The 29th season of Premier League football just concluded after Manchester City being crowned the Champions of England for the fifth time, equalling the record of Chelsea.
It was the quickest season in the history of English football, following the coronavirus disruption in the previous season. However, the Premier League have done tremendously well to finish the league in time, albeit the second wave of the virus.
The Citizens have lifted the league title for the third time in the last four years under legendary manager Josep Guardiola. Apart from that Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea secured the next three respective spots for the Champions League. For the bottom of the table, Fulham, West Bromwich Albion and Sheffield United are relegated from the top-flight English football.
Meanwhile, in an entertaining season of English football, there are a few Centre-backs who emerged as the best defenders for this season and we are going to talk about that today.
Top five defenders of the Premier League season:
5. James Tarkowski:
The English defender and the captain of Burnley has always been a consistent performer for Sean Dyche. The defender has not been good with his feet. But, he is strong and superior in the air against any forward in the world.
The Clarets fans know the importance of the 28-year-old defender in the squad. And he is one of the reasons along with the manager Dyche that Burnley are continuing to represent the top flight football despite being a club with a lower budget.
The defender has made 36 appearances in the Premier League this season and managed to keep 11 clean sheets. He scored one goal and won 68% of duels.
4. John Stone:
The Manchester City defender has been rejuvenated this season after having notoriously painful times since making the big-money move from Everton in 2016.
The 27-year-old English centre-back formed an unshakable partnership this season with Ruben Dias which kept last season’s best defender of the Citizens Aymeric Laporte on the bench.
Stones has started 22 games in the Premier League this season and scored four goals for Guardiola’s side. He also has a 70% defensive duels win rate which is pretty impressive.
3. Harry Maguire:
This could raise some eyebrows given the poor defensive performances of Manchester United this season especially in the home games. However, the importance of Maguire and his leadership from the back is clearly visible in the last few games where he was sidelined for an Ankle injury.
Even a few anti-Maguire Red Devils fans have acknowledged the fact that how important he is in the heart of the defence.
Nevertheless, the Manchester United captain made 34 appearances in the Premier League this season, scoring two goals and one assist. His 76% aerial duels win rate is quite impressive.
2. Ben Godfrey:
The former Norwich City defender showed glimpses of his potential last year which gave Everton hierarchy an idea to sign the young English defender. And they were not wrong to make that move last summer.
He has been absolutely terrific and the most important parts of his game are blistering pace and Consistency. The Consistency of a player can determine if he would become a world-class player or not. And he got everything in him to become a great defender for England and Everton.
1.Ruben Dias:
When Manchester City bought the Portuguese defender for €68 million. And everyone thought he would require time to settle down and the price was a bit high. How wrong they can be after experiencing his display for the Citizens.
The 24-years-old defender hit the ground running immediately. He has become the best defender in the Premier League in the absence of Virgil Van Dijk. And he was the reason behind the transformation of the City from a struggling side to win the league title for the fifth time.
The Special mention in this list has to be the young Leicester City defender Wesley Fofana. The 20-year-old defender has shown his potential in the debut season and already came under the radar of big clubs.
