Mikel not among top 100 midfielders in EPL

Mikel Obi
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Super Eagles and Chelsea midfielder Mikel Obi is not among the 100 midfielders in the English Premier League, according to the latest ranking by the league.

Mikel, who is one of Super Eagles’ best midfielders, is ranked 123rd out of 189 midfielders in the EPL and the 312th out of 475 players in the English topflight.

No Nigerian player in the EPL is in the top 150 players in the league. The best among Super Eagles players in the EPL is midfielder, Victor Moses, who currently plays for Stoke City. He is ranked the 155th player best in the EPL and 68th among midfielders in the league.

Mikel, who has played for 464minutes in 12 appearances, has an index of 67, while Moses, who has played 737 minutes in 10 appearances, has an index of 161.

Mikel’s teammate, Eden Hazard, tops the list of EPL midfielders, followed by Cesc Fabregas also of Chelsea and Yaya Toure of Manchester City.

Others among top 10 EPL midfielders are Raheem Sterling of Liverpool (4th), Dusan Tadic of Southampton (5th), Christian Eriksen of Tottenham (6th), Santiago Carzola of Arsenal (7th), Stewart Downing of West Ham (8th), Gylfi Sigurdsson of Swansea City (9th) and David Silva of Manchester City (10th).

Among forwards, Diego Costa of Chelsea is ranked number one followed by Alexis Sanchez of Arsenal and Sergio Aguero of Manchester City.

Sone Aluko of Hull City, who ranked as the best Nigerian forward in the EPL, came 53rd out 91 forwards in the league and 280th in the overall EPL players ranking. Brown Ideye of West Brom Albion, is 59th best striker and 314th overall; Victor Anichebe also of West Brom is 60th best forward and 320th overall; Osaze Odewingie of Stoke is EPL 74th best forward and 406 overall; while Chuba Akpom of Arsenal is 89th among forwards and 465 overall.

Toure, who won the Glo/CAF Africa Best Player award last week ahead of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Vincent Enyeama, is ranked seventh best player in EPL behind Hazard, Costa, Sanchez, Aguero, Fabregas, and Charlie Austin of Queen’s Park Rangers.