Top 10 Italian Players

There haven't been a great number of Italian players to have graced the Premier League and it's probably down to the pace and physicality of the league.

A lot of them were used to playing in a league in Serie A where the games were slow and more defensive whereas the Premier League, the games are played at a quick pace and are end-to-end.

But there have have still been a decent number of Italians who have lit up the Premier League but not as many as the likes of players from Spain and France.

The players in the list are arguably the only players from Italy who have impressed in the Premier League and making a top 10 out of them wasn't straightforward as not all of them were exactly fantastic.

Now here is the list:

Roberto Di Matteo

Jorginho

Fabrizio Ravanelli

Emerson Palmieri

Graziano Pelle

Gianfranco Zola

Paolo DI Canio

Gianluca Vialli

Mario Balotelli

Angelo Ogbonna

10. Angelo Ogbonna

Ogbonna spent nine seasons at West Ham and was a solid defender for the majority of his time there.

But I had to have him in at no.10 because he did have some dodgy moments and did at times get a bit of criticism.

But he did have a number of solid games for the Hammers and especially when David Moyes came back as his solid performances at the back made the Hammers a tough team to beat defensively, and played a major role in the Hammers qualifying for Europe.

9. Emerson Palmieri

Emerson played in the Premier League for both Chelsea and West Ham and it was with the latter where he played his best football.

He was mostly a back up player at Chelsea due to Marcos Alonso and later Ben Chilwell being preferred at left back.

But at West Ham, he immediately became their first choice left back ahead of Aaron Cresswell and put in a number of good performances both defensively and offensively.

His reading of the game was excellent and was a full back who loved to get forward and get crosses into the box.

8. Mario Balotelli

Balotelli was a controversial player both on and off the pitch and especially off it as he did a number of crazy things including throwing darts at youth team players and setting off fireworks in his own house.

On the pitch meanwhile, he at times let his emotions get the better of him as he picked up a number of red cards.

He only had one productive season during his time in England with that season being Man City's first title winning season in 2012 where he scored 13 goals.

He also set up Sergio Aguero's dramatic winner on the final day against QPR to win City the title.

His time at City ended on a sour note following a fallout with then-City manager Roberto Mancini in training after he performed a dangerous tackle on a fellow City player.

7. Fabrizio Ravanelli

Ravanelli didn't play in the Premier League for very long as he had two two separate seasons with Middlesbrough and Derby respectively.

It was at Boro where he played he best football as he netted 16 goals in his one and only season there and got off to the perfect start by scoring a hat trick on his debut aganst Liverpool, becoming the first and only player to score a hat trick on their Premier League debut.

But despite the goals he scored for Boro that season, they weren't enough to save them from relegation.

He was a striker who was quick, strong, good in the air and a score of a variety of goals.

6. Gianluca Vialli

Vialli was one of the greatest strikers of his generation but by the time he came to the Premier League, he was in the latter stages of his career.

He was 31 when he joined Chelsea in 1996 but he still scored a decent number of goals during his time there as he netted a combined total of 21 goals during his three seasons at Stamford Bridge.

He also became player-manager during that time after Ruud Gullit was sacked and after a season and a half of juggling the two responsibilities, he retired to focus on the management side.

5. Jorginho

Jorginho was a divisive player in that he had both positive and negative aspects to his game.

He was brilliant on the ball as he was an excellent passer due to the incredible vision he had to pick out any kind of pass and could also control the flow of the game in midfield.

But he wasn't as good off the ball due to a lack of mobility and pace which made him vulnerable when defending counter attacks.

He received a lot of criticism for that particularly in his first season at Chelsea where he was key to how he played that season under Maurizio Sarri, who he previously worked under at Napoli, and because of this the opposition targeted him and exploited his lack of mobility.

He was better in a midfield two during his time in the Premier League and especially at Chelsea under Thomas Tuchel as he had N'Golo Kante next to him who would do all the running whilst he would just sit and dictate play in midfield.

4. Graziano Pelle

Pelle had just two seasons in the Premier League with Southampton and he was clinical in both seasons as he scored a combined total of 23 goals from both seasons.

He joined the Saints in the summer where they lost a lot of their best players and he immediately became one of their key players by being a clinical goal scorer.

He scored a variety of goals during his two seasons with the Saints and his goals played a big part in them qualifying for Europe in both seasons he spent at the club.

3. Paolo Di Canio

Di Canio could be a divisive player on his day as he did have moments where he could lose his head with his shoving of referee Paul Alcock whlist at Sheffield Wednesday being one example.

But on his day, he was an incredible player to watch as he was agile, very skilful, could do anything with the ball at his feet and could score almost any kind of goal.

The goals he could score were of the highest level including his famous scissor kick against Wimbledon for West Ham, which is easily his most iconic.

He should probably he higher because of the ability he had. But because he had a controversial side to him, I had to drop him down to third.

2. Roberto Di Matteo

Di Matteo had everything you wanted from a midfielder in that he had bags energy, always did his defensive work, could control a game from midfield and was both creative and a brilliant passer of the ball.

He could also strike a ball from distance and he showed it many times as a lot of his goals came from long distances.

He was very much a box-to-box midfielder because of the energy he had and his ability to do both sides of the game in getting back to make crucial challenges defensively, and getting forward to create chances and score goals offensively.

He would later go on to manage Chelsea and lead them to their first Champions League win in 2012 which earned him the full-time managers job after originally being the caretaker.

1. Gianfranco Zola

Zola had to be my no.1 because of how technically gifted a player he was on his day due to the incredible ability he had.

He could do pretty much anything with the ball at his feet as he had many tricks up his sleeve, was agile, had an incredible first touch and could beat players in tight spaces.

He turned many defenders inside out throughout his time at Chelsea because of how skilful he was and he could also score any kind of goal of the highest level.

He was as good as anyone on his day because of how talented and gifted he was.

MY TOP 10:

1. Gianfranco Zola

2. Roberto Di Matteo

3. Paolo Di Canio

4. Graziano Pelle

5. Jorginho

6. Gianluca Vialli

7. Fabrizio Ravanelli

8. Mario Balotelli

9. Emerson Palmieri

10. Angelo Ogbonna