Who are the best Premier League players outside of the ‘Big Six’? Using statistical player analysis, the BetVictor supercomputer has produced a Premier League starting XI consisting of the best player in each position to not play for a ‘Big Six’ team.
The Best Premier League XI outside the ‘Big Six’:
| Player | Team | Position | Avg. Z-Score |
| Jose Sa | Wolves | Goalkeeper | 1.91 |
| Kieran Trippier | Newcastle | Right Back | 1.03 |
| Mohammed Salisu | Southampton | Centre Back | 0.67 |
| Adam Webster | Brighton | Centre Back | 0.9 |
| Arthur Masuaku | West Ham | Left Back | 0.94 |
| Declan Rice | West Ham | Defensive Midfield | 0.56 |
| Ruben Neves | Wolves | Defensive Midfield | 0.57 |
| Raphinha | Leeds | Right Wing | 0.52 |
| Michael Olise | Crystal Palace | Attacking Midfield | 1.01 |
| Wilfried Zaha | Crystal Palace | Left Wing | 0.63 |
| Kelechi Iheanacho | Leicester | Striker | 0.65 |
The research is based on Premier League data from this season. By using over 25 per 90-minute performance statistics for outfield players and 14 for goalkeepers, we’ve built a statistical profile of each player which is tailored by position. It also factors in both their offensive and defensive contributions.
Players were sorted and grouped by shared position and their statistical profiles were input into the ranking algorithm. The algorithm is designed to find the player with the most optimised output per 90-minutes by calculating a Z-score (standard score) per performance statistic and average Z-score per player. A high average Z-score indicates that a player is outperforming other players in that position across multiple statistics.
Read: Harry Kane and Heung min Son break record for most Premier League duo assists
