Form Rankings: Usual suspects start strongly as Hazard mounts charge to become Europe’s best

Now at least six games into the season across four of Europe’s top five leagues following midweek fixtures on the continent, our player form rankings are back and it’s already been business as usual for some of the elite.

While we await the qualification of the after the weekend’s action, we run down the top 20 players over the remaining top divisions based on our statistical ratings over each players’ last six performances.

He may have ended on the losing side in shocking circumstances at Leganes on Wednesday, but Lionel Messi still rules the roost as things stand. Six games into the La Liga campaign the Argentinean has five goals and three assists to his name already and he’s out in front for key passes (4) and dribbles (4.5) per game of players to have made as many appearances in Europe’s top 5 leagues this season.

It’s been a similarly prolific start for Neymar in France too, having had a hand in at least one goal in each of his six outings to date. The Brazilian has tallied five goals and two assists in said matches, despite seemingly playing within himself at times - perhaps, it should be said, with a little more maturity in the league thus far.

Eden Hazard completes the top three though his rating of 7.95 to date is quite remarkable given two of his six appearances for Chelsea in the league thus far have comes as a substitute. He’s got off to a flying start regardless, with five goals and two assists in just 397 minutes, while his match-winning, solo effort in the cup against Liverpool in the week was further proof that the Belgian is closing the gap to the very best in the world.

Elsewhere Cristiano Ronaldo has had a hit and miss time at Juventus thus far but all in all his performances have lived up to expectations in Serie A, even if it took longer than anticipated to get off the mark. The Portuguese has since scored three times, however, registering a further two assists, averaging two key passes per game thus far for the first time in four years to scrape into the top five, sandwiched between Sergio Aguero (fourth) and Lorenzo Insigne (sixth).

Liverpool’s Sadio Mane (7.72) is next, followed by former Leeds and Bournemouth man Max Gradel, who has enjoyed a fantastic start to the season with Toulouse, with three goals and two assists in his last outings. The African pair are joined by clubmates Mohamed Salah (11th) and Ibrahim Sangare (13th) respectively, while it’s Florian Thauvin (7.67) and Andre Silva (7.64) that complete the top ten.