Getty Image / Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC
I remember about a month ago during half-time Champions League coverage of a Chelsea match one of the British commentators completely writing Pulisic off. To summarize, he basically said that Christian Pulisic was nothing more than an afterthought in London, a player that Chelsea brought in to sell jerseys to Americans, and British soccer fans weren’t wasting their breath talking about a player who wasn’t even coming off the bench into games.
To quote The Office‘s Michael Scott’s misquote…“My how the turntables.”
Chelsea FC winger Christian Pulisic, aka Captain America, has been electric on the pitch lately. He scored the game-winner for Chelsea against Watford in a 2-1 game last weekend. The week before that he EXPLODED for a hat-trick against Burnley. Sure, those aren’t exactly the Premier League‘s cream of the crop but the league-wide parity is unreal this season and scoring any goals at all in the PL is a difficult task. I’m no Chelsea fan, in fact, Chelsea is a bitter rival of my team (THFC), but I’m a massive Pulisic fan and as a fan I’m invested in his success.
Pulisic was held scoreless in Chelsea’s batshit crazy 4-4 draw against Ajax at Stamford Bridge in this week’s Champions League matchday 4 game but that held no bearing on Captain America rocketing to the top of the Sky Sports Premier League Power Rankings.
As far as I know, this is the first time in history that an American has held the #1 spot in the Sky Sports Premier League Power Rankings and that’s one heck of an accomplishment for Pulisic and something that USMNT fans can be proud of.
Christian Pulisic currently has 9,277 points (based on those stats) which is better than Leicester striker Jamie Vardy’s 8,699 points. Remarkably, Leicester players currently hold spots 2 through 6 and 9-10 meaning they have SEVEN players in the top 10 right now. Chelsea’s Willian is in the #7 spot and Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold is #8.
Their power rankings are based on 35 stats. Those stats include everything across the board, from shots on goal to a keeper punch the ball away. Check ’em out:
Goals (ex. penalties), Goals from outside box (bonus), Penalty goal, Assists, Penalty saved, Clean sheet, Games won, Chances created, Shots on target, Saves, Interceptions, Tackles, Blocks (outfield), Clearances (inc. punches), Duels won, Dribbles completed, Saving catches, Successful crosses/corners, Catches, Aerials won, Accurate keeper sweepings, Successful passes, Possession won, Touches, Possession lost, Yellow card, Big chance missed, Goals conceded, Games lost, Penalty miss, Penalty conceded, Second yellow card, Own goals, Straight red card, Errors leading to goals (full metrics here)
35 statistics show that the 21-year-old American Christian Pulisic is currently the best player in the English Premier League https://t.co/B176tcJrYk
— Insider Sports (@SportsInsider) November 8, 2019
The stats towards the end, from ‘Possession Lost’ through ‘Errors Leading to Goals’, all add negative points to a player’s power rankings score.
To see the current top 50 in the Sky Sports Premier League Power Rankings using those 30 stats, and to see each team’s top-ranked player, you can click here to head on over to Sky Sports.