Premier League Team of The 2020-21 Season

2020-21 Premier League ended with the undisputed championship of

. Their cross city rival, Manchester United, secured second place soon, but the race over two remaining Champions League spots was on until the last day. in the last two months of the league,

rose from the ashes and passed Leicester and Chelsea on the last day. West Ham and Leeds United were beyond the expectations the exact opposite of what

and Tottenham did. For the

Premier League team of the 2020-21 season

, only individual performances were considered. There are some players who could have been on the list.

, John Stones, and Ilkay Gondugan were outstanding and were instrumental for the Citizens. Gareth Bale and Son Heung-min proved their values once again. Kante was a big help for Chelsea as expected but Edouard Mendy and Mason Mount surprised everyone. The toughest decision was choosing between

and Phil Foden. Both of them were awesome and have the potential to be one of the world's best. Foden had a slightly better season and his teammates are way harder to compete with.

The following is the best Premier League team of the 2020-21 season:

In the 29th season of Premier League, full of surprising events and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, twenty teams competed with each other to find glory.

Emiliano Martinez

After many years of emergency loan deals and being a substitute goalkeeper for Arsenal,

signed a four year contract with

and in his first season, he made it to our Premier League team of the season list. In 38 appearances in the last season, Martinez had 15 clean sheets after

with 16. As the 2020-21 Aston Villa player of the season, he is ranked the third in Premier League for shot saved with 15, and second for prevented goals with 9.71 against the expected goals (XG) of the opposition shots.

Martinez with his terrific form has had 3.7 saves per game and he has completely reshaped Aston Vila’s defense organization and tactics. The most important reason that Martinez is in this list of

2020-21 Premier League team of the season

, is that he has the highest saves percentage of 74.6, higher than Ederson Moraes with 71 and Edouard Mendy with 69.5.

In his first season at Aston Villa, Martínez equaled Brad Friedel's club record for clean sheets in a season, with 15, as well as being voted Aston Villa Supporters' Player of the Season. So the Argentine has no regrets over swapping Emirates Stadium for Villa Park and should consider it as a step up in his career.

Luke Shaw

The 2020-21 season was the best year of

's senior career. With one goal and five assists as a left back, Shaw has been compared to

because of his attacking tendencies and both from the

youth system. His goal was at the derby of Manchester, in which Man City was defeated after 20 successive wins. Luke Shaw created 72 chances for Man United in the Premier League 2020-21 season which is the second most among other defenders after  Liverpool’s

with 77.

Man United had a great season, finishing second in Premier League which was their joint highest finish since the retirement of Alex Ferguson. Luke Shaw's defensive skills led Man United to 10 clean sheets. He hadn’t any errors leading to goals and won more than 53% of duels. Shaw is known for his crossings and in the 2020-21 season, he had a crossing accuracy of 30%.

As the left back of the

Premier League team of the 2020-21 season

, his tackles were 64 percent successful, and has won in 57% of the aerial battles. Considering Man City conceded the fewest goals, it is unsurprising to choose the defenses of this list from City players, but Luke Shaw has impressed everyone with his performance and became one of united finest players this season.

Ruben Dias

has been named the 2020-21 Premier League player of the season. He was signed in the last summer from

and helped the center back of Man City with his consistency disciplined displays. Man City kept a clean sheet in exactly half of the Dias’ 50 appearances in all the competitions and had 19 in Premier League.

Ruben Dias had 32 blocks and his power and athleticism put

out of the sight and also improved John Stones. In terms of interception, he is behind Cancelo and

for man city with 35. But in Aerial battles, he has a record with 49 battles won. He had a rate of 54 percent successful tackles and almost 0.59% of his duels led to winning.

Besides the defensive skills, Ruben Dias has shown a promising role in Man City’s buildup play and attacking starts. He scored his first goal for Man City in a win over

. As one of the center backs in the 2020-21 Premier League team of the season, his leadership and stability made him won the FWA Footballer of The Year award ahead of Harry Kane and Kevin De Bruyne which both are on this list.

Wesley Fofana

Leicester City's 20 years old defender was one of the best in his debut season. Even their manager Brandon Rodgers didn't expect

to immediately become a crucial player for him. "Wesley Fofana is a real talent and has really impressed me since he's come in at centre back for Leicester. At just 20 years old he's got such a bright future" Jaime Redknapp said to Sky Sports about Fofana.

He had 2.2 interceptions per 90 minutes. Only two defenders had a better interceptions rate than Fofana. His physical strength helps him won the ball with the least amount of trouble. Despite a large number of interceptions, Fofana has only committed 1.3 fouls per game. The average of 1.8 tackles per game and 1.5 successful ones shows that Fofana hardly misses and only 0.3 of the dribbles past him.

The specialty Fofana has is his massive rushes towards the ball while opponents are trying to penetrate the defensive layer. Fofana's anticipation lets him use the aggression to dispossess the opponents. Fofana had 28 league appearances and 8 of them resulted in Leicester winning with a clean sheet. Next to Phil Foden, Fofana is the most promising talent of the 2020-21 Premier League.

Joao Cancelo

In 2020-21 Pep Guardiola decided to refresh his ideas for Manchester City. The team developed a lower defense and more versatile attacking plans. All these led to the Manchester City championship.

had a big role in the new scenario by Guardiola. Football fans knew Cancelo as a perfect Wing-Back and a full-back with attacking tendencies. But in Manchester City, he had a new role. Inverted fullback is like a classic fullback in some points, especially in the defensive phase. In the attacks, Inverted fullback makes the differences bold and visible.

Cancelo played the role perfectly for Guardiola. Due to his pace, Cancelo has the capability to play as a winger. His new role is like wingers because he easily exploits the half spaces between the opposition fullback and centre back. In this case, Cancelo has many choices like taking a shot because half-space is a very common area to score.

But Cancelo is more likely to play with the Winger for example

, or become an imaginary #10 and go towards the curve of the box. Cancelo is one of the few players who can be all the roles mentioned on both sides for 90 minutes. That's why Cancelo can provide 1.6 big chances per game.

Tomas Soucek

Making

’s transfer permanent was really good for West Ham. He has been nominated for the Premier League player of the season alongside Harry Kane, Ruben Dias, and

. As a defensive midfielder in our list of Premier League team of the season, he has scored 10 goals in 38 appearances and helped West Ham to qualify for Europa League by finishing sixth.

Soucek has had a 53% successful tackle rate and 62 interceptions. He also won 54% of his duels and in aerial battles, he had a 59 percent victory which is amazing. The 6’4 star won at an average of 6.2 aerial battles per game. Of regular starters, only

centre forward

won more on average, with 6.8. Despite playing in a deeper central midfield role, Soucek has been a threat to the opposition goal and he got forward whenever possible.

He has the record for top scorer with

, both having scored 10 goals and the third most among midfielders behind Bruno Fernandes and Gundogan. Soucek made more tackles, blocks, and clearances than his midfield partner,

, and also topped the Premier League charts for most aerial duels. West Ham would sit deep, dominate opponents in their own third, then score from set-pieces, and Soucek was the dominant force in every stage of the plan.

Bruno Fernandes

Direct involvement in 30 goals alone is an amazing achievement Bruno Fernandes had in 2020-21. He scored 18 goals for

. Half of his goals were scored from the penalty spot but anyway he is the top scorer of the red devils. Bruno's great form helped Manchester finished in the second place of Premier League standings which is a approvable result for the Post-Ferguson era.

United's 26 years old Portuguese is now their most notable and important player. His expertise like box-to-box playmaking, line breaking, and prolific shots outside of the box gives the team an andvantage in the offensive mode. Fernandes is also capable of deep play making which a very vital for keeping the possession.

is Fernandes' favorite striker in the case of assist providing. Bruno made 5 assists for Rashford that making them the best duo in the division. Fernandes has been truly influential for Manchester United and he has turned the page for Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Fernandes was chosen as Manchester United's player of the year by the fans. Bruno is the first player to win Premier League Player of the Month four times in a single season. It is not fair to depreciate just because he scores too many penalties.

Kevin De Bruyne

was the heart of the undisputed Premier League champion. In the past few years, it was usually hard not to include the 30 years old midfielder in the team of the season. De Bruyne missed some fixtures of the 2020-21 campaign but he remained a key player for Pep Guardiola.

He provided assists in about 2000 minutes of play. In the assists table, he was in second place behind the leader Harry Kane and in a tie with Bruno Fernandes but don't forget those two played at least 1000 minutes more than De Bruyne. Belgian star had an average of 3.2 shots per 90 minutes and scored 6 goals. Kane is the only player with more Man of the Match awards than De Bruyne in 2020-21.

De Bruyne is one of the best to play behind the strikers because he created 3.2 bug chances per game. His passing abilities are extraordinary. He has an average of 50.6 passes per game which is more than you expect for an offensive player. Success per percentage of his passes is %81.7 and shows how precise his passes are despite many of his risky passes in the final third of the field.

Phil Foden

Manchester City stars are usually players they got by big budget transfers. But in the 2020-21 Premier League campaign, Citizens had an actual homegrown talent as a key player.

made 28 league caps for Man City that is a personal best. Foden has a total of 69 Premier League appearances which is a great number considering that he was born in 2000.

He managed to become a crucial player for Pep Guardiola, while their squad is armed to the teeth with top players. Foden has become Guardiola's favorite one. He has mentioned his trust in Foden many times. The young star scored 9 goals and made 5 assists in only 1614 minutes played. To make a comparison, Raheem Sterling has scored 10 goals and had 7 assists but he has played 2537 minutes. Statically Foden is one of the best Man City players of the season regardless of his age. Professional Footballers' Association chose Foden as the Young Player of 2020-21 and so did the Premier League.

Among Manchester City's forwards, Foden has the lowest number of Dispossession per game with 0.5 means that he is confident and reliable. From now on Foden should not be considered a potential talent but an intelligent and ambitious star.

Mohamed Salah

After two great seasons for Liverpool, 2020-21 was not what their fans expected. The title defending team had difficult times dealing with

and

. Despite the good start for

his performances declined through the season. Mohamed Salah was one of the few Liverpool players hand having a good season. Salah started the season with a record breaking hat-trick against Leeds United. 

Salah scored his 100th goal for Liverpool in the Merseyside derby 2-2 draw against

. Harry Kane and Mo Salah had a close race over the Premier League's golden boot and Kane scored one goal more than Salah. As Liverpool's top scorer Salah scored 22 goals twice as Red's second scorer, Sadio Mane. The expected goal number for Salah is 21.2 meaning that he has scored more than expected.

The Egyptian star was expected to make 5.9 assists but he had 5 assists. The last goal Salah scored was during the 2-4 away victory over the arch rival Manchester United.

's showed he's a reliable striker for Jurgen Klopp but Mohamed Salah remained unalterable. From December to February Salah was Liverpool's Player of the Month and at the end of the season, he was voted Liverpool's Player of 2020-21 by supporters.

Harry Kane

Everyone was aware of Harry Kane's abilities as a number nine forward but in 2020-21 he had a different role. As Kane kept his role as the consistent goalscorer he topped the assist chart too. Harry Kane scored 23 to win the Golden Boot while he provided 14 assists. 27 years old England captain was directly involved in 37 goals in Premier League. It is 7 more than Bruno Fernandes in the second place.

Kane's playmaking duties didn't stop him from being a ruthless goal scorer. Somehow he managed to keep his scoring rate and simultaneously drop a little back and carry attacking midfielder duties.

was Kane's pair and formed a great partnership. The extraordinary partnership was most efficient in the first half of 2020-21.

Harry Kane had the most assists to a single player in Premier League with 9 scoring chances he created for Son. The second place is amazing is Son providing 5 assists to Kane in return. Kane was named Man of the Match more than any other player with 13 times. Despite the season's disappointing ending for

, Kane's performance was so good that Manchester City is willing to spend more than €100 million to sign him. He is truly one of the forwards of the

Premier League team of the season

.

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