English Premier League: Ranking Each Team's Best Player This Season

Every team has their own talisman, a player they look to to take the game by its throat and change it.

Some teams are fighting for the crown, and other teams are fighting to stay alive in the Premier League.

Irrespectively, each team has a player who has been exceptional for the team, acting as their mainstay. This article is to convey which players have made the biggest difference for each team.

While some people may criticize me for not putting Samir Nasri, I believe young Jack has been absolutely exceptional for Arsenal. Even though Samir Nasri has been excellent, Jack Wilshere gives 100 percent to every game, and this is something that has been missing at Arsenal for some time.

These last two weeks have been a nightmare for Arsenal, but Wilshere has come out of it unscathed, lauded for his tenacity when his teammates around him went missing.  

Wilshere is a complete midfielder, with excellent defensive skills and a vast passing range. His marauding runs forward have been one of Arsenal's mainstays this season. His performance against Barcelona at the Emirates was a joy to behold, and a little beefing up combined with a willingness to shoot could make him one of the best players in the world.

The frightening part is that he is still 19.

Around four years ago, Steward Downing was considered to be England's next hope. While the English media has a tendency to hype things up, Stewart Downing has immense skill.

His feverish pace combined with deadly crosses made him one of the best wingers of the EPL. Injuries hampered his progress, and his first season with Aston Villa was a forgetful one.

However, he has come back this season a reinvigorated player and the joie de vivre is there for everyone to see. He has added goals to his tally as well, scoring eight this season in all competitions. His contributions have been an integral reason why Aston Villa are still high on the relegation battle.

Birmingham's mantra to stay in the Premier League has been simple. Defend, defend, defend, cross to Nicola Zigic, defend, defend.

And that leads to a lot of teams attacking and putting their goalkeeper under pressure. Ben Foster has coped admirably with the pressure and has produced a string of match-winning performances for the Blues, most notably Chelsea in the Premier League and Arsenal in the Carling Cup final.

Manchester United banished him following a series of abysmal performances for the Red Devils but are quick to remember that he was their Carling Cup saviour. Foster still makes mistakes, but they are all being ironed out in time, making him one of the best keepers in the league.

Blackburn's season has been one of immense confusion. The takeover by Indian group Venky's has not helped their cause, and this season, they have been more in the news for out-of-the-game reasons.

But one of the bright spots of Blackburn's season has been the rise to prominence of David Hoilett, a gem in all this Blackburn muddle.

While the first part of his season was nothing to speak about, he has sparked into life in 2011, starting with a delicious goal against West Brom. He has not missed a match ever since and is on the verge of becoming world-class.

This was probably the easiest choice in this list. Adam has been immense this season in Blackpool's charge to stay in the Premier League and his quality has not gone unnoticed.

Liverpool and Manchester United were very interested in him this winter, but Blackpool were not willing to let their talisman go easy. Sir Alex Ferguson has heaped praise for Adam, claiming his corner kicks are worth £15 million itself.

Adam has chipped in with goals and assists for Blackpool and has been essential in Blackpool's groundbreaking season at the top.

When Bolton were playing their Barcelona-esque football in the beginning of this season, the cherry at the top was definitely Johan Elmander, who showed his class by winning the November EPL Player of the Month.

His talent was never in question, and after two hard seasons at the Reebok, Elmander finally displayed his class, justifying why he was Bolton's costliest player.

His form after the turn of the year has dipped, with Daniel Sturridge making up for the goals, but he is still a class act and an integral cog in the Bolton machine.

This has truly been a disappointing season for Chelsea. After starting so brilliantly, their dip in form has been staggering, and Roman Abramovich has indicated that wholesale changes will be made at the end of the season.

Despite all this drastic business, Chelsea remain nine points off the pace and with an outside chance to still retain their crown. A lot of this has been due to Petr Cech, who had single-handedly kept Chelsea still in contention during their lapse in form.

Often criticized, the goalkeeper has silenced his critics this season with some stellar displays and brilliant saves. If Chelsea do end up winning the Premier League (even though the chances are slim), they'll know who to thank.

Leighton Baines is your perfect left back. After the severe competition between Ashley Cole and Patrice Evra, I believe Leighton Baines is the third best left back in the EPL, and this season, he has certainly played leaps and bounds better than them.

Assured in defense and deadly in attack (he has a whopping 10 assists this season, along with two goals), Baines is one of the first names you'll find in Everton's teamsheet. Injuries to Mikel Arteta, Marouane Fellaini and Tim Cahill at regular intervals has made Everton's season stop-start, but Baines continues to improve, helping his team both in the defensive and offensive department.

It was difficult between Brede Hangeland and him, but he just edges it.

When you think of Clint Dempsey, you can only think of one word: wily. He can look extremely harmless at times, but he possesses that moment of brilliance that can occur at any given time.

Fulham look to him time and time again for inspiration, and he continues to deliver. His goals have been crucial, especially his double against Stoke, which lifted Fulham out of the relegation zone, and they have looked comfortable since.

Like Chelsea, Liverpool have endured another torrid season. They seem to have bounced back from that in recent weeks with the selling of Fernando Torres coupled with the brilliant acquisitions of Luis Suarez and Andy Carroll, but when Liverpool were looking down and out, Raul Meireles kept providing the answers.

Roy Hodgson continuously placed him out in the flanks, an uncommon position for him. This negated his effectivity, but since he was put in his rightful place along with Lucas in the heart of the Liverpool lineup, Liverpool have looked rejuvenated and replenished.

He has look assured and has scored some blinders, one that comes to mind is the goal against Wolves which has the capacity to be goal of the season. His telling moment finally came against Chelsea, when he broke the deadlock in emphatical style with a goal that turned out to be the winner.

Choosing between him and David Silva was one of my harder choices writing this piece, but Carlos Tevez edges it mainly due to the impact he has on the dressing room as well as the Manchester City faithful.

The fans adore Tevez, the players adore Tevez, the manager adores Tevez (a bit too much, though?). Tevez will give you nothing less than 100 percent in every game he plays, sort of like a player in the Dirk Kuyt/Park Ji-Sung mould.

But unlike these players, Tevez scores, and he scores quite frequently. His bulldog-like approach is even appreciated by people who despise Manchester City and the way they do their business. His goals and leadership have kept City in title contention, and as we reach the business end of the season, all we can ask is more of the same.

Luis Nani and Dimitar Berbatov are worthy contenders, but Nemanja Vidic is simply the best defender in the world. No questions asked.

Manchester United were on course for an undefeated season before Wolves sent them crashing back to Planet Earth, and all of this was due to Nemanja Vidic being a bedrock in United's defense.

His partners came and went (he's had to partner with Rio Ferdinand, Wes Brown and Chris Smalling in regular intervals), but his intensity to the cause never changed. Being an Arsenal fan, my favorite moment of Vidic this season was when Arsenal were playing against United at Old Trafford.

Chamakh was faced with an open goal after van der Sar spilled Nasri's shot. Before Chamakh could even touch the ball, Vidic ran a good 10 yards to block Chamakh and deny Arsenal an equaliser. You just have to applaud him. Bow to Vidic, undisputably the best defender in the world.

If Andy Carroll was still at Newcastle, I would be obliged to pick him, but he's not so let's move on. But the truth is, Kevin Nolan contributed a lot to Carroll's brilliance and was always the go-to-guy if Carroll was out of form.

He did not disappoint, contributing 11 goals and two assists and providing an assuredness in passing. More important, he is a true leader, and the fact that Newcastle were so high up in the table before February came speaks volumes of his character.

You usually synonimize Stoke's play with Rory Delap's eccentric throw-ins combined with either Ricardo Fuller or Kenwyne Jones finishing on the end of those throw-ins.

However, Matthew Etherington provides another dimension to Stoke's attack, possessing good dribbling, passing and crossing skills.

He always gives Stoke a Plan B to their attack, and this has been quite effective, with him raking up four goals and seven assists. His corners are deadly and his goals have been telling, the most important one probably the last minute equaliser against Manchester City.

While new signing Sessignon looks quality, Jordan Henderson's performances this season have been excellent.

His manager Steve Bruce said that he was the best young British footballer there is. (I still believe Jack Wilshere is) FIFA also acknowledged Henderson, putting him as one of their 13 footballers to watch out for, pitting him with the likes of Anderlecht's Romelu Lukaku.

Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool have shown interest in the teenager who received his first England national team cap this season. Henderson is the typical English player with that extra bit of quality.

While I remain an eternal fan of Luka Modric, van der Vaart has been the man for Tottenham. What a steal.

If he remained injury-free, he might've even been Player of the Season by now. Van der Vaart is technically brilliant and can produce moments of magic out of nothing. He has been the fulcrum of Tottenham's attacking play and has developed an almost telepathic understanding with many of his teammates such as Peter Crouch, Gareth Bale and Luka Modric.

Ten goals and seven assists in 19 Premier League appearances. You cannot say no to numbers like these. Easily the steal of the Premier League this season.

West Brom have been famed to play flashy, clever football that was instilled first by Tony Mowbray and continued by Roberto di Matteo and now Roy Hodgson.

What they have been lacking in recent years, however, has been that killer touch. I first saw Peter Odemwingie as a sub for Nigeria in the World Cup, and while he didn't do much, what caught my eye was his speed and trickery.

This has been integral for West Brom's campaign as he has been very clinical and his presence uplifts the whole West Brom team. With West Brom possessing quality strikers like himself and Carlos Vela till the end of the season, West Brom have a good chance of staying afloat.

Avram Grant has been nicknamed "the manager of Destruction," but with Scott Parker still in their ranks, West Ham fans will believe they have a fighting chance.

A lot of clubs were interested in the services of Parker, but he emphatically refused, claiming that he was for the cause of West Ham remaining in the Premier League. It is this kind of club loyalty that you seldom see in football nowadays, and Scott Parker has not looked back since then.

He is industrious and combative and more importantly, a great leader. When West Ham were 3-0 down to West Brom at halftime, Carlton Cole claimed Scott Parker's pep talk during halftime made him have tears in his eyes.

This lead to West Ham drawing 3-3 in final score. Such is Parker's effect. Player of the Month for February 2011 is a salute to that.

Charles N'Zogbia was a prime candidate, but while Wigan have been generally poor this term, Victor Moses looks potent.

I saw his potential in his performance against Manchester United early this year, and I believe that if he plays, Wigan will win. He possesses that spark to change the game around, a quality very few Wigan players have.

If Martinez works on him and keeps on giving him chances, I believe Moses could end up being a very good player.

Matt Jarvis was also a candidate, but Wolves require Kevin Doyle's passion if they are to remain in the Premier League this season.

Often criticized for not scoring enough goals, what you cannot criticize Doyle of is not giving it his all. He is a defender's nightmare as he just won't give up till the last second of the game.

This kind of player is required for all the bottom teams, and Doyle could prove to be a worthy facet for Wolves staying afloat this season.

As the Premier League hits its last legs, every team will need their respective players to fire. Any comments on who will win the league and who will get relegated?