The Most Underrated Premier League Player of the Decade

We’ve seen some exciting players come and go in the Premier League- from Touré to Suarez, van Persie to Hazard- but who slipped under the radar over the past ten years?

I’ve narrowed the search for the league’s most underrated player down to three; a defender, a midfielder, and a forward, each one of which has done a brilliant job without necessarily receiving the praise they deserve- so let’s take a look at them, and crown the most underrated Premier League player of the decade.

In defence, it’s César Azpilicueta- a mainstay in Chelsea’s backline for the majority of the 2010’s. Starting of as a marauding full-back, he was converted into a centre back as part of Antonio Conté’s famous 3-4-3 system that won the 2016/17 title.

The defender racked up 247 games for the blues last decade, playing all over the club’s backline, and captaining the team to two league titles. If it wasn’t for his versatility, or defensive solidity, it’s clear that Chelsea wouldn’t have dominated the decade like they did.

Up front, we have Olivier Giroud, also currently playing at Chelsea, although it’s not that part of his career that I want to focus on. The towering forward didn’t receive the same plaudits as teammates Alexis Sanchez and Mesut Ozil, purely because he did all the jobs they couldn’t (or wouldn’t).

He held the ball up masterfully and pressed defenders from the front, brilliantly allowing Arsenal’s flair players to shine- and his goalscoring record wasn’t all that bad, scoring 105 goals in 253 games for the North London club.

But our midfielder takes the crown. James Milner was an important part of the Man City team that dominated the first half of the decade, and an integral part of the Liverpool team that dominated the second. Playing all over the pitch, Milner’s work rate was often overlooked in favour of Man City’s more technically gifted players.

But in 2015, a free transfer to Liverpool gave him the chance to truly shine, becoming the centrepiece in Jurgen Klopp’s ‘gegenpress’ system for several years, and culminating in a Champions’ League win at the end of the decade.

Milner showed a mixture of professionalism, resilience, work rate, and technical ability that few players could match, while still flying under the radar at two of the best teams of the decade. There is no other player that deserves this crown.