Each week we use the Opta Player Ratings to review the top-performing players from each Premier League matchday. Here we analyse the top five players of the week from Matchday 13.
For a quick primer on how the Opta Player Ratings are calculated, you can check our explainer here.
In short, the Opta Player Ratings take into account over 100 different metrics to provide an accurate measure of performance for every player over a single match, specific period or whole season. Those metrics power six subcomponents for each player – categories like shooting, passing and defending. Then, those subcomponents are combined to calculate a total score (from 20-100) according to a player’s position in the match.
These ratings are at the heart of our set of brand-new, free-to-play gaming experiences, so if you think you can predict the upcoming Player Ratings each week, you should have a go at playing. There are a ton of prizes to be won.
Without further ado, let’s dive into the top performers from Matchday 13 in the Premier League.
1. Michael Olise – 95.3 (Luton 2-1 CRYSTAL PALACE)
At 4.30pm on Saturday afternoon, everything was going great for Michael Olise. Fresh off his first start of the campaign, he’d just scored a contender for goal of the season – a surging run from the halfway line where he’d twisted Luton full-back Amari’i Bell inside out, capped off by a whipped, curled finish into the far corner – to bring Crystal Palace level just moments after going behind.
But just 10 minutes later, Jacob Brown had put the hosts back in front and sent Palace on their way to their fourth defeat in five matches. And then 24 hours later, Alejandro Garnacho scored what will almost certainly be 2023-24’s goal of the season with an audacious bicycle kick, so Olise didn’t even have that shred of comfort to cling to.
The result aside though, Olise showed Palace exactly what they’d been missing. The France youth international, who’d played just 23 minutes of action prior to this game against Luton, was a livewire from the right for Roy Hodgson’s side, registering match-highs for total shots (five) and touches in the opposition’s box (nine), while no one else could better his three chances created. In fact, Olise was directly involved in 50% of all of Crystal Palace’s 16 shots in this contest.
He did his defensive work too, tracking back to make four tackles, more than any other player on the pitch.
With Palace’s other talisman, Eberechi Eze, forced to withdraw through injury, Hodgson will be praying Olise can stay fit and produce more performances like the one we saw on Saturday.
2. Morgan Gibbs-White – 94.8 (NOTTINGHAM FOREST 2-3 Brighton)
Morgan Gibbs-White is another player who put in a standout performance in a defeat this weekend as Nottingham Forest fell to a 3-2 home loss to Brighton.
Gibbs-White had a hand in both Forest’s goals; the first a devilish cross in the opening exchanges that Anthony Elanga nodded in and the second a coolly-dispatched penalty to make the game 3-2. His assist for Elanga’s goal meant Gibbs-White is now just the fifth Forest player to reach 10 Premier League assists after Scott Gemmill (13), Bryan Roy (15), Steve Stone (16) and Ian Woan (27).
As the above touch map shows, Gibbs-White has been deployed from the right of midfield more often this season. While that switch has dampened the number of eye-catching moments he’s had in the middle third of the pitch, Gibbs-White’s efficiency is as strong as ever. He’s created 23 chances so far this season, 12 more than Forest’s next-highest player, Harry Toffolo, and a team-high 15 from open play. On a per-90 basis, Gibbs-White’s numbers are actually marginally up compared to last season (2.04 vs 1.99).
3. Giovani Lo Celso – 94.4 (TOTTENHAM 1-2 Aston Villa)
The Opta Player Ratings must be cursed this week, as Giovani Lo Celso is another to make the top five yet come off second best.
Ange Postecoglou handed the Argentine a rare start on Sunday for his side’s home game against Aston Villa. Lo Celso’s previous Premier League start had come over two years ago (October 2021 against Manchester United).
Postecoglou’s faith was rewarded midway through the first half when Pedro Porro’s errant corner was missed by everyone and arrived to Lo Celso on the edge of the box. The ball sat up perfectly for Lo Celso to crash it home with a left-footed strike.
It was just reward for Spurs who were the better team in the first half, outshooting Villa 7-5 and registering a very healthy 1.2 expected goals (xG). Pau Torres’ header on the cusp of half-time was a sucker punch from which Tottenham never quite recovered.
That strike was just Lo Celso’s second league goal for Tottenham, with the other coming against Manchester City in November 2020, three years and seven days ago. It capped a tidy and probing performance from the Argentine, who completed 70 of 76 passes and attempted a game-high 26 passes in the final third.
4. Marcus Tavernier – 93.9 (Sheffield United 1-3 BOURNEMOUTH)
Having failed to win any of their first nine Premier League games of 2023-24 (D3 L6), Bournemouth have since won three of their last four in the top flight (L1).
At the heart of their latest victory, a comfortable 3-1 win over Sheffield United, was Marcus Tavernier. The winger got proceedings started with a calm finish past Wes Foderingham, after brilliant work down the right-hand side by the electric Antoine Semenyo. Tavernier’s first touch made the goal though, chopping inside with his right foot before finishing with his left.
That combination was on show again on the stroke of half time, with Semenyo cutting back a deadly cross that Tavernier blazed over.
The Englishman wouldn’t be denied again, killing the game early in the second half after he stole round the back post to tap in a cross from Adam Smith.
This was a dominant display from the Cherries, who look to have turned a corner under Andoni Iraola. Bournemouth generated 2.86 xG in this game, the highest figure they’ve managed in a game this season and the highest they’ve registered in an away game in six years.
Tavernier himself had six shots – the most he’s ever had in a Premier League match – and generated a higher xG tally than Sheffield United did as an entire team.
5. Anthony Gordon – 92.9 (NEWCASTLE 4-1 Chelsea)
Rounding off the top five this week is Anthony Gordon, who starred in Newcastle’s 4-1 mauling of Chelsea. This was Chelsea’s biggest margin of defeat in the Premier League this season under Mauricio Pochettino, and the Argentinian manager’s heaviest loss in the competition since October 2019 – when his Tottenham side went down 3-0 against Brighton.
Gordon jinked inside to deliver a perfect cross for Jamaal Lascelles’ header to make it 2-1, before capping off Newcastle’s dominant second-half display with a crisp strike into the far corner after beating Chelsea’s half-hearted offside trap.
This was just the third time that Gordon had both scored and assisted in a Premier League (once for Everton, twice for Newcastle), while it’s the first time he’s done so at St James’ Park.
Top Performers by Game: Matchday 13
Here were the top-performing players across each game in MD 13:
Manchester City 1-1 Liverpool: Rodri, 86.4
Burnley 1-2 West Ham United: Tomás Soucek, 84.3
Luton Town 2-1 Crystal Palace: Michael Olise, 95.3
Newcastle United 4-1 Chelsea: Anthony Gordon, 92.9
Nottingham Forest 2-3 Brighton: Morgan Gibbs-White, 94.8
Sheffield United 1-3 Bournemouth: Marcus Tavernier, 93.9
Brentford 0-1 Arsenal: Kai Havertz, 87.6
Tottenham 1-2 Aston Villa: Giovani Lo Celso, 94.4
Everton 0-3 Manchester United: André Onana, 89.6
Fulham 3-2 Wolves: Matheus Cunha, 84.6
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our new football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.