Dejan Kulusevski beats Vinicius Jr and Lamine Yamal to show why he must start North London Derby
Dejan Kulusevski's form this season should already help him into Ange Postecoglou's Tottenham team to face Arsenal on Sunday but one statistic across Europe's top leagues should reinforce that.
The 24-year-old had a terrific pre-season for Spurs, mostly playing as a false nine in the absence of fit centre-forwards at the club, but found himself on the bench for the opening draw at Leicester City in the Premier League. Kulusevski then started both of the games afterwards against Everton and Newcastle, and carried on his good form in spending long periods of both games as a deeper midfielder in a three, having started against the Toffees in that position.
Kulusevski has also enjoyed a strong international break with Sweden, chosen to captain the side by manager Jon Dahl Tomasson and leading them to 3-1 and 3-0 wins against Azerbaijan and Estonia respectively.
This Sunday Tottenham will host Arsenal in the first North London Derby of the 2024/25 season and Postecoglou has plenty of midfield options as well as attacking ones but Kulusevski is looking like his sharpest.
One key stat in the Premier League season shows just how important Kulusevski has been to Spurs over the opening three matches, for the Sweden international has made the highest number of key passes leading to a shot so far of any player this campaign across Europe's five major leagues.
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Kulusevski has completed 18 key passes, one more than Real Madrid's Vinicius Junior and two more than Barcelona's Lamine Yamal. His total is four more than the next Premier League players with Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne and Bernardo Silva as well as Fulham's Andreas Pereira all on 14 along with Barcelona's Pedri.
Kulusevski will be hoping to bring that creativity to the fore when Arsenal come to visit on Sunday afternoon, missing two key midfielders of their own in the suspended Declan Rice and injured Martin Odegaard.
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