Top 10 Players of the English Premier League 2016-17 Season.

Central midfield · 35 league appearances · PFA Players' Player of the Year

Kante was the central engine of the Conte 3-4-3 system that delivered Chelsea's fifth Premier League title and the campaign's defining individual story — a defensive midfielder who had been a £30 million summer signing from champions Leicester and who became, by the end of the season, the first player ever to win back-to-back Premier League titles with two different clubs in consecutive years. The numerical case is overwhelming: Kante topped the league for tackles (146) and interceptions (157), routinely posted ground-coverage figures north of 12 kilometres a match, and operated as the screen in front of the back three that allowed Marcos Alonso and Victor Moses to push high as wing-backs. The PFA Players' Player of the Year and FWA Footballer of the Year awards both fell his way at season's end, the first defensive midfielder to win the double since Steven Gerrard in 2008-09. Conte's public assessment — that the team was harder to break down with Kante on the pitch by some measurable margin — was the year's clearest tactical compliment. Chelsea's 30-win, 93-point title-winning total was the joint third-highest in Premier League history at the time of writing.

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Left forward / left No 10 · 16 league goals · 5 assists

Hazard rebounded from the disastrous 2015-16 title-defence campaign — in which he had publicly clashed with Jose Mourinho and missed long stretches through injury — to become the creative pivot of the title-winning Chelsea side. His 16 league goals was a personal Premier League best at that point, the dribble-completion percentage hovered around 70%, and the pair of solo runs against Arsenal at the Emirates in February (a curling run from the halfway line followed by a low finish past Petr Cech) and the title-clinching goal against West Brom at the Hawthorns on 12 May became the season's defining attacking individual moments. Conte deployed him in a left-sided forward role with freedom to drift inside, with Pedro and Diego Costa as the other two members of the front three. The PFA Team of the Year and a top-three finish in the FWA voting confirmed his second-place individual standing for the season.

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Centre forward · 29 league goals · Premier League Golden Boot

Kane's third Premier League season as a regular starter delivered a second consecutive Golden Boot — 29 league goals from 30 appearances at a strike rate of just under one a game, despite missing two-month periods in the autumn and the spring with separate ankle injuries. The ankle problems concentrated his goal output into compressed runs (he scored seven times in the final two games of the season, including a hat-trick against Hull City and a four-goal display against Leicester at White Hart Lane in May), but the per-90 numbers were the most efficient in the league. Tottenham finished as runners-up to Chelsea on 86 points, the highest top-flight points total in the club's history at the time, and Kane's individual contribution drove both the second-place finish and the second consecutive top-three goalscorer placement. The 26 May 2017 White Hart Lane farewell — Spurs' final fixture at the old ground before the temporary move to Wembley — finished 2-1 to Tottenham over Manchester United, with Kane scoring the opener.

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Centre forward · 25 league goals · 6 assists

Lukaku produced the season's best individual goalscoring campaign outside the top six, finishing on 25 league goals as the spearhead of Ronald Koeman's Everton side that finished seventh on 61 points. The numerical density of his contribution — 25 goals from 37 appearances at a strike rate of better than two-thirds of a goal a game, with another six assists added to the goalscoring total — placed him second in the Premier League's top scorer list behind Kane and ahead of Alexis Sanchez. The output was sufficient to trigger a £75 million summer transfer to Manchester United and the recurrent debate about whether Lukaku's true ceiling required a top-six platform; his subsequent United career partly settled that question. The hat-trick against Bournemouth at Goodison Park in February and the 4-0 destruction of Manchester City at Goodison in mid-January were the season's individual highlights.

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Centre forward / left wing · 24 league goals · 10 assists

Sanchez carried Arsenal through a disjointed Wenger-era transitional season as Arsene Wenger's outgoing front line was repositioned with the Chilean as a false nine for stretches, finishing on 24 Premier League goals and 10 assists despite playing through a series of late-season tactical and contractual disputes. The 30-goal-and-assist combined contribution was the best individual creator-and-scorer figure in the Arsenal squad and one of the best in the league. Arsenal finished fifth on 75 points — the first time the club had failed to qualify for the Champions League since the 1995-96 season — but won the FA Cup at Wembley with a 2-1 victory over Chelsea in which Sanchez scored the opener. The contractual standoff with the club over a new deal, which would dominate the following 2017-18 campaign and culminate in the January 2018 swap with Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Manchester United, began to crystallise during this season.

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Attacking midfielder · 18 league goals · PFA Young Player of the Year

Alli's second Premier League season delivered the second consecutive PFA Young Player of the Year award (becoming only the third player after Robbie Fowler and Cristiano Ronaldo to win the prize twice in succession) and confirmed the No 10 partnership with Kane that drove the Tottenham runners-up campaign. The 18 league goals from a midfield position was the highest by an English-qualified midfielder since Frank Lampard's prime, and the run of late-season form (six goals in five games through March and April including the brace at Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup semi-final) carried Tottenham to within touching distance of Chelsea. The off-field discipline issues that would later define Alli's Spurs career remained present — a three-match retrospective ban for a stamp on Claudio Yacob at West Brom in March was the season's lowlight — but the on-pitch contribution at age 20 was the most consequential of any English-qualified player.

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Goalkeeper · 32 league appearances · Players' Player of the Year (United)

De Gea's sixth Premier League season was the campaign in which he was widely regarded as the world's best goalkeeper, a status confirmed by the post-season Real Madrid transfer rumours that resurfaced through the summer and by his fourth Manchester United Players' Player of the Year award in five seasons. The shot-stopping numbers — particularly the saves from close-range Tottenham, Liverpool and Arsenal chances in marquee fixtures — kept United in games their outfield play did not warrant, and the team finished sixth on 69 points despite a goal difference materially worse than the table suggested. De Gea was also a key contributor to the Europa League title that Jose Mourinho's first United campaign delivered (2-0 over Ajax in the Stockholm final on 24 May), the trophy that secured United's return to the Champions League. The PFA Team of the Year selection was unanimous.

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Attacking midfielder · 8 league goals · 15 assists

Eriksen's contribution to the Tottenham runners-up campaign was as an elite-tier creator — the 15 league assists tied him for second in the league behind Kevin De Bruyne, and the 13.4 chances created per 90 (Opta) led the Premier League by some margin. The Dane operated as the deeper of the Spurs No 10 pair behind Kane, with Alli pushing higher and Eriksen dropping to receive between the lines and play the killer pass; Tottenham's set-piece routines were also routed almost entirely through his right foot, and a number of the season's most striking goals (including the late winner against Manchester City at White Hart Lane) came from his direct delivery. The 86-point Spurs total to which Eriksen contributed was the club's highest in the post-1992 era.

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Attacking midfielder · 6 league goals · 18 assists

De Bruyne's first season under Pep Guardiola at Manchester City was a paradox — by individual creation metrics it was the best season any Premier League player produced (18 league assists led the league outright and the chances-created total was the highest by some distance) but Manchester City finished only third on 78 points, 15 points off the title and outside the top two. The repositioning to a deeper No 8 role under Guardiola, with the playmaking license to drop to receive from the centre-backs and dictate the tempo, marked the start of the central-midfield identity that would define De Bruyne's subsequent peak years. The 5-0 dismantling of Crystal Palace at the Etihad in May and the late-winter purple patches against West Ham and Arsenal demonstrated the ceiling of what Guardiola's City could become; the 100-point title-winning campaign of 2017-18 followed directly.

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Right wing · 13 league goals · 8 assists

Mane's £34 million summer transfer from Southampton to Liverpool was the signing that crystallised Klopp's Anfield front line — the wide-right partner to Roberto Firmino and Philippe Coutinho who provided the high-press intensity and the inside-cutting goal threat that the manager's heavy-metal football required. The 13 league goals from 27 appearances was a strong return for a player adapting to a new system, but the more telling figure was Liverpool's points-per-game with and without him on the pitch — the team averaged 2.0 PPG with Mane available and 1.4 PPG when he missed the African Cup of Nations period in January. Liverpool finished fourth on 76 points, securing Champions League return after a one-year absence, and the Mane-Firmino-Coutinho front line that took the team to the 2018 Champions League final began assembling here.

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