Premier League player rankings: Aubameyang unstoppable for Arsenal

James Sharman and Craig Forrest breakdown Arsenal's emphatic 4-2 win against Tottenham in the North London Derby

Welcome to the Premier League player power rankings after Matchday 14. After each weekend of play in the English Premier League, Sportsnet will rank the top 20 players for the 2018-19 season. Regardless of reputation, everyone starts from scratch at Matchday 1, and will steadily move up, down, or out of the rankings as the games progress.

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1. David Silva, Manchester City (Previous matchday: 1)

With the fixtures piling up, Pep Guardiola opted to rest his talisman against Bournemouth. While he doesn’t drop yet, he loses the separation he created the past few weeks.

2. Raheem Sterling, Manchester City (Previous matchday: 3)

It’s Silva’s own teammate who’s looking to take him down in these rankings, scoring yet again to further his tally as the most productive goal producer with eight goals and seven assists on the season so far. It speaks volumes of the confidence Guardiola has in the English winger that he felt comfortable enough to leave both Silva and Sergio Aguero out of the playing 11 against a Bournemouth side that has exceeded expectations thus far.

3. Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool (Previous matchday: 2)

Everton were real threats to score on several occasions, none more so than when Alisson saved his side’s blushes with a point blank save off an Andre Gomes header before Joe Gomez cleared off the line.

Everton’s desire to play with the ball at their feet took away from van Dijk’s main strength — his aerial prowess — but the team still managed to pick up another clean sheet and a win that came courtesy of a massive bit of luck after a miscued volley from the Dutch captain.

4. Eden Hazard, Chelsea (Previous matchday: 4)

Possibly still recovering from his back injury, Hazard was good but lacked the zest he’s shown for the majority of this season when he was mazing through defenders with ease and creating chances at every opportunity.

Still collected an assist on Chelsea’s second goal, but he’ll know he wasn’t in peak form this week.

5. Aymeric Laporte, Manchester City (Previous matchday: 6)

Not much he could have done about Callum Wilson’s goal as the Englishman wasn’t his responsibility on that occasion. Met the high standards he’s set for himself this season and after Vincent Kompany set himself as the bedrock of City’s defence through their rise to prominence, it is Laporte who looks more than capable of carrying them through this next phase of dominance.

6. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Arsenal (Previous matchday: 10)

His second goal against Tottenham was breathtaking. It has been a theme throughout the season that Arsenal’s strikers have had to provide a moment of inspiration to bring them back into games, and trailing 2-1 at the time, his strike from the edge of the box did it once again.

He has now scored with each of his last 10 shots on target, remarkable efficiency for a man who was once wasteful in front of goal early in the season.

7. Sergio Aguero, Manchester City (Previous matchday: 5)

Did not play and so, combined with his lacklustre performance a week ago, suffers a drop.

8. Mohamed Salah, Liverpool (Previous matchday: 7)

Could have had a golden opportunity in front of goal if he could have brought down a perfect cross from Sadio Mané early in the game, but instead missed the ball completely and it bounced out of play.

Subbed off in the 75th minute as Jurgen Klopp looked for something different, and it worked. This is worth noting, too:

9. Ryan Fraser, Bournemouth (Previous matchday: 8)

City were brilliant in possession and that meant opportunities were hard to come by for Fraser and his side. This was a quiet night for the Scottish international and was subbed off in the 74th minute for Davy Brooks because of it.

10. Alexandre Lacazette, Arsenal (Previous matchday: 11)

Came on as a substitute to start the second half and made a big difference. Showed great composure collecting fellow substitute Aaron Ramsey’s pass but seemed quite fortunate with his finish as it seemed to go past Spurs goalkeeper Hugo Lloris in slow motion.

11. Callum Wilson, Bournemouth (Previous matchday: 18)

Towered over City’s defenders for a brilliantly placed header into the far corner from a great cross by Simon Francis and his hot start is so much more than that now.

Wilson has maintained his consistency and to find the back of the net against the best team in the league despite his side being outplayed for the majority of the contest is a major credit to his form right now.

12. Sadio Mané, Liverpool (Previous matchday: 9)

Found Salah in the 10th minute with a delightful dink that the Egyptian really should have done better with.

Mané had no one to blame when he blazed over when through on goal just a couple of minutes later and when he slashed a genuine opportunity wide in the 53rd minute.

13. Andrew Robertson, Liverpool (Previous matchday: 15)

This has been said here before but with Mané’s relatively poor performance, it was always going to be hard for him to make a massive difference attacking down that left flank.

His primary role in the Merseyside derby was to snuff out the threat of Theo Walcott and he did that quite comfortably.

14. Marko Arnautovic, West Ham United (Previous matchday: 17)

Didn’t manage a single shot but was very involved in both helping build West Ham’s attack as well as consolidate in the final third.

Arnautovic’s reward: his third assist of the season for Chicharito’s second goal of the match.

15. Jorginho, Chelsea (Previous matchday: 13)

Not much going forward in this match though Fulham’s tactics were spot on in terms of how they went about their business neutralizing the Italian.

Kante outshone him for most of the match and with a drop in Jorginho’s standards over the last couple of games, it will be interesting to see if Maurizio Sarri calls out his compatriot as he did with the Frenchman.

16. Toby Alderweireld, Tottenham (Previous matchday: 14)

Doesn’t suffer too much for not playing because his Spurs side showed just how lost they are defensively without their bedrock, conceding four goals.

17. Marcos Alonso, Chelsea (Previous matchday: 12)

Had a shocker of a game despite being given plenty of room on the left to operate. His crosses lacked accuracy, his tackles were poorly timed and just seemed off the whole game.

18. Richarlison, Everton (Previous matchday: 16)

His work rate was excellent but that element of taking on defenders and giving his side that cutting edge in producing goals as he did early in the season has dissipated.

19. Wayne Hennessey, Crystal Palace (Previous matchday: N/A)

The Welshman is in prime form once again, playing a massive role in shutting out Manchester United at Old Trafford last week and following that up with an easier, but disciplined performance against Burnley for his fifth clean sheet.

He’s third in the league in both high claims and punches which shows how good he’s been at snuffing out any danger before he’s threatened with a shot. Unsurprisingly, Palace fans voted him the team’s player of the month for November.

20. Harry Kane, Tottenham (Previous matchday: N/A)

Hello again, Harry. Making his first appearance since Matchday 7, Kane’s had a good run of form and made a pivotal contribution to Tottenham’s second goal, sparking the counter before finding Son in stride with a sublime back heel. Mike Dean deserves harsh criticism for awarding what never looked a penalty, but that doesn’t happen without Kane’s assist.

Honourable mentions:

Leroy Sane (Manchester City). James Maddison, Harry Maguire (Leicester City). Antonio Rudiger (Chelsea). Mathew Ryan (Brighton & Hove Albion). Aaron Wan-Bissaka (Crystal Palace). Trent Alexander-Arnold, Alisson (Liverpool).

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