Premier League top 100 players: How do the statistics break down?

Telegraph Sport analyses which clubs, countries and positions are represented by the Premier League's best 100 players of all time

Flying the flag: Paul Scholes, Frank Lampard and Alan Shearer are the only English players in the top 10 

At No 13 Peter Schmeichel is the highest ranked goalkeeper, reflecting the five league titles he won with Manchester United between 1993 and 1999. The Dane is one of three goalkeepers of the nine in the top 100 to have played for United (Edwin van der Sar and Tim Howard are the other two). Unsurprisingly, forwards dominate the top 100 with 34 per cent of the votes from our expert team going to those at the top end of the pitch, though midfielders Ryan Giggs (No 1), Roy Keane (No 3), Paul Scholes (No 5), Patrick Vieira (No 7) and Frank Lampard (No 10) all make it into the top 10.

Having won 11 of the 22 Premier League titles, it is no surprise to see United dominating the list. Five of the top eight players made a name for themselves at Old Trafford, headed by Giggs at No 1. Arsenal,Liverpool and Chelsea are the other three clubs to have more than 10 players in the list although the Anfield side's sole representatives in the top 20 are Steven Gerrard and Luis Suarez. Matt Le Tissier is the highest ranked player to represent a club all by himself, flying a lone flag for Southampton at No 33.

Talk in recent years may have centred around the influx of foreign players in the Premier League, but it is still Englishmen who dominate the list with 40 of the 100 plying their trade in the country they represent. Despite such numerical dominance, only three of the best 10 players (Alan Shearer, Scholes and Lampard) are English, with the top three coming from Wales, France and Ireland. Ivory Coast is the sole African country to have more than one player in the top 100, with the list dominated by footballers from Europe.