasso graham lesso already had a hundred first-team appearances under his belt before the premier league broke away from the football league in 1992 but he still went on to amass 327 premier league appearances over the next 13 seasons born on the island of jersey lasso was brought to chelsea at the age of 19 and it was at stamford bridge that he played his first half season of premier league football it might be hard for some people to believe these days but at the time chelsea were a mid-table team facing financial difficulties meanwhile blackburn rovers were the premier league's biggest spenders and in march 1993 lasso joined rovers from chelsea for a fee of seven hundred thousand pounds during his time at blackburn lesso won a premier league title he made the pfa team of the year and he established himself as england's starting left-back taking the place of another premier league legend in the form of stuart piss that was a mark of lasso's class and in 1997 he returned to chelsea where he made the pfa team of the year for a second time lasso was a very versatile footballer he was in many respects a fullback who had been born a decade or so too soon quick elegance on the ball and in possession of a brilliant delivery into the box lasso was the andy robertson of his day in terms of his creative output he often played out wide on the left given his attacking capabilities but these days he would walk straight into almost every premier league team as a tailor-made attacking modern-day full-back fourth layton banes no left-back has made more appearances during the premier league era than layton banks indeed no fullback has made more appearances than the scouse roberto carlos as he is very rarely known during that time despite only ever playing for two teams and spending his first four seasons playing outside of the premier league leighton baines went on to amass 420 top flight appearances which is more than the likes of ashley cole and gary neville baines didn't just play a lot of football in the premier league though he was also consistently one of the outstanding full-backs in the division often played out wide on the left or even in central midfield as an academy player it was a wigan athletic the bane's transitioned to left-back finding an awful lot of joy in the position bane's delighted in the extra time on the ball that is afforded to fullbacks compared to midfield players whilst also bombing forward on a frequent basis and putting his trademark left footed deliveries into the box a set piece specialist with a wonderful left foot bane scored more than 30 premier league goals and made more than 50 assists dependable defensively a real weapon going forwards and remarkably consistent baines was for a number of years one of the best left-backs in the world and he twice made the pfa team of the year and thrace won everton's players player of the year award only the presence of ashley cole prevented him from winning at least half a century of caps for england but he must still go down as one of the finest fullbacks that we've seen in the premier league and his spot in fourth is reflective of that fact third patrice evra patrice evra might be as mad as a box of frogs off the pitch whether he is karate kicking a marseille fan or kissing a whole raw chicken on instagram but on the pitch he was exceptional brought in by sir alex ferguson along with nemanja vidic in the january 2006 transfer window evra made his name at monaco where he had already reached a champions league final and made the league team of the year two seasons earlier the professionalism and culture that existed at manchester united at the time though brought out yet new heights in the frenchman's game as he quickly established himself as one of the most capable and complete fullbacks in the premier league although evra was quick gifted on the ball and always attacked with purpose he didn't score or assist a great number of goals defensively however both in terms of his positioning and his aggression he was uncompromising and a nightmare to play against evra only made 278 premier league appearances the second fewest of anyone in this seven behind andy robertson and all but five of them came at manchester united that perhaps prevents him from stealing a spot in second but based upon his talents and consistency playing for a team that was competing for the biggest trophies virtually every season that he was at the club i think that evra is great value for a podium finish second dennis irwin fullbacks who are best associated with manchester united take both third and second place in this seven and dennis owen left manchester united just four years before patrice ever arrived owen made 328 premier league appearances in total and that is pretty remarkable when you take a look at his overall career an irishman who was born in cork erwin spent seven seasons in the english game making almost 300 appearances for both leeds united and oldham athletic before joining manchester united shortly before he turned 25 irwin's first two scenes of football at old trafford came prior to the premier league's breakaway meaning that he was almost 27 years old and had already made 389 appearances when he finally made his premier league debut what's more when he finally left manchester united after more than a decade at the club irwin dropped down into the first division with wolverhampton wanderers only to win promotion at the first attempt and get one last season of premier league football under his belt in which he played 32 times a right-footed free-kick specialist who played the bulk of his footballer left back due to manchester united being more in need of a left-back than a right-back irwin was too footed relentlessly consistent and probably could have done a job in just about any position the most consistent players rarely drop below a 7 out of 10 but erwin rarely dropped below an 8 and frequently put in performances of the very highest caliber when alex ferguson was asked to pick an all-time 11 he said irwin would be the first name on his team sheet ahead of the likes of wayne rooney and cristiano ronaldo for exactly that reason i think there might have been a touch of fergie hyperbole in there but erwin was outstanding and his spot in second place was never up for too much debate in my mind first ashley cole i noticed one or two comments on previous videos from chelsea fans in this series claiming that i clearly absolutely despised chelsea by virtue of some of my selections in case there was any doubt i can confirm that i don't absolutely despise chelsea at least no more than i despise every team that is in whole city and cape coast ebersue dwarfs my first and second teams hopefully i have gone some way towards illustrating that fact by putting ashley cole in top spot in this seven though i must say again that i didn't do that to appease chelsea fans but because i think ashley cole is without any shadow of a doubt the greatest left back of the premier league born in london's east end cole came through the youth ranks at arsenal and it didn't take him long to establish himself for both club and country a star man from a very young age cole had searing pace and was fantastic on the ball at that age his 2006 transfer to chelsea by which stage cole was already arguably the best left back in world football caused a mountain of controversy and also made him a bit of a whipping boy among the english press and a certain section of england supporters in spite of that fact cole was one of the very few players if not in fact the only one of england's star players during the so-called golden generation who managed to replicate their club form on the international stage under jose mourinho cole became a little less adventurous and a little bit more tamed but defensively he became even more astute whilst posing a threat in the opposition's half just a little bit less often cristiano ronaldo labeled cole as his toughest opponent and the four-time pfa team of the year inclusion certainly proved his class time and time again against the very best in the business he is the only player in this seven i would contest who was for a number of years the best left back in world football combine that with the fact that he played 400 premier league games at the very highest level for both arsenal and chelsea very rarely letting either side down for me cole is among the easiest inclusions in any premier league era best 11 despite some outstanding competition at left-back that is it for my seven but i promised you some extremely honourable mentions and i wasn't lying wayne bridge for me is very unfortunate not to make the cut and we're not for the presence of ashley cole at both england and when he ought to have been hitting his peak at chelsea i suspect he would have made it john arnaresa was a fantastic fullback who was exhilarating to watch and was adored by liverpool fans i just think that there have been seven superior premier league left-backs to him and had he featured it would have had to have been robertson who missed out stuart pierce misses out primarily because he played a lot of his football prior to the creation of the premier league including some of his best football and therefore just didn't quite have the quantity or quality of football to make the cut albeit it was very tight joao cancelo is an even more extreme example of that and would surely make a right or left back seven in years to come were he to spend i'd say at least five probably six seasons in english football's top flight elsewhere other left backs who made my shortlist but not quite my final seven include the likes of stig inga bjornby danny rose david unsworth phil neville gail cliche alan wright ian hart luke shaw and celestine babiaro i'm sure those mentions of danny rose and luke shaw will seem generous to some at this moment in time but rose is actually a two-time pfa team of the year inclusion who has made more than 200 premier league appearances and was brilliant at his peak meanwhile luke shaw has already made the same number of premier league appearances as rose at the age of only 26 he too has made the pfa team of the year twice and were it not for that horrific double leg break when he was just really starting to come good and was still very young i suspect that he would be in this seven by now seventh jordan henderson jordan henderson is quite possibly the most underrated premier league player of all time and i must admit it took me far longer than it ought to have done to fully appreciate him it must be said henderson wasn't always as good as he has been in the last few years i don't think there can be any doubt that his game has come on leaps and bounds since young klopp arrived at anfield in 2015 but objectively even taking that into account i think he has to feature in a seven of this elk to begin with henderson has played 381 games in the premier league that is an enormous number of games and the liverpool captain is still only 31 years old meaning that he could easily have another 100 to 150 top flight appearances left in the tank when jordan henderson joined liverpool from sunderland in 2011 i think a lot of people doubted his ability to make it at anfield indeed brendan rodgers even wanted to sell henderson to fulham in a swap deal involving clint dempsey in 2012 before henderson was persuaded otherwise by stuart downing even by 2015 when henderson was a regular starter for liverpool a lot of people questioned whether he had what it would take to replace steven gerrard as the reds club captain six years later henderson has done something that gerard couldn't in lifting both the premier league and the champions league as a liverpool captain and he has been integral to both of those successes a fantastic professional with a brilliant footballing brain an awful lot of people underestimate henderson's role in liverpool's success in recent years very rarely wasteful in possession henderson has a fantastic engine and i still think liverpool look far weaker when he is out of the side fun fact despite only having the 47th most appearances of any player during the premier league era henderson has already made more passes than any other premier league player sixth fernandinho we kick start this seven with two current premier league midfielders as fernandinho comes one place ahead of jordan henderson fernandinho has played far fewer premier league games than henderson 124 fewer to be exact but every one of them has come at the very highest level for a man city team competing for the league title in virtually every one of those seasons it is worth noting that fernandinho was already 28 years old when he arrived in the premier league signed by man city from shakhtar donetsk so it is a measure of his extraordinary longevity within the game that he still makes a seven of this caliber i actually think fernandinho probably played his very best football between 2017 and 2019 so between the ages of 32 and 34 and even now at the age of 36 he remains utterly brilliant almost whenever he plays there were times though particularly during the time frame that i just mentioned under pep guardiola when i thought a case could be made that fernandinho was manchester city's single most important player they say that tackling in football is a dying art but it would appear as though fernandinho didn't get the memo he is an absolute master at selecting the best possible action in defensive situations whether that be a neat interception a fair slide tackle or sometimes just a gentle nudging off the ball his work rate combined with his reading of the game gave the sense that he was everywhere at his best and he was very visibly an absolute nightmare to play against if you look at manchester city's points per game with and without fernandinho during pep guardiola's first three seasons at the club the contrast is stark illustrating his importance i long felt that replacing him would be pep's toughest job but in the form of roderi the citizens appear to have another future premier league great fifth angolo kante angolo kante has by far the fewest premier league appearances under his belt to date of any player in this seven so it is a mark of his extraordinary impact during that time that i still felt obliged to include him brought to the premier league by leicester city really as a replacement for veteran midfielder esteban cambioso kante had big boots to fill and was relatively unknown in england at the time having just played his first season of top flight football in france for can it didn't take long for everyone in england to know the name angola kante though and pretty soon everyone with any interest in football across the entire world his performances during his single season at leicester city as the foxes won the most unlikely of premier league titles were astounding both in terms of the amount of ground that he covered how often he won the ball and how few mistakes he made the following season he joined chelsea and it was little coincidence that it was antonio conte's men who won the premier league following that signing kante has had some injury problems over the last few years and there have been some disagreements regarding his best position but he showed yet again in last season's champions league as he won the man of the match award in both legs of chelsea's semi-final ties with real madrid and in the final against man city that at his best he is simply one of the most effective players in world football only a lack of games and seasons prevented him from making a podium finish in this seven and if i were to make this video in say two or three years time i suspect that he would finish at least third fourth paulins i'll let you in on a little secret the way in which i make a video in a series like this one which isn't a wholly original idea that is to say i'm not the first person to ponder who are the greatest premier league players in a certain position is that i draw up a big shortlist about 30 players long in the case of today's video i pick my seven i order them and then i take a look at what other people have written and said on the same subject i do it in that order to make sure that i'm not influenced by other people's views and so that i don't fall into the wretched trap of groupthink and i mainly just look to make sure that i haven't been daft and forgotten anyone really obvious but also out of idle curiosity typically there is plenty of overlap in terms of who features unsurprisingly but a number of discrepancies in their order rarely is it really shocking you know like a list of the premier league's 10 greatest goalkeepers that doesn't include peter schmeichel or petra check and has harelio gomez in top spot but the exclusion of paul lintz from virtually every list that i could find ranking great premier league midfielders defensive or otherwise would seem to be bitterly unfair to me it's only very narrowly missed out on my top three but i do have a theory as to why he doesn't get anywhere near the credit that he deserves inn spent six years at manchester united half of which he spent as arguably the best midfielder in english football but his reputation with united fans was badly damaged after he joined liverpool in 1997. liverpool fans didn't dislike hints because of his past but he only spent two seasons at anfield having spent far longer and played his best football at old trafford so he isn't really a liverpool legend so to speak so when these discussions about the greatest premier league midfielders come up and liverpool fans passionately make the case for steven gerrard and manchester united fans for roy keane and paul skulls and so on there is no major club supporters with the love of paul lintz to really make his case the club where he perhaps retains the most affection in terms of super clubs at least if anything might be into milan who obviously are not relevant to a conversation surrounding the premier league ince played as both a defensive and as a boxster box midfielder and given his rock solid defensive credentials his output in terms of goals and assists is actually really rather impressive and among the finest in this seven a quick tireless and powerful runner in midfield ince was tenacious in the tackle economical in his use of the ball and majestic in transition despite playing seven seasons of first team football prior to the creation of the premier league and spending two of his best years at inter milan in still managed to make more than 300 premier league appearances a three-time pfa team of the year inclusion who also made the premier league's team of the decade in 2002 if vince had spent his entire career playing in the premier league he would have made at least my top three third michael carrick both michael carrick and paulince were midfielders who came through the youth ranks at west ham and played their best football at manchester united but the similarities just about end there while stintz was renowned for his stamina his running and his all-action approach carrick was a much more relaxed presence on a football pitch throughout his entire career even from youth team level carrick was never really the star man in any team that he played in and he only ever won 34 caps for england in spite of those facts he also vastly improved every single team that he ever played and it is quite possible that england would have been far better served by giving carrick greater gate time as the three lions persisted with a dysfunctional two-man midfield carrick's arrival at manchester united from tottenham in 2006 where he was partnered with a 31 year old paul scholes saw alex ferguson switch up his style of play man united drifted away from their fast aggressive counter-attacking style of the 1990s and early 2000s towards something a bit more continental and a bit more of a possession-based approach that may have been a conscious decision that sir alex made but it was also a necessity given the fact that neither character or skulls were physically brilliant but both read the game brilliantly were excellent on the ball and were masters in the past carrick was often overshadowed by skulls though there is no shame in that but his distribution was integral to how manchester united played carrick's touch awareness and vision were all world-class for more than a decade and whilst i do think that there have been three better non-attack midfielders in the history of the premier league at their peaks i don't think that there are three who have been greater carrick made 481 premier league appearances which is a century more games in the division than any other player in this seven second patrick vieira whilst patrick vieira did at times playing defense midfield particularly as he got a bit older i would not say he was primarily a defensive midfielder the frenchman arrived in the premier league in 1996 from ac milan joining arsenal under arsene wenger as i described in the introduction that was a time when the premier league was heavily populated by midfielders with a bit of everything who could run for 90 minutes and contribute both defensively and going forward vieira fit that mould and he almost immediately became the very best at performing those functions in the entire division quite the sight out on a football pitch vieira is six foot four inches tall and about five foot of that appeared to be his legs though lanky in appearance vieira was a fantastic athlete with outstanding technique his ability to somehow wrap his long legs round a player cleanly dispossessing them of the ball when they look to have been in the clear never seized it and found his opponents on the ball vieira was extremely intelligent knowing just when to slow the game down keep hold of the ball or run at the opposition when he chose the latter in full flow he presented a pretty terrifying threat all in all viera's ability to win the ball keep the ball and make things happen whilst being relentlessly driven consistent and an outstanding leader make him one of the premier league's greatest ever midfielders and among the finest to have played the game during my lifetime what's more he made more than 300 premier league appearances 279 of them coming at arsenal where he won three premier league titles vieira made the pfa team of the year six times in nine seasons at arsenal a tally which is bettered only by steven gerrard during the premier league era who spent many more seasons in the division and vieira also joined paulintz in the premier league's earliest team of the decade all things considered he was nailed on for a spot in my top two first roy keane as with patrick vieira roy keane wasn't a classic defensive midfielder certainly not during his first decade in the game but he was often the least attacking player in a central midfield pairing at manchester united throughout most of the 1990s keane played in a very similar role to patrick vieira with whom he shared so many famous battles that is to say he covered an awful lot of ground he contributed a great deal in both attack and defense and he impacted the totality of a game all of that was made possible by keane's outstanding stamina and aggression combined with one of the best first touches in the game and a directness and accuracy about his passing that made him tailor-made for how sir alex ferguson wanted his site to play in his later years keane did start to drop a little bit deeper as certain physical attributes inevitably began to wane but there another one of keane's outstanding attributes was brought even further to the fore his footballing intelligence both on and off the ball in terms of his positioning and decision making keane was almost flawless aside from suffering from the occasional rush of blood and doing something a little bit daft keane's hot-headedness is often how he is defined these days particularly by those who never really saw him play but in reality whilst his aggression and determination transformed manchester united into a title-winning machine keen was above all else just an outstanding footballer to my mind he is the greatest midfielder defensive central or attacking of the premier league era and arguably the greatest player in any position again that is not to say that he is the best player though i think a case could be made for him having been the best midfielder since greatness measures something slightly different keane played 366 games in the premier league all but 40 of them coming at manchester united for more than a decade he set the standard at old trafford as much as sir alex berkson both on a match day and particularly in training and i don't think any other single player has exerted such great influence upon the division keane made the pfa team of the century in 2007 and i don't think any premier league era 11 would be complete without having him in it that is it for my seven but there are plenty of honorable mentions some of whom might require some explanation as to why they were left out gilberto silva and jaby alonso were perhaps the two toughest defensive midfielders to leave out along with claude macaley all three of whom were absolutely sensational throughout their time in english football's top flight i think all three were better players than michael carrick who took third place in my seven albeit they were all fairly different but whilst carrick played 481 games in the premier league gilberto silva played just 170 games claude makaleli 144 and jaby alonso 143 given the strength of the seven and the criteria of quality and quantity of performances in the division begrudgingly i had to leave all three out current premier league midfielders such as fabinho rodery and declan rice have the potential i think to make a seven of this elk in the future particularly the latter two but obviously it is just far too early for all three in terms of seasons and games played for them to feature other candidates on my shortlist two didn't quite make the cut include the likes of javier mascherano danny murphy david batty darren fletcher nemanja matic michael essien gary speed nikki butt emanuel petit gareth barry lee bowyer tim sherwood scott parker and george belton a special mention for mike lessen who i think without injuries would have become an all-time premier league great midfielder seventh yayatore when manchester city signed yayatore in the summer of 2010 it was obvious that they had signed a player of real pedigree and someone who would help take them up a notch as a team having said that it also seemed as though he would be exerting his influence upon games from defensive midfield since that is where he had predominantly played at barcelona and he even played the entire 2009 champions league final against manchester united as a centre-back keeping a clean sheet no less torrey had in fact begun his career as a center forward though and he would prove himself in manchester city to be one of the most versatile and complete players in world football it was hard to nail torrey down as either an attacking or defensive midfielder for the purpose of this series since he played in both positions so expertly in the premier league quite often within the same game his very best performances though and his very best season which i would rank as one of the greatest single seasons that any player has had in the entire history of the premier league came primarily whilst he was playing further forward the season that i'm referring to is of course the 2013-14 campaign when he became the first midfielder other than frank lampard and arguably matlatisia both of whom also only did it once to score 20 goals in the premier league torrei was virtually unplayable that season steamrolling opponents both on and off the ball dragging manchester city up the pitch and scoring and creating goals at will in total torrei played 230 premier league games which is almost a third of the number of premier league appearances the one player in this seven racked up and for that he is inevitably punished nonetheless the vast majority of those 230 appearances were of the very highest quality and tori is without doubt one of the seven finest attack midfielders when he played there that we have seen in the premier league so he gets us started sixth kevin de bruyne for my money kevin de bruyne is the best midfielder that we have seen in the premier league and were this seven simply ranking the best attacking midfielders of the premier league era rather than the greatest he would take top spot the only thing holding deroyna back and i really do mean pretty much the only thing is his lack of appearances in relation to the rest of this seven and indeed the vast majority of my shortlist de bruyne has made 198 premier league appearances at the time of this recording 195 of them coming at manchester city though he could well have hit the 200 mark by the time that this video comes out that is the fewest number of premier league appearances registered by anyone in this seven and i think i'm right in saying that trent alexander arnold is the only player to feature in this series who has played fewer much like alexander arnold de bruyne is the primary creative cog in a world-class team and one of the finest crosses of a ball on the planet capable of playing in central midfield or out wide i think de bruyne is at his most devastating in something akin to a number 10 position whilst veering into that right hand channel where his deliveries are practically lethal in seven seasons of premier league football at the etihad de royna has made the pfa team of the thrice he has been named as the players player of the year twice and the premier league player this season wants quite simply a joy to watch de bruyne is the most incisive passer of all to have played in the premier league he very rarely loses the ball and he frequently produces something quite spectacular what's more he provides all of the wizardry and invention of a luxury player whilst also being a very good athlete covering plenty of ground and never looking anything like a passenger in total de bruyne has made 80 assists and scored 49 goals in 198 premier league games and by the time he hangs up his boots assuming that he stays in the premier league for another three or four years there is every chance that he will go down as one of the league's greatest players of all time fifth cess fabregas whilst i think kevin de bruyne is a more complete midfielder than ces fabregas the spaniard played 350 premier league games which is around 150 games more than the belgian has to date fabregas probably ranks among at least the five finest teenage footballers of my lifetime and probably the top three and his 2009 10 season is to my mind perhaps the most underrated campaign of the premier league era not so much at the time i don't think when everyone knew that fabregas was destined for the bright lights of the camp now but nowadays few people give that arsenal era fabregas the respect that he and it truly deserve i suspect that is because fabregas sullied his reputation arsenal a little with a 2010 world cup shirt incident followed by his move to chelsea but there is no partisanship on this channel fabregas scored 15 goals and made 13 assists in 27 premier league games in the 2009 10 season giving him a record of better than one goal contribution per game even frank lampard never managed that although he did come very close during that exact same season an artist with the ball at his feet fabregas was already the main man at arsenal at the age of only 19 and he returned to the premier league and start with chelsea in 2014. in his first season back in england fabregas came close to eclipsing thierry henry's premier league assist record putting the ball on a plate for his teammates 18 times as chelsea lifted the premier league title in total fabregas made 111 premier league assists italy which is battered only by ryan giggs who play close to twice as many premier league games as him fourth david silva i never have a definitive answer when people ask me what is the finest performance that i've ever seen live and in the flesh but one of them was certainly david silva against hull city at what was then named the casey stadium in the 2013-14 premier league season i was intrigued then if not all that surprised when i saw that silva picked out that game as his toughest fixture and whole city as his toughest opponents from his decade at manchester city when he left the club in 2020 vinson company was sent off only 10 minutes into that game and were not for david silva manuel pellegrini's side would have been in big trouble the spaniard was simply flawless though barely putting a foot wrong all afternoon dictating the tempo of the game scoring a wonderful goal and assisting a second we tend to think of zelba as being a fairly quiet and unassuming character but he routinely lifted those around him and when he needed to he was always ready to step up and make the difference now that he has left manchester city more and more stories are starting to come out that lift the lid on the misconception that silva was a quiet guy revealing that he was actually a very vocal and charismatic member of the manchester city dressing room and he was even pretty lively on a night out there is very little to critique about silver's game itself a magician with the ball at his feet but also a real workhorse silva's work rate was phenomenal whether he was being played out wide in central midfield or as a number 10. in 10 seasons of premier league football during which time he played 309 games silva hardly ever put a foot wrong he wasn't as prolific as others in this seven in terms of his goal scoring though he still managed to back 12 goals in his highest scoring campaign and he has made more premier league assist than the likes of stephen gerrard david beckham and sierra henry silva somehow doesn't seem quite as blockbuster as other all-time premier league greats maybe he just has slightly fewer hollywood moments to his record and his achievements came in a team that were often mechanically efficient and suffocated their opponents but only three outstanding midfielders who all played far more games than him in the premier league finish ahead of him in my seven third stephen gerrard the top three in this seven was always likely to be the most controversial segment of this entire series and however i ordered them i would be irritating someone i have ranked steven gerrard as the third greatest attacker midfielder of the premier league era and i will explain why starting with why he makes a podium finnish before exploring why he doesn't take top spots which liverpool fans and i'm sure many neutrals will no doubt feel as though he should gerrard is probably the single most complete footballer to have played in the premier league i don't think that he is the greatest premier league player in terms of any single attribute whether that be passing tackling technique or finishing but he was so good at all of them and many others that the final product was something really quite special an inspirational captain in addition to being a world-class midfielder gerard lifted liverpool in a way that no other player in this seven had to lift the standard of their own teams and in a way that one doubts any of the others could gerrard proved his range of abilities by playing just off fernando torres almost as a second striker and scoring 16 premier league goals in the 2008 09 season before dropping much much deeper operating almost as a sweeper at times under brandon rogers as liverpool came within inches of lifting the 2013 premier league title as i said in the introduction the fact that gerard doesn't have a premier league winners medal has no bearing on his position in this seven but the fact that he doesn't have title deciding moments to his name in the premier league like he does in so many other competitions does gerrard was someone who whilst very consistent was also capable of producing really spectacular moments which could turn a game in an instant and where i ranking the top three in this seven beyond just the premier league perhaps the order that i've given would be somewhat different in terms of the numbers in the premier league gerrard played 504 premier league games the joint 11th most of the premier league era he made 92 premier league assists which is the seventh most of the premier league era and he scored 120 premier league goals the 19th most again of the premier league era gerrard made the pfa team of the year eight times which is more inclusions than any other top fight player since 1992 and serves as a very useful reminder of his relentless brilliance in the division despite failing to get his hands on the trophy itself second frank lampard statistically frank lampard is the greatest midfielder of the premier league era first and foremost lampard played far more premier league games than anyone else in this seven racking up 609 premier league appearances in total that is over 100 more premier league appearances than his longtime international teammate steven gerrard 429 of lampard's premier league appearances came at chelsea where he spent the bulk of his career and indeed his best years becoming the blues all-time top scorer meanwhile he made just shy of 150 premier league appearances for west ham united and exactly 32 appearances during a single season on loan at manchester city lampard is often talked about in terms of his goals from midfield for obvious reasons so i shouldn't gloss over them either lampard struck 177 times in the premier league putting him fifth in the premier league era scoring charts ahead of the likes of michael owen and sierra henry bearing in mind that lampard played in midfield he is also one of only four players to make more than 100 assists during the premier league era putting him ahead of both steven gerrard and dennis burkamp in that regard it would be wrong to talk about lampard solely in terms of numbers though whilst he was relentless in terms of goal contributions having worked tirelessly to become so efficient in front of goal he was also extremely cute and intelligent both on and off the ball some of lampard's one and two touch football often gets overlooked as does the subtlety of his movement later rivals into the box and overlapping runs particularly in tandem with didier drogba i think a really compelling case could be made that steven gerrard was a better all-round midfielder than frank lampard but comparing the two only in terms of quality and quantity of performance in the premier league lampard just edges it for me first paul scholes i know that paul scholes has become someone that divides opinion and maybe that is fair enough in regard to his punditry and his instagram behavior but as a footballer i think that is fairly absurd the notion that skulls was not as revered as lampard and gerard during their playing days and that his reputation within the game has been inflated since he retired does not ring true at least in terms of my own appreciation of skulls and it certainly doesn't ring true in terms of others within the game throughout his time at manchester united and with england it was not a very well kept secret that scholes was among the most gifted and important players within the premier league a man who made football look very easy if you talk to anyone who played against skulls they'll tell you that though he was never the quickest it seemed impossible to get anywhere near him in his early years skulls played an attacking midfield and almost as a second striker just behind ruud van nistelrooy in the early 2000s in the second half of the 2000s after roy keane left manchester united and michael carrick arrived skulls dropped much deeper becoming the best deep lying playmaker in the premier league at his best scholes was as devastating as lampard whilst playing as a number 10 and as influential as someone like javier perlow in terms of collecting the ball off his center backs distributing the ball and controlling the tempo and rhythm of a game from central or holding midfield that just shows what a special player skulls really was and whilst there are other reasons that i could mention the simple fact that i think paul scholes was a better footballer and a more gifted midfielder dictates the fact that he finishes ahead of gerard and lapad albeit i don't think that there is a fat lot in it and anyone who suggests that one of them is just miles ahead of the others is being deceptive it's sometimes said that skulls being pushed out wide for england is evidence that he was the weakest of the three but i think that says more in a negative sense at least about sven than it does about skulls between gerard lampard and skulls which has become a borderline obsessive debate now even after all three have retired i think gerard was the best all-rounder lampard was obviously the most prolific and dependable in the final third and scholes was the most gifted and certainly the best in terms of running a game as i said i actually think that kevin de bruyne is a better player than all three but comparing them based upon quality and quantity of performances in the premier league that is the order that i settled upon that is it for my seven but there are a great many honorable mentions that i also rattled through as quickly as possible jj kocha and matt leticia are arguably just as if not even more gifted than anyone in this set along with the likes of janine oh mesut ozil and even dimitri payet despite not sticking around for long all of whom provided us with some unforgettable premier league movements current premier league midfielders such as bruno fernandez and ilkai gundawan are certainly capable of becoming all-time greats as is philly cucino i suppose if his start to life back in england is anything to go on elsewhere midfielders who made my shortlist but not quite my final seven included the likes of aaron ramsey michael arteta karen dyer jack wilshere adam lallana dele alli kevin nolan luka modric gary mcallister christian erickson tim cahill jean franco zola rude hullett sami nasri juan mata ray parlour and jamie redknapp among many others i think you will agree that they are an eclectic bunch containing a handful of truly outstanding players but personally i don't think many of them could stake a really solid claim to crack into my top seven seventh riyad mahrez i have been on a bit of a journey when it comes to riyad mahrez from thinking that he was just playing out of his skin and on confidence in leicester city's unlikely title winning season to realizing that he is actually a pretty special player i now find myself defending mahrez from what i often consider to be fairly baseless criticisms since his 60 million pound move to manchester city in 2018. the french-born algerian international who grew up in the suburbs of paris is often accused of being inconsistent but that couldn't really be any further from the truth in reality mahrez is among the most consistent and productive players in the premier league and he has been for some time it is just the case that pep guardiola frequently rests and rotates him giving that perception i think of inconsistency that has negative implications for mahrez in terms of a seven such as this since it means that his contribution has been limited in a way in which no other player in this sevens has and that is one of the reasons why he only finishes seventh despite being just as if not even more gifted than a few of the players ahead of him mahrez honed his skills on the streets of one of paris's many bollywoods always incredibly gifted his slight build and general lack of physicality prevented him from joining a professional club until the age of 19 and he wouldn't make his professional debut until the age of 20. in january 2014 mahrez joined leicester city helping the foxes to win promotion from the championship premier league survival and then the premier league title within the space of just two and a half years very much a modern day inverted winger mahrez tends to operate on the right despite being fairly one-footed in favor of his left but his ability on the ball is such that few full bucks are able to stop him from cutting inside and wreaking havoc undoubtedly one of the finest wide players in world football over the last well six or seven years now mahrez has made 244 premium appearances in total scoring 73 goals making 50 assists and he won both the pfa fans and pfa players player of the year awards in the 2015-16 season as the most gifted member of leicester's history making and premier league title winning squad 6th joe cole one of many players to feature in this series who is tough to nail down to a specific position it is my opinion that joe cole should never have become a winger at all and certainly not the type of traditional mid-2000s white man that jose mourinho turned him into a street footballer a bit like riyad mahrez in that regard joe cole was also pretty diminutive when he broke through but on the ball he was quite frightening i would go as far as to suggest that as a teenager cole was the most technically gifted player in this seven and when you see some of the players who are to come that is one hell of a claim during his early years at west ham playing alongside the likes of rio ferdinand frank lampard paolo de caneo and michael carrick cole played essentially in a free roll afforded a great deal of freedom by manager harry redknapp at that time cole looked like he could become the next gaza and i don't think that is being hyperbolic in the slightest had he been spanish or italian i think there is a decent chance that he would have won a ballon d'or or at least come close but cole still went on to have a magnificent career even if he was misused in my opinion his 378 premier league appearances were split fairly evenly between the right and left flanks and attacking midfield but he played slightly more games on the right hence why this is the seven that he is designated too a three-time premier league title winner cole made the pfa team of the year in the 2005.06 season and he was chelsea's player of the year for the 2007 08 campaign seeing off competition from the likes of frank lampard and didier dropper inventive and explosive cole had a catalogue of tricks up his sleeve and was almost unplayable at his very best without persistent injury problems which ended his premier league career at the age of 33 i suspect he would have finished fourth had he maximized his true potential and avoided injuries possibly first fifth freddie lumberg fun fact did you know that freddie lumberg's first name is actually carl that's right the swede's full name is in fact carl frederick longberg no one calls him carl though it was only in england that he picked up the nickname freddie and most people in sweden still just call him frederick none of that is relevant in the slightest to longberg's ability on a football pitch or his accomplishments in the premier league though he might not have got quite as much modelling work as he did had he been known as carl my apologies to any cars that might be watching this video let it be known that that is a reflection only of the shallow-minded world of modeling and not a reflection of my own personal prejudices another fairly late developer in terms of his size longberg took a little bit of time to really get going a helmstad prior to his move to arsenal at number 10 at the time lumberg also took a season to adapt to life in england but once he got going he became a real force on either flank sweden's answer to david beckham lumber was a man of many hairstyles and even more talents the majority of lumber's appearances in the premier league all but 25 of which came at arsenal came on the right flank with robert perez playing out on the left and dennis burkamp tending to operate as a second striker as cold as ice in front of goal lumberg always seems to be relaxed and undaunted by the size of any occasion perhaps that is why he develops such a useful knack of scoring at key moments in the biggest games admittedly a number of those goals came in cup competitions and are therefore irrelevant to this seven but it is telling that manchester city manchester united and tottenham are the three teams that he scored against most frequently in total lumber played 241 premier league games scoring 48 goals and making 29 assists he won the premier league player of the season award in 200102 ahead of his teammate thierry henry in addition to making the premier league's 2002 overseas team of the decade fourth steve mcmanaman when the first of the united kingdom's covert 19 related lockdowns hit back in march 2020 itv decided to broadcast euro 96 in full i was a toddler when euro 96 took place so much to my girlfriend's delight i took the opportunity to watch quite a lot of games that tournament and that summer are much feated in england and i'm sure it was brilliant to experience if unlike me you were over the age of one however i have to say i was pretty taken aback by how poor england were in the game against scotland in particular other than gaza's famous goal england were pretty diabolical and i actually thought scotland were the better team the one exception to how underwhelming i found england in most of those lockdown euro 96 games was steve mcmanaman who was routinely england's most dangerous and effective attacking outlet my earliest memories of mcmanaman are of watching him at real madrid but i must admit it is a recurring theme whenever i rewatch liverpool or england games or highlights from the mid to late 1990s that he leaves a big impression mcmanaman actually played on the left wing for england at euro 96 except for the quarterfinal against spain where he swapped positions with darren anderton and played on the right but it was on the right that he played most frequently both for real madrid and more importantly in the premier league mcmanaman's preferred position was in attacking midfield which he felt best utilized his vision technique and ability to run at players but he hardly ever played there due to the position being relatively redundant at the time one of the best dribblers of a ball that the english game has ever produced mcmanaman was quick and could really cross a ball he was sometimes criticized for not scoring enough goals and he most likely would play midfield rather than as one of three forwards were he playing today but as an old school wide man he was superb mcmanum played a grand total of 275 times in the premier league scoring 41 goals and making 59 assists had he spent his entire career playing in england and had his tremendous breakout campaign not come before the premier league's breakaway from the football league which meant that i could not count it as part of this seven percy would have finished even higher but all things considered fourth seems bang on in my mind third david beckham a man who was back in the news a week or so ago after piers morgan went on a rant about him not being very good at football on twitter david beckham is a man who tends not to be out of the news for long like most people my age i grew up idolizing beckham and trying to replicate his free kicks at the park or in a friend's back garden now i think that he is a moral vacuum for accepting 150 million pounds to put a respectable veneer on a world cup built by slave laborers an amount of money which equates to at least 23 000 pounds for every migrant worker who has died in qatar since the country when it's greatly contested world cup bid as much as i think that doing that when you've already got more wealth than some countries is pretty despicable i cannot deny that beckham was a sensational footballer it is sometimes said that beckham's celebrity was greater than his actual talent and that his talents have been greatly exaggerated due to his fame there may be one or two people with zero interest in football who when asked to name footballers could only come up with cristiano ronaldo lionel messi and david beckham and certainly that would be very generous company for beckham to keep but among those who are interested in football i actually think that the opposite is true beckham is talked about so much in terms of his off-pitch activities that his talents on it often seem to me to be diminished if not outright dismissed that is an injustice since beckham was a fantastic footballer who had an enormous appetite for the sport his ability from set pieces which were among the finest in the entire history of the sport did not come about by accident but through hours of practice on the train ground the same is true of his stamina fitness and range of passing from open play bex was never a brilliant driver of the ball nor was he the quickest but his vision and movement were outstanding hence why he later transitioned to play in central midfield beckham left the english game in the summer of 2003 having just turned 28 never to return but he still managed to play 265 premier league games scoring 62 goals and making 80 assists a ballon d'or runner-up in 1999 becca made the pfa team of the year in four successive seasons and his spot in third was never in too much doubt second cristiano ronaldo this will make me very unpopular of that i am sure but i don't care maybe that is being a little bit flippant what i mean is that it would be very easy for me to make this entire series and make my selections based on how popular i think they will be what will get the video the most likes and the fewest disagreements down below in the comments in fact if you look at most lists ranking great players that is exactly what they do but life is too short for that and i have laid out a very specific criteria by which metric undeniably i think cristiano ronaldo is the second greatest right winger of the premier league era now clearly ronaldo is the greatest player to have played in the premier league and by that i mean there is no greater footballer who has graced english football since 1992 not even ian ashby but being the greatest player to have played in the premier league is not the same thing as being the greatest player in the history of the premier league thierry henry for example is perhaps the greatest player to have played in the mls but he was outscored by juan pablo angel kenny cooper tim cahill and bradley wright phillips during his time at new york red bulls so i wouldn't say that he was the greatest mls player of all time cristiano ronaldo was outstanding in the second half of his first stint at manchester united where he went from being a skinny wide man he was often accused of being a show pony to a ballon d'or winner who scored 42 goals in a single season it is certainly arguable that ronaldo's 200708 season is the single highest peak that we have seen in the premier league but i think it is also indisputable that ronaldo became a much greater real madrid player than manchester united player it is also worth stating of course that ronaldo is unlikely to be remembered as a right winger but that is where he played the majority of his games in the premier league now back in english football's top flight of course at the time of recording ronaldo has made 216 premier league appearances scoring 92 goals and making 32 assists and he won the division's player of the season award in both the 2006.07 and 2007.08 campaigns first muhammad salla again this is going to be deemed as very controversial in the comments but it really shouldn't cristiano ronaldo has achieved a higher peak has had a greatly superior career and has achieved far more within the game than mohamed salah that much is once again indisputable and even with salah playing absolutely out of his skin at this moment in time age 29 i would be willing to go out on a limb and say that will remain the case up until the point at which the egyptian retires in the premier league however which is you know the entire point of this series the complexion is rather different both ronaldo and sarah arrived in england as youngsters at very big clubs but whilst ronaldo would carve out a starting berth for himself before becoming the club star man salah like so many talented young chelsea players was pied out on loan and eventually sold when he returned to england three years later he would make chelsea look a little bit stupid in his first season back in england salah scored 32 goals in 36 premier league games which is more goals than ronaldo ever scored during a season in the premier league and is the most that any player has scored whilst the league has used a 38-game season format the current campaign is only actually salah's fifth season of regular first-team football in the premier league so it speaks volumes of his contribution to the english game that he takes top spot during that time he has made 180 premier league appearances which is around 36 or one whole season's worth of games fewer than ronaldo yet he has scored 113 goals and made 43 assists which is already 32 goal contributions more than the portuguese legend salah has just been relentlessly brilliant in the premier league and is arguably playing his very best football at the time of this video's production there is no doubt in my mind that at least by my criteria in terms of the quality and quantity of his performances in the premier league he is the greatest right winger of the premier league era that may be it for my seven but i must give full credit to those who made my shortlist and just missed out manchester united duo nanny and andre kanchelskis were among the closest of featuring but with only 147 and 151 premier league appearances a piece to their names it was always likely to be an uphill battle ultimately i think riyad mahrez is better and more consistent than both and he has already played far more premier league games at the very highest level darren anderton can consider himself extremely unfortunate to miss out as can theo walcott i think given that he was excellent at his best and has played an awful lot of premier league games elsewhere the most honorable of honorable mentions go to the likes of sebastian larson damien duff nolberto solano mark albrighton aaron lennon steve stone and shaun wright phillips 7th hyung min sol this was the most difficult seven of the series so far for me not in terms of ordering the seven that was the attacking midfielders video but in terms of wickling my final shortlist of 25 down to just seven there are two players who i found it extremely difficult to leave out and i will explain why along with why they did miss out when i come to my honourable mentions but one of the reasons they both missed out is because of the sheer brilliance of the south korean who gets us started i can't imagine that there are too many managers in world football if any who wouldn't love to have hyungman some within their ranks when he arrived in the premier league with tottenham in 2015 purchased for 22 million pounds from bayer leverkusen he seemed like a very solid signing he was versatile being played in four different positions that season he was hard-working which was crucial as maurizio pochettino looked to implement a high press at whiteout lane and he was clearly gifted particularly with the ball at his feet he didn't yet appear to be someone who would be lethal for tottenham in the final third though nor did he seem like a natural star man more of a very good squad player who could cover in several positions in his debut campaign song scored eight goals in 40 games only four of which came in the premier league but the following season it became clear that son had just needed a season to settle in he bagged more than 20 goals the following season and he has been one of the most consistent and effective forwards in the division for the last six seasons in total son has scored 81 goals and has made 49 assists in 220 premier league appearances which is more goals than eric cantona and louis suarez and more assists than robert perez all things considered i felt that he had to feature and he finished only very narrowly behind the man up next sixth sadio mani i found sadio mane and son heung-min to be two players who are pretty tough to split in the context of this seven they are the same age they play in the same position obviously they arrived in the premier league just one year apart and they have played a similar number of premier league games oh and crucially i suppose they are both brilliant marne does have an extra year on son in the premier league along with 33 extra appearances and an additional 22 goal contributions which counted in his favor he has also won a premier league title and whilst that doesn't count against son since it is a team and not an individual achievement mana had so many big moments during liverpool's title winning campaign and has had more big moments in the premier league overall i would argue i think with the necessary evidence than some has i don't want this segment to just be a comparison of money and son but i think both are a manager's dream in terms of their commitment consistency work ethic and of course their talent monet seemed expensive to some people when he joined liverpool in 2016 following two seasons with southampton for 34 million pounds but he has turned out to be an absolute bargain like so many liverpool players he has scaled new heights playing under jurgen klopp and his goal scoring record which is almost a goal every other game at anfield is absolutely outstanding throughout much of mane's time at liverpool he has been outshined by mohamed salah perhaps a little bit like some with kane honestly the similarities are endless but it may surprise you to discover that many has made the pfa team of the year three times while salah has only made it twice albeit monet has an extra couple of seasons on him i don't think marnie is as good as salah despite one or two contrarian takes suggesting otherwise a couple of years ago but i do think he is the sixth greatest left winger of the premier league era fifth robert perez this seems low to me at least and there will be those who still feel as though it is too low after i reveal my top four but i'll do my best to justify myself as we go along robert pira spent precisely six seasons at arsenal and he was an absolute jewel in every single one of them perez brought a real elegance to the premier league joining an arsenal team that already contained dennis bertkamp and thierry henry along with henry with whom he shared a dressing room at both club and international level perez formed what was the most lethal and the most feared left flank that the premier league has ever seen as with money and son with salah and kane perez was rarely seen as being the star of the show because thierry henry was one of the best players in world football throughout perez's six years at the club but it is telling that it was perez who won the fwa football of the year award at the end of the 2001 02 season and it was perez who the arsenal players knelt and bowed down before as you can see in this photograph after they lifted the premier league title that season perez played fewer premier league games than either mana or son 100 and 98 in total all but nine of which came at arsenal but his output was superb despite playing in a less advanced role than the two players who preceded him in this seven perez still managed to score 63 goals and make 42 assists in 100 89 premier league games for arsenal which would be pretty good going nowadays and was absolutely phenomenal at the time he scored 14 goals in three successive premier league seasons which is further testament to his consistency during his time at arsenal and only a lack of games prevents him from troubling my top three fourth gareth bale perhaps the trickiest player to rank in this seven at his best i think gareth bale is the best left winger to have played in the premier league and yes whilst the majority of bale's appearances across his entire career have come on the right flank all but around 20 of his premier league appearances came out wide on the left hence why he features in this seven rather than the right wing seven just in case any of you were wondering during the 2012-13 season which was bale's last at tottenham before his move to real madrid and by some distance his best he hits a level that has been attained by very few players in the history of the division i think a case could be made that bale was actually individually even more brilliant that season than cristiano ronaldo was in any single premier league campaign including the 2007-08 season i know that will seem hyperbolic and i am not stating it outright i'm just saying that i think it is plausible but whilst ronaldo played in a star-studded manchester united scene with carlos tevez and wayne rooney covering the hard yards alongside him up front and the likes of paul scholes and michael carrick behind him bale played in a spurs team which had aaron lennon on the opposite flank where clint dempsey emmanuel adebayor and jermaine defoe were the next highest scorers behind him nonetheless in every single game as tottenham finished fifth that season you felt as though he could win it for them and very often he did there was a run of five games i remember from january to march of 2013 starting with a game against norwich and ending with the north london derby where bale was as dominant as impactful and as impressive as anything that i've ever seen in the premier league his pace was frightening he had confidence coursing through his veins and every defender in the league looked absolutely petrified of him so that is why he takes fourth but the reality is that bale wasn't at his 2012-13 standard or anything like it for the majority of his time in the premier league he played the fewest games out of anyone in this seven in the premier league and far fewer than the three players ahead of him so all things considered based on quality and quantity of performances in the league i couldn't quite justify putting him any higher than fourth third raheem sterling i know full well that i'm going to get some blowback in the comments for saying that raheem sterling is a greater premier league left winger than gareth bale but that doesn't change the fact that i think it is true as you will know if you have been following this series i am not trying to win any popularity contests with my selections i'm just giving my honestly held beliefs based upon all of the available information and the stated criteria that i am using as i just said i think gareth bale at his best is the best left winger to have played in the premier league raheem sterling at his best probably isn't you could argue he wouldn't even be among the top three but that is not the question that is up for debate sterling has played 313 premier league games which is almost twice as many as bale and he has hit double figures for goals in all competitions for nine successive seasons despite the fact that he is still only 27 years old which is a stat that i will never tire of repeating since i think it is fairly remarkable sterling has never had the kind of explosiveness of bale at his very best and arguably lacks the sheer elegance of a rob empires but what he is unquestionably i would argue is very quick very skillful and extremely intelligent i have made an entire video about raheem sterling in the unlikely event that you are interested in hearing me explain why i think he is so good and so often underrated and wants to go and watch it but the condensed version is that raheem sterling has perhaps the finest attacking movement of anyone who has ever played in the premier league that is in large part why he has scored 106 goals and has made 73 assists in 313 premier league outings which it should be said is more premier league goals than didier drogba who played as a center forward in a fantastic chelsea team in case any of you were wondering sterling has made 153 premier appearances on the left flank 111 on the right flank and 46 through the middle so that is why he features in this seven and not any of the others second eden hazard i have seen some fairly dangerous revisionism creeping in to the way in which some people reflect on eden hazard's time in the premier league following his difficulties at real madrid and whilst i am sure they are pretty fringe views it would be remiss of me not to push back against them hazard spent seven seasons in the premier league and if you were to take a look at those seven seasons as a whole i don't think you would find a better premier league player over that period i remember in the summer of 2012 when i will have been 16 years old watching england versus belgium in what was england's final warm-up game ahead of euro 2012. but in spite of that much of the focus in the ground wasn't on england at all it was on eden hazard who chelsea and manchester united were locked in a vicious transfer battle to try and sign from lille at the time all right probably wasn't that vicious i don't imagine that roberto di mateo and alex ferguson were actually getting in a fight over it but you get the idea i hadn't seen a great deal of hazard at the time and playing through the middle he had a really quiet game on the few occasions when he got the ball his touch was a bit sloppy and he didn't really get a sniff up against his soon-to-be teammates john terry and gary cahill i left wembley feeling rather unimpressed by him the next time i saw hazard as best as i can recall was on the opening day of the premier league season on television against wigan athletic where he tore maynard figaro to shreds and made two assists before being substituted midweek he made a hat-trick of assists in a 40 win against reading and he rounded the week off with a goal and an assist in a two-nil win against newcastle now i was impressed and i along with everyone else with any interest in football would remain very impressed for the next seven years technically eden hazard is among the most gifted players in world football he is one of very few players who seems to actually prefer receiving the ball when he is under immense pressure and surrounded by opposition players as though he relishes the chance to unfound and wriggle free of them over the course of hazard's seven seasons of english football i would characterize him as having been extremely consistent whilst having one off season along with most of the chelsea squad it should be said in 2015 2015-16 and two particularly brilliant seasons which both resulted in chelsea winning the premier league title hazard never played in a bad chelsea team but there were times when they majorly relied on him to provide them with moments of inspiration and to win games and nine times out of ten he would deliver in total hazard scored 85 goals and made 61 assists in 245 premier league appearances making the pfa team in the year four times and being named as chelsea's player of the year four times as well his position in second in this seven was rock solid as far as i was and still am concerned first ryan giggs there have been lots of very good premier league left-wingers some could even be described with that almost mystical and somewhat cryptic term world-class but as soon as the words quality and quantity of appearances in the premier league era came out of my mouth it ultimately obvious that ryan giggs would top this seven and that it would make my all-time premier league eleven that is to come at the climax of this series ryan giggs made 632 premier league appearances the second most of the premier league era over the course of 21 premier league seasons during which time he won a record-breaking 13 premier league titles that alone is near enough justification for his place in top spot but i will embellish you nonetheless in many respects there were three stages of ryan giggs the first stage was a fleet-footed wide man who broke through incredibly young was fantastic on the ball and scored a healthy dose of goals the second was a slightly more conventional wide player still quick energetic and skillful but also highly intelligent and increasingly a brilliant crosser of the ball the final stage was a complete shift in giggs's game once his pace had started to desert him and he moved inside to utilize all of his vision and experience to become a really top-class deep-lying playmaker i mean there was also the stage where he had that eight-year affair with his brother's wife and was charged with bodily harm and common assault against two women and coercive and controlling behavior charges which giggs denies might i add but that stage or those stages aren't relevant to his place at the top of this seven so we will gloss over them just for now ultimately regardless of the content of his character giggs was a fabulous footballer and by far the greatest left winger of the premier league era the way in which he changed his game so subtly and successfully over time his ability consistency and the sheer number of games that he played along with the number of key contributions that he had during title winning games and seasons nobody else can compete arguably in any position but certainly not in this one that is it for my seven but before i leave you which is the hardest part of every video of course there is still time to share with you my honourable mentions i said at the beginning that there were two players that i had great difficulty with leaving out and they were alexis sanchez and david ginola sanchez was for three and a half seasons one of the best players in the premier league and in the 2016-17 season he was probably the best player in the division outright the problem is that after those three and a half seasons sanchez joined manchester united where he was terrible and i don't think that is even being too harsh to be honest and ultimately three and a half seasons as good as they were wasn't quite enough to earn him a spot ahead of either sadio mane or hyungmin's son david ginola on his day was just one of the most joyous and unplayable players that the premier league has ever seen he was 28 when he arrived in the premier league sticking around until his retirement after seven years there were divided between stints at newcastle tottenham aston villa and everton tall handsome and endlessly talented genola could sit a full back down in his sleep and put a ball in the stanchion from 30 yards out as though it was second nature countless defenders described genola as their toughest opponent and johan cruyff even called him the best player in the world in 1999 during his time at tottenham unfortunately genola could be rather inconsistent he never came anywhere near to maximizing his immense talent and those two factors combined within playing fewer than 200 premier league games saw him just miss out to marne and son as well elsewhere honourable mentions go to mark overmars john barnes iron robin paul merson harry kuhl samir nasri lee sharp stuart downing ashley young trevor sinclair nick bambi kevin kilban luis boa morte charles and zogbia morton ganster pedersen and pierre emerick aubameyang among many others with the likes of over mars barnes and robin missing out purely because they played so few games and spent so few seasons in the premier league admittedly only because in the case of barnes he played his best football for liverpool and watford prior to the breakaway of the premier league in 1992 it must be said seventh eric cantona the early parts of this seven i found to be the most difficult to settle upon but in the end there was just no way that i could leave eric cantona out the frenchman didn't play an awful lot of premier league football in the context of this seven just 156 games over the course of five and a half seasons and he didn't score all that many goals again compared to some of the other players in this seven bagging 70 goals over the course of those 156 games in total but cantona's impact upon the premier league and his influence upon the english game makes him one of the premier league's greatest ever players regardless cantona first arrived in english football six months before the breakaway of the premier league in january 1992 when he joined leeds united from neems initially only on loan for a fee of 100 000 pounds it was 100 000 pounds that would win leeds united the first division title thanks primarily to the partnership that cantona forged alongside lee chapman for all of his talent though cantona was often considered to be a troublemaker at leeds particularly after they signed him on a permanent basis in the summer of 1992 so just a few months later when manchester united came calling after their new signing dion dublin broke his leg leeds willingly accepted a bid of 1 million pounds the same amount that they had paid for him manchester united were a club on the rise under alex ferguson at the time but they still hadn't won the league championship since 1967. the red devils have been down in 10th following a poor start to the campaign winning only five of their opening 15 games but cantona came in and immediately lifted the mood it is no secret that the frenchman had a real aura about him both on and off the pitch and he also had a tremendous work ethic that he brought to training sessions cantona may not be the most prolific forward in the seven indeed he often played almost as a number 10 but few premier league players have scored as many truly crucial goals as him manchester united won four premier league titles during cantona's less than five seasons at the club before he hung up his boots aged only 30. it is impossible to say with any certainty whether manchester united would still have become the dominant force in english football over the next couple of decades without eric cantona but alex ferguson has gone on the record of saying that he believes there are no guarantees that they would have done so cantona quite rightly gets us started 6. dennis bergkamp the two least prolific strikers or center forwards in this seven featuring sixth and seventh place in my seven as dennis burkamp sneaks in narrowly ahead of eric cantona burkamp spent a lot longer in the premier league and played a little over twice as many games as the frenchman which is a large part of why he takes sixth signed by arsenal from inter milan in 1995 upon his arrival in north london burkham reportedly became the highest paid player in the premier league and he tripled what had been arsenal's existing club record transfer fee following three outstanding scenes at iax where he scored goals for fun berkamp had bagged just four goals in all competitions in his last season in milan that didn't trouble arsenal though who saw burkamp as the perfect foil for ian wright that proved to be a wise decision and after arsene wenger arrived at highbury in 1996 bertcamp reached yet new heights a year after ian wright left arsenal thierry on re-arrived and burkham managed to form if anything an even more impressive partnership with the frenchman simply one of the most gifted players to have ever graced the premier league burkham's touch awareness and his weight of pass elevated the english game along with the rest of that brilliant arsenal team in total burkamp scored 87 goals and made 94 assists in the premier league over exactly 10 years in england but beyond the numbers he was just one of the most gifted and consequential overseas players that the premier league has seen fifth harry kane the only current premier league player in this seven and i apologize if that is too much of a spoiler and you were expecting to see chenk toast and feature later on it is quite possible that by the time harry kane hangs up his boots or just bids farewell to the premier league at least he will have climbed another few places up this seven as of 2022 though i think fifth sits just right for the tottenham man kane is already the fifth highest scorer of the premier league era so there is some pleasing symmetry with his ranking there having recently overtaken both frank lampard and thierry henry at this point it seems inevitable that kane will eventually become at least the second highest scorer of the premier league era at some stage it is just a question of whether he will ever leapfrog alan shearer into top spot it is taken as a given that kane has scored that many goals now but it is no less remarkable and nor is the fact that he will most likely become england's all-time record goalscorer before he turns 30. unlike a lot of great premier league strikers whether that be michael owen or ruud van nisseroy it wasn't immediately obvious that kane was destined for stardom the first time most of us saw him play between england's under-21s and various low moves i must have watched kane 20 times before he broke through at tottenham due to a lack of forward options and at no point during that time did i think that his eventual breakthrough seemed totally inevitable kane is not the quickest nor is he the most naturally gifted but he does have fantastic attacking movement he can strike a ball cleanly and accurately without the foot he's good in the air and over the last few years he has been as impressive as a provider of goals as he has been score of them above all else though it is kane's mentality that makes him so special as a player he is relentless whether that be in training in terms of his self belief or just not letting the size of the occasional any missed chances during a game go to his head unlike every other player in this seven kane has never won a premier league title or any major trophy for that matter but that doesn't stop him from being the fifth greatest striker of the premier league era already at the age of only 28 as far as i'm concerned fourth sergio sergio aguero ranks one place ahead of harry kane in the premier league scoring charts and he also ranks one plays ahead of him in my 7. aguero scored 184 goals in 275 premier league games for manchester city which is an extraordinary record especially given that he didn't play a full 90 minutes in a lot of those games on a minutes per goal basis aguero is the single most prolific player of the premier league era and by some distance might i add with mohamed salah recently having overtaken tierion re as his closest competitor on that front aguero's start to life in the premier league got off to a bang as he scored a brace off the bench against what had been up to that point a resilient newly promoted swansea city team including a real thunderbolt from range it was no secret that aguero was a special talent from his time in argentina and in madrid but if there were any doubts about his ability to transfer that form over to the premier league they were pretty quickly extinguished following pep guardiola's arrival at manchester city at which point there was a bit of speculation about aguero's future at the club the argentine became much more physical much more industrious and far more involved in man city's build-up play at his best which personally i think was probably the 2017-18 season aguero was an absolute animal his strength for someone who is only five foot eight was phenomenal he could hold the ball up bring others into the game and he was still scoring almost a goal a game aguero seemed to pick up a niggling injury or two almost every season which just prevented him from hitting truly ridiculous 30-plus league goal tallies a season and perhaps from finishing even higher in this seven but the fourth greatest striker of the premier league era off the back of nine seasons in england well it isn't bad going is it third wayne rooney i think that there is a real debate to be had between sergio aguero and wayne rooney when it comes to the premier league's greatest strikers and it was one that i gave some real consideration on the aguero side of the argument you have the fact that he was very much an out and out center forward throughout all of his time in the premier league he was much more prolific than rooney and much more consistent in terms of his overall output on the other hand rooney played considerably more games in the premier league 216 more to be specific he was more complete than aguero even aguero in that 2017-18 season and you could argue that the only reason rooney wasn't as prolific as the argentine and arguably the only reason he didn't score even more goals in the premier league than alan shearer is because he was always either drawn or instructed to come deep drift out wide and get involved with the game at all times rather than just scoring goals it gets forgotten now but even though wayne rooney is a year younger than cristiano ronaldo back in 2004 when rooney linked up with ronaldo at manchester united he was way ahead of ronaldo in terms of his talent and contribution the way that wayne rooney performed at euro 2004 as an 18 year old was absolutely mind-blowing and had certain external factors been different i think rooney could constantly have gone down in the same bracket as messi and ronaldo whilst he did not manage that he still had an extraordinary career in the premier league alone rooney scored 208 goals and made 103 assists in 491 appearances at his most prolific in the 2009 10 season rooney scored 26 goals in 32 premier league games but he was never content with just being a number nine rooney's decline if you like had already begun by the time he was 28 and he left the premier league at 32 in a move to the mls had he maintained his pre-2014 level into his mid-30s rooney might have trouble top spot but given how early he broke through he has still done more than enough to merit a bronze medal in this seven second alan shearer realistically even if it was just based solely upon the number of goals that he scored alan shearer could only finish either second or first in this seven shira is of course the highest goalscorer of the premier league era on 260 goals and he ranks fifth in english football's all-time top flight scoring charts with 283 goals that is because 23 of shearer's top flight goals all of which were scored at southampton came before the creation of the premier league in 1992. it was in 1992 that shearer left southampton joining free-spending blackburn rovers under the ownership of jack walker and the management of kenny dalglish it was at blackburn that shira won his only premier league title in 1995 during his most prolific and indeed one of the premier league's most prolific campaigns as the englishman backed 34 goals in 42 premier league games in 1996 when shira was probably at the peak of his powers he had the choice of joining manchester united or newcastle united from a footballing perspective manchester united were the obvious choice as the emerging force within the english game but shira was a newcastle fan so he decided to join his boyhood club for a world record 15 million pounds over the next nine years shira became newcastle's leading peacetime goalscorer bagging 206 goals in 405 games often described as an old-school british centre-forward given his strength aerial ability and his willingness to put his head in where it hurts do not be fooled into thinking that shira couldn't play of it as well brilliant at holding the ball up and bringing others into the game it was his ability to score every type of goal left foot right foot bullet headers scruffy finishes tapping screamers free kicks and penalties you name it shira could put it in the back of the net and only the unique vavavoom of the man up next can restrict the premier league's greatest goalscorer to a spot in second first peter crouch not just the tallest but also the best peter crouch is the leading scorer of heading up nah i'm just messing with you first thierry henry i might have given it away a bit with that vavavoom reference there for those of you who remember that and aren't just wondering why alfie is quoting from a nicki minaj song whilst talking about alan shearer but i suspect that even without any spoilers once i named alan sharon second most of you knew who was going to take gold for my money narrowly ahead of roy keane thierry henry is not just the greatest forward of the premier league era but also the greatest player in any position henry was brought to the premier league in 1999 by arsene wenger who had worked with a teenage henry at monaco he joined arsenal off the back of just seven months at juventus where henry had struggled to get to grips with life in syria only managing to score three goals in 20 outings and even being deputised as a left wing back henry had always been a left winger in fairness for both monaco and france but it was at arsenal that arsene wenger made him the gunners central striker henry would always drift out left for arsenal to a particularly devastating effect once his compatriot robert pires joined the club but his move central proves to be a master stroke in his debut campaign henry scored 17 goals in the premier league and 26 in all competitions in the 2002 03 season henry not only scored 24 premier league goals he also made a record-breaking 20 league assist from 37 outings the latter of which has since been matched once by kevin de bruyne but never exceeded the following season henry in what is widely regarded as having been his magnum opus scored 30 goals in the league alone as arsenal went invincible in the premier league in total henry scored 170 goals and made 74 assists in 258 premier league games winning the golden boot four times making the premier league team of the season six times and making the pfa team of the century beyond the numbers though henry was also just the most feared and iconic player that the premier league has ever seen when he was at his absolute best for the best part of the decade when premier league defenders went to sleep at night they had nightmares where all they saw were those long sleeves and gloves when you saw that iconic combination it was pretty much game over before a ball had even been kicked henry was lightning quick incredibly skillful and effortlessly inventive in terms of both his dribbling passing and finishing his back hill goal for arsenal against charlton athletic whilst far from being his most impressive goal for the club was indicative of that invention and confidence that he had in his own game there are lots of different ways that i could justify on re-topping this seven but ultimately i just think that he is the greatest centre-forward of the premier league era so those are my top seven but i promised you some brief explanations and honorable mentions and we start with luis suarez at his peak suarez was as good as anyone in this seven i would argue even henry and if i were ranking the best premier league strikers or the best seasons by premier league strikers he would take either first or second place ultimately though as i alluded to in the introduction suarez simply played too few games spent too few seasons and by virtue of that just lacked the weight of premier league greatness to feature ahead of either dennis bergkamp or eric cantona the striker who actually came closest to making my seven based on the stated criteria of quality and quantity of performances in the premier league that we have used throughout this series was andy cull and i was really disappointed that i couldn't find a place for him because i don't think that he gets anywhere near the credit that he deserves when people talk about all-time premier league greats and now i feel like i am part of the problem were this channel called hitc8 he would definitely have featured behind andy cole if i were to make a top 10 it would be liverpool duo robbie fowler and michael owen who would complete that list both were teenage superstars who shot to immediate stardom fowler arguably the finest finisher that the premier league has ever seen and owen basically brilliant at everything before he suffered the first of many hamstring injuries at the age of only 19. were it not for that first injury and all those that followed owen could well have been as good as anyone in this seven and the fact that he still achieved what he did in the premier league despite being plagued by injuries and spending time at real madrid meant that he very nearly featured elsewhere honourable mentions aro to ruud van niseroy robin van persie carlos tevez dimitar berbatov ian wright teddy sheringham jamie vardy dwight york nicholas and elka fernando torres jermaine defoe jimmy floyd hasselbank mark the duker emil heskey robbie keane kevin phillips romelu lukaku peter crouch dion dublin darren benz yakubu and didier drogba among others and not in that order of course drogba again was as unplayable if not even more so than anyone in my 7 when he was at his dominant best but he only had two truly rip-roaring premier league seasons and whilst his big game credentials are undeniable all those sensational final performances are irrelevant to this seven which is concerned only with the premier league 7th claudio ranieri a man who illustrates quite possibly better than anyone else the difficulties in formulating a 7 of this silk it would be fair to say that claudia ranieri has had his ups and downs in the premier league in four seasons at chelsea ranieri finished sixth sixth fourth and finally second following a summer in which he was backed by roman abramovich's billions before he was replaced by jose mourinho a leicester city more than a decade later ranieri won the league in his debut campaign in what is by far the greatest upset and achievement any manager has accomplished during the premier league era before getting sacked just the following season with the foxes threatened with relegation and most recently ranieri has had two very short-lived stints at fulham and watford where he had a win percentage of less than 20 percent as you can see then when you look at ranieri's premier league career as a whole there are lots of factors that you have to weigh up and he would do well to crack even the top 20 were not for his remarkable title win at leicester in 2016. however he did win the premier league title leicester did do the unthinkable and no manager in this seven can put their name or even hold a candle to a more remarkable achievement than that what's more it is worth remembering the context in which ranieri was appointed at the king power stadium leicester had pulled off a great escape and a nigel pearson the previous season who was sacked in acrimonious circumstances over the summer allegedly linked to his son james's role in a racist sex tape that was filmed during the fox's preseason tour of thailand ranieri's appointment was not a particularly popular one and was treated with great skepticism by a lot of people including myself ranieri had just been sacked after only four games in charge of the greece national team which concluded with a defeat against the pharaoh ants leicester were unsurprisingly then among the favourites to be relegated once again but ranieri was able to implement an exhilarating and remarkably effective brand of counter-attacking football he created a tremendous dressing room environment and he brought out the best in every single player in that squad it cannot have been easy keeping those players most of whom had zero experience in that type of scenario level headed and on top of their game whilst they went on such an inconceivable run but ranieri did it and that achievement alone aided a little bit by four decent years at chelsea is enough to merit him squeaking in 6. david moyes the juxtaposition between claudia ranieri and david moyes is an emphatic one the latter of whom has never won a premier league title or come particularly close to doing so despite predominantly having managed teams who were perceived as having greater title prospects albeit still pretty limited than leicester city nonetheless whilst moyes's trophy cabinet may look a little scarce i still think that you can count the number of greater premier league managers than him on a single hand alex ferguson and arsene wenger are the only managers to have won more games during the premier league era than moyes and ferguson wenger and harry redknapp are the only managers to have taken charge of a team in more premier league fixtures the vast majority of moyes's premier league management to date came during his more than 11 years at everton where he did an outstanding job moyes inherited an everton team that was mired in a relegation scrap off the back of four very successful seasons at preston north end and he was able to guide them to safety moyes managed to transform everton into the best of the rest for much of his time at goodison park and even cracked the top four at a time when many said that it couldn't be done he did all of that on a shoestring budget as everton spent less than the likes of birmingham city middlesbrough and bolton wanderers during his time at the club everyone knows about moyes's subsequent short-lived stint at manchester united but replacing alex ferguson was in many ways an impossible job as was the sunderland job that moyes took on in 2016 albeit for rather different reasons ultimately though whilst his lack of trophies and the fact that the jury is still out as to whether he can do it at the very highest level had to restrict him to a spot in sixth moyes is probably the greatest mid-table manager of the premier league era and he is proving his talents yet again at west ham who he has also taken from relegation concerns to european football and even the semi-finals of the uefa europa league probably shouldn't have volleyed a ball at a ball boy though and then used the fact that it sat up nicely for him to hit as an excuse you know with the benefit of hindsight i'm sure it seemed like a great idea at the time fifth jurgen klopp time and trophies are the only things that count against jurgen klopp in a premier league context who has undoubtedly done one of the finest jobs in the history of the premier league if not all of english football at liverpool to date whilst klopp is not solely responsible for liverpool's turnaround on his watch no manager acts in isolation and all are dependent on external factors to some extent it is tough to imagine that any other manager in all of world football would have been capable of orchestrating such a meteoric rise although liverpool had finished second in the 2013-14 campaign just two seasons before klopp arrived so much of that success was down to luis suarez ellen who had since departed and liverpool didn't look anything like a title winning team by october 2015. klopp's first starting eleven at liverpool included the likes of simon mignolet mamadou sacco and alberto moreno since klopp arrived almost seven years ago liverpool's recruitment has arguably been the best in world football but the way in which klopp has nurtured those players and created a system in which they have flourished has been pretty spectacular i have said numerous times before on this channel that even when liverpool have missed out on the title to manchester city i don't think that they have got enough credit for driving perhaps the greatest and almost certainly the most efficient premier league team of all time quite so close klopp has the third highest win percentage of any manager during the premier league era and this season he and liverpool have the potential to do something unprecedented in the entire history of english football on sheer managerial ability i think you would probably be able to make a compelling case for klopp coming even higher than fifth but the fact that he has only won one premier league title at the time of recording potentially two by the end of this season and his achievements at liverpool outside of the premier league sadly aren't relevant to this seven restricts him to a spot in fifth just for now fourth jose mourinho one place behind jurgen klopp in terms of the premier league's all-time managerial rankings based solely on one percentage but one place ahead of him in the seven jose mourinho is one of only five managers to have won more than 200 games during the premier league era brought to the premier league as claudio raniere's replacement at chelsea in 2004 mourinho's first in with the blues was fairly remarkable even with by far the deepest pockets of any team in the division to win back-to-back premier league titles and indeed back-to-back league and cup doubles in your first two scenes in charge at a club that hadn't won a top flight league title since 1955 well i guess you could describe that as being pretty special i can remember it being fairly shocking at the time but it seems even more outrageous now then after winning six trophies in only three seasons including two premier league titles jose mourinho was sacked or forced to leave by mutual consent and replaced by avraham grant following a one draw with rosenborg in the champions league mourinho later returned to chelsea where he won a third premier league title before a horrific title defense saw him sacked once again that bruising experience seemed to change mourinho a little and i have made a whole video about how it seemed to have impacted and changed him not that long ago should you be interested it should be said that he took manchester united to their highest league finish since sir alex ferguson's retirement as premier league runners-up an achievement that was matched by oligarch last season but is yet to be exceeded mourinho also won the europa league at old trafford but as with klopp his european exploits aren't relevant to this seven mourinho's last job in the premier league at tottenham hotspur was his least successful and it marked the first time since taking over at porto in 2002 that mourinho had left the club without winning a single trophy his win percentage at tottenham was lower than maurizio pochettino's and antonio conte's and only narrowly better the nuno esperito santos but in spite of that undoubted drop-off mourinho's overall legacy and the work that he has done in the premier league means that he is unfortunate in my opinion not to make a podium finish third pep guardiola the biggest blight on pep guardiola's record at manchester city if you can call it that has been his inability to guide the club to their first champions league crown however this seven is concerned solely with the premier league and in the premier league guardiola's record is practically flawless no manager has a better win percentage than guardiola during the premier league era and it isn't even close pep's 74 win percentage at the etihad is not just by far and away the highest win percentage of any manager in the premier league it's actually even better than pep's own win percentage at fc barcelona it might surprise you to discover i know it surprised me and it is almost neck and neck with his record at bayern munich there will be those who say well yes he has had lots of money to spend and he inherited some very good plays and that is undoubtedly true but it's worth remembering that wasn't the narrative when guardiola first arrived man city had finished fourth the season before pap arrived 15 points behind title winners leicester city and tied on points with manchester united in fifth there was rather a large consensus spanning from pundits to fans particularly after man city finished third in guardiola's debut campaign and conte's chelsea romped to the league title mouse out of them that he wouldn't be able to replicate the way in which he played in la liga and in the bundesliga in the premier league it just wouldn't work well guardiola refused to compromise and the results have been emphatic he is the only manager ever to win 100 points in a single premier league season and he followed that up with 98 points the following season guardiola has changed the way that football has played in england and in five seasons he has won as many premier league titles as jose mourinho won in nine and a half seasons and as many as arsene wenger won in 22. it is quite possible that guardiola could make that four titles in only six seasons this season which would put him second only to alex ferguson during the premier league era so he starts the countdown of my top three second arsene wenger i should imagine that there won't be too many surprises about my top two but i will justify them nonetheless along with a quick word for those managers who just missed out as i said pep guardiola has won as many premier league titles as arsene wenger in less than a quarter of the time and he could have won more than wenger ever did by the time that this season has concluded however context is important longevity is important and greatness is about more than trophies alone arsene wenger inherited an arsenal team that had finished 5th 12th 4th and 10th in the four seasons before he arrived and his appointment caught a lot of people off guard brought in from nagoya grandpa's eight in japan arson who was the headline in the evening standard on the day that the frenchman was appointed but wenger took a team that was built on strong foundations with a very solid backline and turned it into one of the most free-flowing and entertaining teams that the premier league has ever seen whilst retaining those strong foundations and an excellent work ethic arsenal's signings in wenger's first five seasons at the club from robert perez to thierry henry were absolutely out of this world and for eight seasons between 1997-98 and 2004.05 arsenal never finished lower than second unfortunately for them and for arsene wenger the brilliance of manchester united and later chelsea meant that they only with only inverted commas there won three premier league titles during that time wenger shaped the future of english football more so than any other manager during the premier league era including alex ferguson his recruitment training and dietary methods modernized the league like you wouldn't believe dragging it into the 21st century as the drinking culture that still hung around from the first division era was largely wiped out and a new breed of artist and athlete was born even in wenger's later years when arsenal struggled to compete for league titles it must be remembered that the gunners were spending just a fraction of what those around them were spending yet only in wenger's last two seasons did arsenal actually slip out of the champions league places wenger holds the record for the most games managed in the premier league 828 and the second most wins 476 but above all else it was the way in which he moulded the league having arrived as an unknown quantity and knocked a dominant manchester united team off their perch that ensured that wenger took second place in my seven first tim sherwood yeah i bet you weren't expecting that were you tim sherwood is a man who finished 17th in aston villa and reached an fa cup final and after they sacked him that's right they were relegated in dead last a lesson for life don't doubt big tim the man works miracles nah i'm just kidding he's rubbish he is a terrible manager this was just another one of my many brilliant pranks first alex ferguson as predictable as mexico going out in the round of 16 of the fifa world cup or ricky gervais not being able to write a good sitcom without stephen merchant obviously the greatest manager of the premier league era is sir alex ferguson in 21 years of management in the premier league fergie won 13 league titles that is more than pep guardiola arsene wenger jose mourinho antonio conte and claudia ranieri combined i could probably leave it at just that in terms of justifying ferguson's position in top spot which i doubt any right-minded person would dispute but i will embellish you just a little just for the fun of it ferguson took charge at manchester united when the club was second bottom in the first division in november 1986 having finished fourth in the previous season the red devils hadn't won a top flight league title since the 1960s and in ferguson's first season they finished 11th it wouldn't be until ferguson's seventh season at old trafford which just so happened to be the inaugural premier league campaign that he and manchester united would finally be crowned as champions of england i think that it is worth pointing out that in the 1988 89 and 1989-90 seasons fresh off the back of finishing second in the first division manchester united slipped to 11th and 13th how many modern managers would survive that at a club like manchester united well alex ferguson did they were different times and when the premier league was born manchester united dominated the breakaway division the most impressive thing about ferguson in my view was his ability to overhaul a squad whilst remaining competitive and to win league titles with teams built around three or four different cause during his time at old trafford from that of bruce palista ince hughes and co to the treble winning team of york cole and the class of 92 cohort and arguably his best ever team with that phenomenal front three of ronaldo rooney and tabis ferguson was able to make average players look very good very good players look great and kept the already great players level-headed and as soon as he felt that they weren't level-headed he got rid of them all things considered this is just a long way of saying obviously alex ferguson is the greatest manager of the premier league era and either jurgen klopp or pep guardiola would probably need another decade at liverpool and man city if they were going to attempt to change that in terms of my 26 man shortlist for this video the 19 managers who made that list but missed out on my final seven contained five premier league winning managers incredible gliesh antonio conte manuel pellegrini roberto mancini and carlo ancelotti alongside rafa benitez harry redknapp sam allardyce maurizio pochettino kevin keegan martin o'neill brendan rogers bobby robson gerard julia roy hodgson ron atkinson alan kirbishly sean dyche and steve mclaren i think there could be a couple of others roy evans brings to mind who may be unfortunate to miss out on that shortlist as well and of those named i think kenny dalgliesh roy hodgson and quite possibly sam allardyce would have to complete my top 10. the eternal debate when constructing one of these 11s is whether you pick the greatest players in each position and just throw them all together or whether you pick what you think would actually be the most balanced and formidable starting 11 in real life or in some cases a compromise between the two what i have done because i like to go above and beyond for all of you lovely people is both so the first 11 that i will go through is my premier league era greatest 11 based on who topped each of the positional sevens which as you may recall if you watched any or all of them was based on the quality and quantity of each player's performances in the premier league my second 11 is what i actually think would be the most formidable and unbeatable 11 that you could possibly assemble made up only of premier league elections which i personally think is genius so stay tuned for that and then right at the end i am going to share my pre-premier league era english football greatest 11 very quickly because football in england did actually exist before the premier league for quite some time and those stars of yesteryear deserve some love as well i know i know i spoil you rotten but you are worth it well most of you anyway since there are three elevens to get through rather than one i'm not going to go player by player as i normally would since we would be here all week instead i'll just go position by position so my keeper my defenders midfielders you get the idea it will be absolutely brilliant i promise without further ado then an apologies if i sound a bit like death but just thank your lucky stars if you are one of those people who are fortunate enough not to suffer from hay fever here is my greatest 11 of the premier league era starting with the 11 that is based upon simply the greatest premier league players in each position goalkeeper peter schmeichel pretty straightforward this one peter schmeichel topped my goalkeeper seven narrowly ahead of peta check so it is the great dane who starts between the sticks in our first eleven at his peak schmeichel was probably worth 10 points a season to manchester united even compared to if they had someone who was solid but not spectacular in that throughout his eight years at manchester united and to a lesser extent his two seasons with man city and aston villa schmeichel had a presence about him that no other premier league goalkeeper has been able to replicate either before or since in terms of the confidence that he inspired in his back line and the fear that he struck into the hearts of opposing forwards right that is enough babble from me on that one back four from right to left reads gary neville rio ferdinand john terry and ashley cole again i am going to be brief with this one because i don't think that there are any great surprises based upon the criteria that was used to formulate this 11. in terms of the quality and quantity of their performances in the premier league gary neville is head and shoulders above any other right back rio ferdinand and john terry are in a league of their own amongst centre-backs and i don't think anyone can really rival ashley cole at left-back dennis irwin in relation to ashley cole is probably the closest competitor that any of these four had based upon this criteria sol campbell wasn't a million miles off ferdinand and terry and tony adams would have been a strong candidate had half of his career not come before the breakaway of the premier league from the first division ultimately though i think that these four pretty much picked themselves the midfield again from right to left reads mohamed salah roy keane paul scholes and ryan giggs much more contentious than the back four i would suggest there is stern competition for every one of the four midfield spots with the possible exception of the left flank where i think it would be quite difficult to argue that anyone comes close to ryan giggs on the left wing in terms of the quality and quantity of their performances in the premier league if you want to understand why salah starts ahead of cristiano ronaldo roy keane ahead of patrick vieira and poor skulls ahead of both steven gerrard and frank lampard feel free to go back and watch those positional sevens if you haven't already because if i tried to explain it here this video would be extremely long but as i say those three were all much tighter calls it's interesting to note that three of this four-man midfield were actually teammates playing together in the same midfield for about 11 years perhaps it should come as little surprise then that manchester united won six premier league titles during those 11 seasons and never finished lower than third especially since david beckham was also part of that midfield for the majority of that time mohamed salah would obviously be a little bit out of his comfort zone playing on the right of a midfield four rather than on the right of a front three hence why i think my own 11 that we are about to come to is better than this one but it still doesn't look too bad does it and finally for this 11 up top it is a combination of thierry henry and alan shearer the premier league has been blessed with some outstanding centre forwards whether that be the elegance of dennis burkamp the speed of michael owen or the genius of eric cantona but i think there are four in terms of the quality and quantity of their performances in the division who stand out above all the rest and they are sergio aguero wayne rooney thierry henry and alan shearer you can probably just about take your pick out of those four in terms of how you would rank them from first or fourth but those of you who watch the specific center forward seven will know that i went with shira and henry as my top team hence why they are the straight partnership in this eleven completely different players henry joined arsenal having played as a left wing back for a while at juventus and he continued to drift out onto the left flank at arsenal combining with ashley cole robert perez and dennis bergkamp to devastating effect lightning quick fantastic on the ball and capable of scoring a myriad of different goals henry is to my mind at least the greatest player of the premier league era shearer was a very different type of forward always an out and out center forward and not as obviously insanely gifted at first glance his finishing a movement during his time at blackburn were probably the best that the league has ever seen and at newcastle he became a much more well-rounded and complete centre-forward capable of holding the ball up scoring goals and bringing others into the game as well as just about anyone else i have absolutely no idea how the two of them would combine in a strike partnership but that is not something that i have to worry about with this 11. that's for the next one the rest of the 23-man squad using the same system of those previous positional videos including the utility one reads petr cech edwin van der sar cal walker sol campbell dennis irwin patrick vieira frank lampard steven gerrard james milner eden hazard cristiano ronaldo and wayne rooney admittedly james milner does look a little bit out of place there but he topped the utility player's seven hence why he had to make the squad and he would be a very useful player to have around even in a squad as gifted as that one all right now for what i think would actually be the most formidable 11 of the premier league era with the shackles taken off the only restriction that i put on myself with regards to this 11 is that i could only pick from the players who at least featured in the series up to this point so they had to be at least one of the seven greatest players of the premier league era in their respective positions meaning that whilst i could pick them at the peak of their powers that would ensure that they were all still premier league elections i hope that i'm not confusing anyone too much here it all seems relatively straightforward to me but i'm acutely aware that that could possibly be because it is me talking and i know what i mean basically if i was building a premier league era 11 and 23-man squad to play a single game of football or a whole season and i would die if they didn't either win that game or the league title this is the 11 and squad that i would pick goalkeeper edwin van der sar i know i know i have overlooked both schmeichel and check in nets because edwin van der sar wasn't just a brilliant goalkeeper who made virtually no obvious mistakes he was also a top class professional one of the calmest keepers in the business and his distribution was outstanding he was far better with the ball at his feet than either schmeichel or check and since i needed a keeper who could play a bit you know playing it out from the back he is my choice and i'm pretty happy with it you might not be but hopefully if you are not it will make a little bit more sense when you see the rest of my team the back four reads carl walker rio ferdinand virgil van dijk and ashley cole all right this one might boil some piss i suspect depending upon your club allegiances and even if you are just a neutral there will be two big question marks about this one the first one i suspect is where the hell is john terry and the second one i would imagine is what is carl walker doing at right back i will start with jt who made the initial 11 and is as i said either the greatest or second greatest centre-back of the premier league era now that isn't the criteria for this eleven however which is just a case of building the best team and i am strongly of the opinion that rio ferdinand is the greatest centre-back to have ever graced the premier league i think some people's perceptions are slightly distorted by the fact that terry was probably a little bit better in his last few years in the premier league before dropping down into the championship with aston villa then ferdinand was in his last injury-disrupted season at manchester united the season after sir alex ferguson retired and certainly in his regrettable final season in football with queen's park rangers however that is just a snapshot of the last few years of their careers when he first broke through at west ham then at leeds united and eventually at manchester united following two record-breaking transfers rio ferdinand was the outstanding centre-back in all of english football big strong quick positionally excellent brilliant on the ball accurate in the past i really could go on there was virtually nothing that rio ferdinand couldn't do as a centre-back and given that his spot in my 11 was never up for debate it was just a question of who would be the best player to partner him at centre-back in my eleven virgil van dijk only just snuck into my greatest centre-backs of the premier league era seven in seventh place by virtue of the fact that he hasn't played in the premier league or at the highest level for nearly as long as a lot of other candidates nonetheless he is a really special center-back his physical attributes combined with his defensive fundamentals are superb and whilst i don't think his passing or technique are as good as rios were they are still excellent by center-back standards together i just think these two would be absolutely rock-solid defensively and a brilliant foundation in terms of starting attacks as for kyle walker i was always of the opinion that he was slightly overrated and that whilst brilliant on his day he always had a mistake in him especially against top class opposition and on the biggest occasions relying far too much on that really incredible pace so much so that when it couldn't bail him out he would end up doing something a bit stupid i still think that that is an accurate description of walker during his time at tottenham and i have no doubt that he still has that moment of rashness in his locker but for the last three seasons at manchester city he has very rarely revealed it walker is still lightning quick he is brilliant in one-on-one situations and his positioning has come on leaps and bounds he is the only full-back who i've seen killian and bappe lack the belief to run at and try and take on and i don't think that the frenchman is alone in that respect so walker is my right back on the basis that it is the cal walker of the last two to three years at manchester city and not the younger more hot-headed version of him my three-man midfield is made up of patrick vieira fernandinho and kevin de bruyne i think there is very little to split roy keane and patrick vieira who are the two greatest midfielders of the premier league era at least as far as i'm concerned and i would have zero complaints about swapping the frenchman for keen in this 11. i picked the error purely because of his ball carrying abilities that were better than keynes meanwhile both had incredible energy and presence about them in addition to their obvious leadership skills their ability to win the ball back and their willingness to be direct and to drive the team forward in possession there are a handful of greater premier league midfielders than fernandinho i could have played both keane and vieira if i liked for a start and i did feel torn about including him for that reason i've no doubt that it will be an unpopular decision among those of you in the comments as it was with me in a sense so i get that but ultimately i just couldn't escape the fact that i think this team needed a proper destructive defense midfielder rather than two boxster box players like keane and vieira and there wasn't anyone who i could put in that role who i felt more confident or more relaxed about when i look to my levitt as a whole than fernandinho at his best i am playing down his talents a little simply because of the caliber of player that i have left out to include him but i do think that fernandinho was manchester city's most important player in the 2017-18 season and arguably the league's best player during a campaign in which he was relentless out of possession and practically faultless when he had the ball so the brazilian features because i think that he just makes us a better team than anyone else which is the same reason why every player features but i felt the need to explain that one a little bit more because he wasn't someone who i expected to pick when i first sat down to draft my team kevin de bruyne i think picks himself he is the most talented midfielder to have played in the premier league and by the time he leaves manchester city he will most likely make the first eleven in this video as well as the second one the three players up next would have a field day with him playing in behind them and those three players are thierry henry alan shearer and cristiano ronaldo nah come on if that's not a frightening forward line i really don't know what is cristiano ronaldo given that this is his peak in the premier league that we are talking about would be making constant runs inside he has got patrick vieira and fernandinho in midfield meaning that he would have very limited defensive responsibilities which is just the way that he likes it and cal walker marauding down that right flank on occasion to offer additional width the deliveries of ashley cole and kevin de bruyne into the box from the right and left flanks respectively would be a dream for both shearer and ronaldo meanwhile henry is obviously reunited with ashley cole on the left flank and would also be making constant runs between the opposing right back and centre-back with his compatriot and former teammate patrick vieira providing for him in addition to kevin de bruyne no i don't take these fantasy 11's too seriously at all i don't know what you're talking about in between henry and ronaldo you have got alan shearer and we are talking about 1995 or 1996 alan shearer here who would score 50 plus goals in this team of that i have no doubt and at least 40 in the premier league alone heck he scored 34 in a season in the premier league at blackburn maybe i'm being too conservative even with that prediction but either way i suspect that this team as a whole would breeze past manchester city's record of scoring 106 goals in a premier league season which they set during the 2017-18 campaign just imagine the pace power and precision of this team on the counter attack with carl walker and ashley cole flying up the pitch from full back as fernandinho slots in alongside the two center backs van der sar van dijk and ferdinand all capable of playing pinpoint long balls out wide to either flank or into the feet of vieira and de bruyne vieira marauding forward with those long legs of his de bruyne creating henry and ronaldo probably among the fastest players the division has ever seen and even shearer could really shift back in his blackburn days frightening i think that it would be a great game but i'm pretty sure my second 11 beats my first 11 probably seven or eight times out of ten which makes sense i guess given that the first one is just a mishmash of the greatest players of the premier league era in each position based upon the criteria that i have used throughout this series meanwhile the second one was designed with the express intention of winning games and league titles to that end the rest of the 23-man squad for the second group includes peter schmeichel petr czech trent alexander arnold john terry ricardo carvalho dennis erwin roy keane paul scholes yaya toure mohamed salah gareth bale and wayne rooney i would explain why but i suspect that you are all sick of my voice especially played by hay fever by this stage and there is still a small matter of my pre-1992 english football greatest 11 which looks like this in goal i have gone for gordon banks narrowly ahead of the likes of bert troutman pat jennings frank swift and neville southall my back four from right to left is roger byrne neil franklin bobby moore and eddie hapgood with graham souness sitting in midfield bobby charlton ahead of him stanley matthews on the right flank tom finney out while on the left george best playing in a free roll behind the center forward and jimmy grieves up front with roughly 400 honorable mentions not least john charles who only misses out because he went to juventus and only actually spent one season in english football's top flight so that is it for today's video subscribers and regular viewers will know that this was a collection if you like of the previous videos within this series partly so that they could all be watched in one place and because my only previous compilation video taking a look uh the best footballer from every country on earth is currently my most viewed video that i've ever made and also partly because i am taking a scandalously rare break from work with five days off next week so it seemed like a good idea to get an extra video up anyhow i hope that you all enjoyed it whether it was new to you or not i hope that you all have a magnificent day week month year and decade and i hope that you never go in too hard for a header in football tennis do a full flip land face first on a hard court and come out of it with concussion and a chipped tooth i can tell you from experience that you don't want that so i'm crossing my fingers for you on that front thank you all very much as a for watching hit the like button if you enjoyed today's video let me know your thoughts down below in the comments and make sure you are subscribed and have notifications turned on for hitc sevens you can also find me on social media on either twitter or instagram via the username hrtc7s on both should you wish to do so cheers

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 1,778,904

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Premier League, Greatest, Players, Footballers, Chelsea, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Liverpool, Every, Position, Managers, XI, 30, Anniversary, Man Utd, Man City, Best, All Time, Everton, Tottenham, Newcastle United, John Terry, Steven Gerrard, Premiership, Dennis Bergkamp, Eric Cantona

Id: evVtnK-B-5s

Length: 186min 29sec (11189 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 01 2022