After 29 gameweeks of the Premier League season, we have seen some pretty incredible moments, including controversial red cards, incredible upsets, big six teams struggling and teams who fought relegation competing for European Football. But who were the fastest players of the Premier League season so far this season?
Opta released the statistics for us to take a look at, and some of the names are surprising.
Firstly, I would like to give an honourable mention to David Raya, the goalkeeper with the highest recorded speed of the season so far. In the home game against West Ham, Raya went up for a corner in the final minutes as his side fell behind. After the corner was cleared, he reached a sprint, which was very impressive and allowed him to win the ball back at the halfway line.
5- Anthony Elanga 36.2 km/h
Elanga was the player who has been tracked to spend the most time sprinting during the game, with 1.17% of his time spent going at top speed. He has been a crucial part of Nottingham Forest’s success, which sees them sitting third in the league after 29 games.
He has been crucial to Forest’s play style, with his pace used to supply Chris Wood on the counter-attack. Throughout the season, he has scored five goals and provided eight assists, which is 26.5% of Nottingham Forest’s goals this season.
4- Yankuba Minteh 36.4 km/h
Minteh joined Brighton at the beginning of the year from Newcastle, having never played at the St James’ Park club. He impressed in his loan spell at Feyenoord and in his first season in the Premier League has made 13 starts, scoring five and assisting three. He has been playing on the wing for Hurzeler’s side and even from right wing back on occasion, like a brace against Chelsea.
3- Bryan Mbeumo 36.6 km/h
Mbeumo has been one of the standout players of this Premier League season. He is the fifth-highest scorer in the league with 15 and has also assisted five. He fell only 0.5 km/h short of the fastest player this season, but has shown his best attacking form at home with nine goals coming in his 16 home games.
2- Matheus Nunes 36.7 km/h
Nunes appears as somewhat of a surprise on the list and is the first non-attacking player of the top five. When he joined Manchester City from Wolves, he was seen as a defensive midfielder and potentially a long-term Rodri replacement. However, his best football this season has come as either a left midfielder or a right-back. In total, he has provided four Premier League assists.
1- Micky Van De Ven 37.1 km/h
Van De Ven has been tracked as the fastest player in the Premier League this season, and for those who watched the brilliant assist he provided at Old Trafford, it is no surprise. The problem is we have only seen him start nine of the potential 29 Premier League games this season due to injury. His assist at Old Trafford was one of two goal involvements so far this year.