The Premier League this season is host to a number of top quality stars from clubs around the competition. In almost every game every week, there have been a number of matchups between strong, star-studded sides taking on each other, providing high-quality entertainment to the fans. This weekend, Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side were handed their first loss this season by an electric Spurs side that gave them no chance. There were a number of players who were up for show and two such players who are similar in their style that ended on either end of the result were Son Heung-Min, who joined Spurs last summer for a reported fee of £22m, and Raheem Sterling, who finalized his big £49m move from Anfield to Etihad last summer.
The England international made a decent start to the season but was not able to put an impact on the game in London. However, his Tottenham counterpart managed to provide some fruitful moments for his side and also picked up an assist for the second goal on the night. Both players have been equally effective and impressive in the recent games early this season.
After failing to find consistency under Manuel Pellegrini, Raheem Sterling has looked the like the player he promised to be at Anfield, in the first few games under Pep Guardiola. He has managed to find spaces and time on the ball and has thrived under the system that allows him to take dangerous positions. He still has to work on his decision making but his stats this season show that he is improving. In the first 7 games, Sterling has shown an obvious increase in his productivity in front of goal and the fact that he has already picked up the same number of assists as he did in the entire season last time around, shows that he is becoming a complete player.
He has roughly the same number of shots per 90 minutes but his accuracy has seen a major rise from 61% in the previous season to 75% early this season. He has the ability to get around players with ease, which is evident in his 1.32 successful take-ons per 90 minute in the previous season. But he is now high on confidence, learning from one of the best in the business and has averaged 3.29 successful take-ons per 90 minutes this season.
There is an even meteoric rise in Son’s case who has gone from 0.61 to 3.75 this season. The 24-year old was unable to get into Pochettino’s side last season having not impressed in the few chances he got. However, the manager, who was close to offloading him in the summer, trusted him for another season and he is surely reaping the benefits of it. The South Korean has created 12 chances already this season compared to his 18 in the entire season last time round. He has already picked up double the assists from the previous season and scored as many as he did in the entire previous season. That is some unbelievable improvement.
With star striker Harry Kane injured, Son has had to lift the goal scoring responsibilities of his side and has excelled in that role. He is now becoming an important player for the Spurs and will provide Pochettino with a headache when Kane is back fit. The manager will be relieved that he decided to give him another chance and will hope that Son can lead Tottenham to another title charge this season.
Both players have made some excellent progress in the off-season and will play important roles for their side this campaign. It is still early in the season so the duo should make sure that they are consistent in their returns to the club. They are multimillion signings who will have to work hard to justify the investment but by the looks of it, Raheem Sterling and Heung-Min Son might finally be ready to take the Premier League by a storm.