Over the years, the Premier League has been blessed with some of the finest midfield players in world football, and that still rings true today.
You don’t even have to look outside of Manchester to find the likes of Bernardo Silva, Jack Grealish, Paul Pogba and Kevin De Bruyne all plying their trade.
Silva, with his devastating passing ability and sublime skill in close quarters, is arguably the best midfield currently playing in the Premier League. He’s a nightmare to play against and he’s one of the reasons that Manchester City are favourites in the latest Premier League football odds.
He and his peers are following in the footsteps of some of the greatest midfielders to ever lace up a pair of boots.
The old guard
One such man is Paul Scholes, the diminutive Englishman that bossed the Manchester United midfield for over a decade. He spent 19 years at the club and in that time lifted a staggering 25 trophies, including 11 Premier League titles.
The Salford-born wizard made 499 league appearances for the Red Devils, and over 700 in all competitions, having spent the entirety of his professional footballing career at Old Trafford.
With an almost superhuman ability to pick out a pass from anywhere on the pitch, Scholes was also strong on the ball and incredibly difficult to dispossess. He pulled the strings from midfield but was also a clinical finisher and would score goals for fun – the very definition of the full package.
Scholes’ compatriot and a man he often had to line up against, Frank Lampard, is another record-breaking midfield player to have graced the Premier League. The Chelsea stalwart spent the majority of his career at Stamford Bridge and remains the club’s all-time leading goal scorer, though he began his career at West Ham and finished it with a short spell at City.
In total, he scored 177 league goals, more than any other midfield player in history. He also holds the league’s record for most number of goals scored outside the box, at 41. He didn’t just have eyes for the back of the net, though, as he supplied 102 assists across his glittering career, which saw him win three Premier League titles.
Another member of this golden generation of English midfielders was Steven Gerrard, the Liverpool captain who so often took hold of a game and dictated it on his terms. One just needs to look at his Man of the Match performance in the 2005 Champions League final, which helped his club to lift that coveted piece of silverware.
As well as a prolific goal scorer, Gerrard was one of the most tenacious players in the league and sometimes had to drag his side to victory single handedly. In the Premier League, he made 504 appearances and scored 120 times, second only to Lampard.
Scenes. pic.twitter.com/TbIFk83wlU
— Aston Villa (@AVFCOfficial) November 20, 2021
(Gerrard’s first game managing Aston Villa football club was a big success)
But wait, there’s more…
When it comes to attacking statistics, Patrick Vieira might not measure up with some of the other players mentioned here, but this wasn’t where he made his mark. The towering Frenchman was an absolute unit of a defensive midfielder and a vital part of the Invincibles team that went on an historic unbeaten run.
He picked up three league titles with the Gunners and marked himself out as one of the most imposing midfielders to ever play in the Premier League, holding his own – and often coming out on top – against the likes of Roy Keane and Gerrard.
At the other end of the spectrum are the likes of David Silva and Cesc Fabregas, who were creative geniuses that could conjure opportunities out of nothing. The former spent a decade at City, winning four league titles and notching 60 goals and 93 assists in the competition.
Dubbed ‘The Magician’, Silva was unmatched in those small spaces in and around the opposition’s box, able to weave in and out of swarming defenders, or cut through them with an incisive pass.
Supplying the ball was the calling card of Fabregas, who spent a few years at Arsenal before shipping off to Barcelona and then returning to England to join Chelsea, where he would end up winning two Premier League titles.
His 111 league assists are second to only one man: Ryan Giggs. The Welshman is a United, and Premier League, icon with a total 632 appearances in the competition. He won an eye-watering 13 league titles, more than any other single player in history.
There have been some all-time great midfield players in the Premier League over the course of its storied history, and the current batch look more than capable of announcing themselves as worthy heirs to those that have come before.
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