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Soccer

The revealing stats behind three of the most improved players in the Premier League

Back in the 2013-14 season, Aaron Ramsey went from a player who had been on the end of criticism ...



The revealing stats behind thr...
Soccer

The revealing stats behind three of the most improved players in the Premier League

Back in the 2013-14 season, Aaron Ramsey went from a player who had been on the end of criticism to one of the leading goalscoring midfielders in the Premier League.

The Wales international had had a tough time of it since working his way back from a horrendous leg break suffered against Stoke City in February 2010.

But he was clearly the most improved player in the 2013-14 season.

Every campaign sees a couple of players that show a vast improvement from the previous season and the first portion of the 2016-17 is no different.

Victor Moses

The 2013 Africa Cup of Nations winner with Nigeria has always had potential but rarely had he truly shone at club level since coming through at Crystal Palace.

Primarily a winger, he has been at Chelsea since 2012 but had three loan spells at Liverpool, Stoke City and West Ham.

But the 25-year-old has become arguably the most improved player in the Premier League this season.

Staying at Stamford Bridge, he has been one of the main beneficiaries of manager Antonio Conte's switch to a 3-4-3 formation.

An inconsistent winger and not a natural full-back, Moses has found a perfect role in an in-between role as a wing-back on the right flank, scoring three league goals already this season, including the winner against Tottenham on Saturday: 

His statistics are remarkably improved from last season's loan spell at West Ham. 

As the numbers from leading statistics providers Squawka show, Moses has improved in nearly every attacking category you care to look at.

He has three times more goals than 2015-16 and has a vastly improved shot accuracy rate.

Six goals is his best in a season when he did so for Wigan in 2011-12 and he is on course to match that. Indeed, he has only got six goals in total between 2012-13 and last season.

With eight chances created after just a third of this season, he has already achieved half of the chances he created for the entirety of 2015-16 with most of the campaign still to run.

 Son Heung Min

The Tottenham attacker was someone we flagged as a likely improver for 2016-17 after a modest season last time out.

He had goalscoring and creative pedigree from his previous spell in Germany with Bayer Leverkusen and the start of this season has shown more than a glimpse of that potential.

Only the prolific Harry Kane has more league goals than his four from this season.

He is benefiting from increased minutes this time out. The South Korea international only played the full-game in 3.6% of his Premier League appearances in 2015-16 according to Squawka's stats. That's up to 40% at the start of this season.

That has already allowed the player to match his final league goals tally from last season.

In terms of chances created in 2016-17, he has managed 16 which is just two off his entire league total for 2015-16. 

 

 Joe Allen

The man dubbed the Welsh Xavi by Brendan Rodgers, after following his former manager from Swansea to Liverpool, had fallen from grace somewhat after moving to Anfield.

But in the second half of last season, signs of improvements were visible under Jurgen Klopp and he came to life as the midfield dynamo at the heart of Wales' historic run to the Euro 2016 semi-final.

A transfer to Stoke City followed this summer and he has hit the ground running for the Potters.

In just 12 games of the new season, he has already matched his highest goal tally for a Premier League season with four strikes to his name, including an equaliser against Manchester United.

Increasingly influential as an attacking force, only Switzerland star Xherdan Shaqiri has created more chances (18) for Stoke this season than Allen's 17 according to Squawka in the early stages of this season.

Last season, he created 12 chances for Liverpool in the league; the previous one saw him create 15; and it was 18 for the whole of the 2013-14 campaign.

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