Man Utd and Chelsea stars are Prem’s sharpest shooters ahead of Haaland

Erling Haaland is not the sharpest shooter in Manchester, with a United forward graded higher than the City goal machine…

Haaland has the third-highest shooting grade, according to our friends at Gradient Sports.

They evaluate shooting performance based on execution quality rather than just box-score outcomes, scoring every shot on a nine-point scale before converting it into a 30–100 player rating.

Here are the 10 highest-graded players for shooting in the Premier League…

1) Bryan Mbeumo (Man Utd) – 85.7 Perhaps Manchester United don’t need a new striker after all? Of course they do, but at least Mbeumo is having some joy through the middle while Benjamin Sesko recovers. He has the highest grade for open-play shooting while only Erling Haaland has taken more shots above expectation, with the Cameroonian’s total goals matching his xG of 4.0.

2) Pedro Neto (Chelsea) – 85.6 The Chelsea wingback, who has been filling in for Joao Pedro through the middle, has the highest pressured shooting grade and the second-highest shot accuracy rate (65%) of the players on this list.

3) Erling Haaland (Man City) – 85 Of course Haaland has the highest number of shots (33) in the league, and the highest number of shots on target (16). There’s also quality with the quantity with Haaland also having the highest number of shots above expectation and most unsaveable shots.

4) Marcus Tavernier (Bournemouth) – 84.9 The Bournemouth attacker is graded highest in the Premier League for free-kick shooting and unpressured shooting. If it wasn’t for all those pesky defenders, Tavernier might be the GOAT.

5) Joao Pedro (Chelsea) – 83.1 The Chelsea striker, in the Premier League team of the season so far despite his current injury, is still seventh in Gradient’s overall ranking of every player in Europe’s to five leagues this season, with only Declan Rice and Evanilson from the Premier League above him.

6) Josh King (Fulham) – 80.0 The Fulham youngster has the highest grade for shooting among all Premier League midfielders and, overall, the only midfielders graded higher are Declan Rice, Elliot Anderson and this fella…

7) Rayan Cherki (Man City) – 79.8 The City star has the highest grade for non-dominant foot shooting, proving you’re screwed whichever side you show Cherki. The Frenchman is also in the team of the season so far.

8) Nicolas Jackson (Aston Villa) – 79.1 Jackson is thriving again under Unai Emery, scoring five goals from an xG of 2.3.

9) Diego Gomez (Brighton) – 78.8 The Brighton midfielder would presumably be graded highest for shots from the halfway line if Gradient measured such things. It might be the only thing they don’t. Gomez, though, is also graded third for crossing of all Premier League wingers.

10) Justin Kluivert (Bournemouth) – 78.7 Kluivert, evidently a chip off the old block, ranks third among midfielders for shooting, even if he has only the one goal so far this season.