Premier League 2019/20: 5 players who have exceeded expectations
We’re now quickly closing in towards the hectic Christmas period of the 2019/20 Premier League season, and with just 12 games gone, we’ve already witnessed some surprising outcomes.
Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United – two of the league’s established ‘big six’ - are struggling in mid-table, while Leicester City and Sheffield United are surprisingly part of the top five.
We’ve seen some surprises when it comes to players, too – some stars that were expected to light up the Premier League have struggled, while others have exceeded their pre-season expectations massively and helped their clubs to on-pitch success.
Here are 5 Premier League players who have exceeded expectations thus far in 2019/20.
#1 Jamie Vardy
Okay, so it’s not like anyone was expecting Jamie Vardy to have a bad season in 2019/20, but few fans would’ve predicted that the Leicester City hitman would be leading the pack when it comes to the race for the Premier League’s Golden Boot by this point in time. Vardy has thus far delivered 11 goals in 12 games, averaging a goal every 98 minutes played.
The former England striker was famously one of Leicester’s most outstanding players in the epic 2015/16 season that saw the Foxes upset all of the odds to win the Premier League title, but interestingly enough, he’s almost on course for an equally good season this time around.
After 12 games that season, Vardy had 12 goals, one more than he has now – but it could easily be argued that his current run is even more clinical, given 10 of his goals have been from open play compared to 9 in 2015/16, when he scored three penalties.
Vardy has been a consistent source of goals for Leicester for years now, but could this be the year that sees him beat his best return of 24 league goals? Quite possibly – it appears that Brendan Rodgers is getting the best out of him, as he scored 10 of his 18 goals last season after the Northern Irishman took over in February and basically hasn’t stopped.
On current form, the former non-league hitman could well fire Leicester into the Champions League.
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