Who is the Premier League’s fastest player? Who covers the most distance? And which player has walked furthest?
BBC Sport and Opta have run through the numbers for the 2024-25 season so far.
But before we give the answers away, why not take a guess and tell us who you expect to see leading our top speed list?
Who is the fastest player in the Premier League this season?
We’ll start with top speed and it’s Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven who’s blistered past the competition so far this season.
The Netherlands centre-back was also the fastest player in the last campaign and the quickest Premier League star at Euro 2024.
Fulham’s Adama Traore and Manchester City full-back Kyle Walker are two known for their pace, but this season their top speed is outside of division’s top 20. For winger Traore it’s 21st, and in Walker’s case, 80th.
Walker’s top speed also puts him below Trent Alexander-Arnold of Liverpool (19th), Manchester United’s Antony (24th) and Aston Villa midfielder John McGinn (61st).
We’re only ranking the quickest player for each team, which means there’s no space on our chart for Tottenham forward Timo Werner who has the same top speed as Manchester City’s Erling Haaland (35.7 km/h).
The slowest quickest player for their club is Ipswich’s Wes Burns, who is only the 49th fastest overall.
Which Premier League player has completed the most sprints?
Newcastle forward Anthony Gordon has completed the most sprints, and by some distance.
Haaland is Manchester City’s leading sprinter but his total of 96 – almost half of Gordon’s – means his club are bottom of this list.
That may be a reflection of City manager Pep Guardiola’s patient possession-led approach, although Everton – statistically the most direct club in the Premier League – are led by Dominic Calvert-Lewin whose sprinting stats are comfortably mid-table.
While Van de Ven may be the quickest sprinter he’s only attempted 82 sprints this season, the 74th-most in the division.
Who has covered the most distance in the league this season?
Southampton’s Flynn Downes is running away with it in the Premier League’s distance category.
The midfielder has covered 84.2 km in 630 Premier League minutes, which is the equivalent of setting off from St Mary’s Stadium and reaching the edge of Greater London.
It’s worth mentioning, though, that this particular data set is heavily influenced by minutes played.
Naturally, the longer a player is on the pitch the more opportunity they have to increase their total distance covered figure.
Another way to view the data is to calculate a per 90 minute figure – telling us the distance a player has covered in a match on average.
Who covers the most distance per game in the Premier League?
For players who have played at least four games, nobody comes close to Dejan Kulusevski’s distance per 90 minutes.
Only West Ham midfielder Tomas Soucek is within half a kilometre of the Spurs player’s average.
Kulusevski also holds the record for the maximum distance run in a single game this season, totalling 13.2km against Manchester United in his side’s 3-0 win in September.
In the same month he clocked in 12.6km in a 3-1 win over Brentford, the second-highest total in a Premier League match this campaign.
Who has walked the furthest this season?
No outfielder has walked further in the Premier League this season than Haaland.
But, intriguingly, he is one of six players who has both walked the furthest for his club and pulled off his team’s most sprints – suggesting a system behind the strolling.
The others are Newcastle’s Gordon, Fulham left-back Antonee Robinson, Bournemouth forward Antoine Semenyo, Ispwich full-back Leif Davis and Manchester United’s Diogo Dalot.
The outfielder who spends the highest percentage of time walking is Nottingham Forest centre-back Willy Boly with 78.5%.