The Premier League season still has a long way to go, but we are a little over a fifth of the way through the 2017-18 season. With about two months in the books, we now have an idea of who the league’s elite players and teams will be this season.
With that in mind, we’re putting together a Best 11 to represent the team of the season so far. Unfortunately, there are a few deserving players who will be absent — Sergio Aguero and Alvaro Morata just miss the cut at striker, for instance, due to the dominance of those just above them. But this is still a good look at just who’s performing well in the young season so far.
Take a look, with a particular emphasis on players from three teams who have performed at the top of their games so far.
GK — David De Gea, Manchester United
De Gea has been the best goalkeeper in England for some time now, and he continues to offer plenty of evidence as to why. His performance against Liverpool — including an unbelievable save to deny Joel Matip from close range — was basically the only reason United salvaged a point in the match. De Gea is an elite shot-stopper and kept seven clean sheets in eight appearances so far, making 20 saves and conceding just twice. He’s setting the standard once again.
RB — Kyle Walker, Manchester City
In his first season with Manchester City, Walker is fitting in seamlessly, and his arrival is a big part of the reason the team’s attack has been so much more fluid this season. He’s already put in three assists in seven matches — an impressive sum. His ability to get up and down the pitch is something that last season’s right backs — Bacary Sagna and Pablo Zabaleta — simply couldn’t offer. He’s been sound defensively, too, with a controversial red card against Everton the only real blemish on his season.
CB — Phil Jones, Manchester United
Manchester United’s former manager Sir Alex Ferguson once infamously said that Jones could develop into the club’s best ever player. The remark probably set the bar too high, and a series of injuries and a lack of progression hardly helped the England defender over the next couple years. Finally healthy, Jones has developed into the steady rock of a defender that Ferguson and many others once envisioned him becoming. United have defended excellently as a unit, and Jones has been at the heart of it.
CB — James Tarkowski, Burnley
Burnley’s leading defender Michael Keane left for Everton during the summer, leaving the club with what appeared to be a gaping hole in the heart of their defense. Tarkowski stepped up and filled it. The 24-year-old is averaging nearly 10 clearances per game so far this season, including 16 in a season-opening win at Chelsea and 17 a few weeks later against Crystal Palace. He’s gaining a lot of attention for his performances, and if it keeps up, a move to a bigger club is only a matter of time for the young Englishman.
LB — Ben Davies, Tottenham
The left back position isn’t exactly rich with talent in England, but the young Welshman is an easy choice for the position. Davies has scored twice and assisted twice from the left back position, which is no small feat. He’s also provided solid defensive cover for the team and is quickly developing himself into one of the better all-around full backs in the country. Tottenham have a strong core of young UK-born stars, but Davies is often left out of the group. He really shouldn’t be.
MF — Kevin De Bruyne, Manchester City
The best player in England right now, and one of the best in all of Europe. The Belgian’s passing and vision is unparalleled, and under manager Pep Guardiola, he’s developed himself into more of an all-around midfielder who can fulfill some defensive duties as well. But it’s the creative side of his game that will always get the headlines, deservedly so. He’s already produced five assists in eight matches, and that doesn’t even include his involvement in the buildup of several other goals. The only nitpick is that he doesn’t score enough, but when the service to the forwards is as good as his is, that hardly matters.
MF — Christian Eriksen, Tottenham
Harry Kane gets most of the headlines, and not undeservedly, but Eriksen makes Tottenham tick. He’s more or less become Spurs’ secondary scorer behind Kane, contributing three goals in eight matches. He also offers the silky passing that sets up his forwards, adding two assists to his season tally thus far. As influential as any other player in the league, Eriksen somewhat flies under the radar. He shouldn’t. The Dane is one of the league’s best players.
MF — N’Golo Kante, Chelsea
Kante made his name at Leicester, where his presence in midfield was perhaps the key factor in the team’s unlikely Premier League title in 2016. He immediately moved to Chelsea and has had a similar impact there. Kante simply roams the midfield and makes sure that opposing attacks cannot find their way through, and nobody in the league is better at it than he is. It’s no coincidence that one of Chelsea’s worst performances of the season — their 2-1 loss at lowly Crystal Palace — came with Kante out due to injury.
MF — David Silva, Manchester City
Silva remains the mark of consistency, even at age 31. He still doesn’t score much, but his magic wand of a left foot is good enough to put pretty much any defender in the league out of any passage of play if he gets it right. He’s had six assists in eight matches so far, and even now, he retains the ability to take command of a game and run the attack from a deep midfield position. If anything, he’s still underappreciated, and he’s not particularly helped by the fact that De Bruyne, who has been a bit better, shares the midfield with him.
FW — Harry Kane, Tottenham
It became something of a controversy when Spurs manager Mauricio Pochettino took offense to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek characterization of Tottenham as “the Harry Kane team.” It goes without saying that Spurs are much more than just Kane, but the English striker is undeniably the face of the club. After a goalless August, Kane scored twice in three of Tottenham’s next five Premier League matches to propel himself toward the top of the league’s scoring charts. Another 20 goal season — at minimum — looks inevitable.
FW — Romelu Lukaku, Manchester United
One can hardly leave the league’s leading scorer off the list, despite a weak performance at Liverpool. Part of that is down to the fact that he was somewhat isolated by a United side that set up to play on the counter, limiting the striker’s influence. It would have been easy for the former Everton man to get off to a slow start as he adjusted to a new club and new expectations, but that hasn’t happened, as the Belgian has delivered seven goals in eight matches, including a goal in every match he played during the month of September. He has been exactly what United needed to deliver more goals after they struggled in that department last season.
