Player Performance Index | EPL Week 13 Star Line-Up

Game week 13 was another great round of English Premier League football with lots of interesting entrants in The EA SPORTS Team of the Week.

Using the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index, we rated all players and produced the line-up below:

Arsenal vs. Fulham

• Arsenal’s Thomas Vermaelen scored at both ends in a 1-1 draw which saw a highly charged Fulham side take away a fully deserved point from The Emirates Stadium in the Saturday evening Kick off. According to The EA Sports Player Performance Index Fulham covered more ground as a team than any other Premier League team during game week 13 (6.88miles). Arsenal weren’t far behind covering 69.2 miles, the second highest in game week 13 suggesting this London derby was played with plenty of energy by both teams.
• Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey recorded the highest average speed in play during game week 13. The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows he averaged a speed of 5.3 mph during his 68 minutes on the pitch, covering an impressive 5.79 miles in the process.

Liverpool vs. Manchester City

• Manchester City stretched their unbeaten Premier League run to 13 matches with a hard fought 1-1 draw against Liverpool at Anfield. This was the first time this season City have failed to score two or more during a Premier League game. The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows Liverpool’s midfield four of Charlie Adam, Leiva Lucas, Jordan Henderson and Stuart Downing covered a combined total of 25.83 miles during the game compared to City’s midfield four of Gareth Barry, James Milner, David Silva and Yaya Toure who covered a combined total of 25.61 miles. This suggests that Liverpool matched their talented opponents during the 90 minutes in the middle of the park, an area in which many teams so far this season have been unable to do and they may feel they could have gone on to win the game had it not been for the fantastic shot stopping abilities of Manchester City’s goalkeeper Joe Hart.

Manchester United vs. Newcastle

•  A controversial 2nd half penalty awarded to Newcastle earned the Magpies an impressive 1-1 draw against the Champions at Old Trafford in game week 13. Newcastle once again fought superbly justifying their top 4 position in the Premier League so far this season. The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index proves this as Newcastle covered 68.92 miles as a team, this was almost 4 miles more than Man Utd covered during the match (65.13 miles)
• Ryan Giggs may be 37 years of age but according to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index the Welsh Wizzard recorded the highest top speed during the game reaching a top speed of 25.7mph.

Chelsea vs. Wolves

• Chelsea stay in 5th place after an impressive 3-0 victory over Wolves ending a run of 2 consecutive defeats at Stamford Bridge in a game which saw Summer signing Juan Mata playing his part setting up 2 goals and scoring the 3rd. Wolves midfielder David Edwards covered 7.63 miles of ground in the game, this was the highest distance covered by any Premier League player during game week 13. 
• Chelsea gave a first Premier League start to 20 year old Spanish under 21 international Oriol Romeu who came in to replace Frank Lampard. It was a solid display from the defensive midfielder who was able to dictate the play just in front of the back four. The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows he covered 6.8 miles during the match, only fellow Spaniard Juan Mata covered more distance for Chelsea (7.04 miles).

West Brom vs. Tottenham

• Emmanuel Adebayor's second brace in a week secured victory for Tottenham as they came from behind and scored two late goals against battling West Brom to make it an impressive 5 Premier League wins on the bounce. According to The EA SPORTS Player performance Index Adebayor covered 5.78 miles of ground during the game, only Ledley King covered less distance (5.54 miles) out of Spurs starting XI suggesting once again that the Togo striker’s thoughts are more on coming alive in and around the box rather than exerting his energies in other areas of the pitch.
• Scott Parker has been in fantastic form for both club and country this season. Once again he covered the most distance out of any Spurs player during a game covering 7.02 miles. Interestingly The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows he only covered 0.23 miles of this total when the ball wasn’t in play, suggesting that his positional awareness whilst the ball is in play is near on perfect.

Bolton vs. Everton

• According to the EA SPORTS Player Performance Index Kevin Davies surprisingly recorded the highest top speed of any Premier League player during game week 13 reaching a top speed of 26.36mph

Norwich City vs. QPR

•  The EA SPORTS Player Performance Index shows that Norwich City once again recorded the highest average speed in play as a team during game week 13 with the young, lively Canaries averaging 3.04mph in the game. In 2nd place during game week 13 were their opponents Queens Park Rangers who averaged 3.02mph. This suggests both teams are settling into the high paced life of the Premier League.