Who were the best Premier League forwards over the weekend? Eto’o, Adebayor and more

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Aston Villa, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City stars all feature plus more.

There were some stunning performances from attacking players over the weekend with Samuel Eto’o’s demolition of Premier League champions Manchester United deserving of a special mention.

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We’ve taken a look at the best performing attacking players across several areas, highlighting stand out performances as teams improved their positions at the top and bottom of the table over Saturday and Sunday.

Goals

Eto’o proved that he can be a very effective player in the huge games over the rest of the season for Chelsea. He used every bit of his experience to stay right on top of Manchester United’s defence. Emmanuel Adebayor’s performance for Spurs against Swansea is also worthy of a mention as he maintains his momentum in Tottenham’s attack.

Most Touches of the Ball

A main tactic for any side is to get possession up to the front men or front man as quickly as possible. In only two out of the five cases on this list, did it turn out to be crucial in terms of securing a win. The Benteke v Suarez battle on this table is interesting because Benteke clearly helped with Aston Villa getting a lead while Suarez was crucial in helping pull back a two goal deficit.

Accurate Passes

The two Fulham names on this list show that accurate passing for a forward is only valuable if there’s an end product. Both Clint Dempsey and Dimitar Berbatov protected the ball well against Arsenal but Fulham lost 2-0, which shows they could have perhaps been a little more deadly in terms of trying to create chances with passes throughout the 90 minutes at the Emirates.

Was Fouled

A striker who can pick up fouls is useful because it allows pressure to be kept over the opposition and it can also allow dangerous dead ball situations, with key players potentially having good opportunities to shoot on goal. There’s great debate over whether Luis Suarez dived to win a penalty against Aston Villa but his ability to win that foul got Liverpool a point.

Possession Won in the Final Third

Any striker who can win back possession in the attacking third is valuable because it allows that side to maintain pressure over the opposition defence. Five players managed to do it twice in games over the weekend with Benteke in particular deserving focus considering Aston Villa were playing in the cauldron of Anfield.

image: © Jason Bagley