I somehow managed to miss posting an EA Sports Index update during October, but it wasn’t deliberate, merely an oversight on my part.

Given that the index is primarily a measure of contribution to a winning team, you probably won’t be surprised to find that we’re not exactly packing the top 100 with Villa players. There are just six Villans in the current top 100, none in the top 20; Stewart Downing the highest ranked in 24th place.

Similarly, Bolton’s high placing in the team table reflects both their league performance and the fact that Owen Coyle has been able to call on a core of seven players to start all 14 Premier League games so far this season. Interestingly, one of those seven players; Fabrice Muamba, is not among the eight players in the top 100, which reminds us how the index sometimes overlooks the more defensive central midfielders.

Muamba has the 2nd highest number of tackles in the league behind team mate Stuart Holden, but his lack of goals and assists, like our own Stiliyan Petrov in the past, seems to harm his ranking in the index.

Aston Villa players in the top 100

• 24th Stewart Downing – 192 points
• 28th Ashley Young – 183 points
• 46th Marc Albrighton – 160 points
• 53rd Brad Friedel – 158 points
• 91st Stephen Warnock – 133 points
• 93rd James Collins – 131 points

Stephen Warnock’s place among the six Villans in the top 100 might raise a few eyebrows, mine included since Luke Young does have a goal to his name, but Warnock has played 100% of the possible number of Premier League minutes whilst Luke Young, the next most played defender, has played 86%.

Top 10

• 1st Florent Malouda – 255 points
• 2nd Didier Drogba – 251 points
• 3rd Gareth Bale – 250 points
• 4th Marouane Chamakh – 246 points
• 5th Andrew Carroll – 233 points
• 6th Nemanja Vidic – 232 points
• 7th Carlos Tevez – 223 points
• 8th Darren Fletcher – 221 points
• 9th Sebastian Larsson – 211 points
• 10th Morten Gamst Pedersen – 209 points

Team Table

This post is part of the EA Sports Index series which supersedes the Actim Index series from past seasons.