Fastest man in the Premier League? Elanga's sprints key for Forest

Welcome to The Debrief, a Sky Sports column in which Adam Bate uses a blend of data and opinion to reflect on some of the key stories from the latest Premier League matches. This week:

⚡ Anthony Elanga’s stunning sprint stats
⬆️ Pau Torres’ importance to Aston Villa
🏃🏻‍♂️ Daniel Munoz’s distances at high speed

Elanga speed sets it all up for Forest

Technically, the fastest man in the Premier League this season is Tottenham’s Micky van de Ven, clocked at 10.31 metres per second in September. But the most impressive speedster in the competition is surely Nottingham Forest’s consistently quick Anthony Elanga.

It is Elanga who is second on the list. But the Swede has six entries in total among the top 18 sprints of the season. Nobody else is in there more than once, not even Van de Ven, whose hamstring issues mean he has started only six Premier League games in six months.

Elanga’s running is not a mere statistical quirk but an integral feature of Forest’s success this season, providing an outlet for the passes of Morgan Gibbs-White and a regular out-ball for a Nuno Espirito Santo team that favours those fast counter-attacks.

There was an excellent example of its effectiveness in the 2-1 win over West Ham on Sunday. Gibbs-White sent an angled pass forwards that seemed to be drifting out of play only for Elanga to retrieve it and win a foul after squaring up Jean-Clair Todibo.

Elanga took the free-kick himself with Nikola Milenkovic getting the touch for what turned out to be the winning goal. The run by Elanga that made it was not his fastest of the season – a relatively sluggish 9.63 metres per second – but it was the fastest of the match.

As Jamie Carragher pointed out on co-commentary for Sky Sports, Elanga’s pace is “absolutely electrifying” and it means that Forest always retain an imminent threat in games even when the ball is around their own penalty box. Chelsea beware on Sunday.

Villa thriving with Torres or Mings

Youri Tielemans’ ability to play forward passes between the lines is crucial for Aston Villa, which is why it has been particularly impressive that they have won their last two games without him. Pau Torres played an important role in securing the one against Tottenham.

Torres is the only other Villa outfield player to rank among the top 50 in the Premier League for most defenders bypassed per 90 minutes (based on a minimum of 1000 pass attempts). He carries the ball, playing piercing passes through the opposition.

Asked about Torres after the game, Unai Emery said: “More or less, Pau Torres has been consistent, last year and this year. Of course, after we recovered Tyrone Mings we are stronger and we can manage both players, helping in the moments that we need.”

Villa’s season has been a hectic one. The visit to Manchester United will be their 57th game of the season in all competitions. Having Torres and Mings available has allowed Emery to rotate based on the requirements of that specific game. Mings started at Bournemouth.

“They are different players but both are very good players. The problem we had was when we could not play with one of them because they were both injured. In that moment, we had problems. When both players are available to play, I am so, so happy.”

Emery is right, of course. There are only three Premier League games this season in which Villa have named neither among their starting line-up. Two of them were lost and the other was a draw at home to Ipswich, in which Mings came on as an early substitute.

It is also worth mentioning the home game with West Ham in which Mings was forced off through injury with his side leading. West Ham duly equalised. Had Emery had at least one available all season, Villa would probably have Champions League football already.

And finally… shout out to Munoz

This column tends to concern itself with players’ Premier League statistics and while that principle continues it would be remiss to ignore the efforts of a team not in action in the competition over the weekend as Crystal Palace won the FA Cup for the first time.

Daniel Munoz thought he had scored Palace’s second goal but had to content himself with a hard-earned winners’ medal and the Colombian wing-back is well worthy of it given his contribution to their campaign. Munoz continues to be a statistical outlier.

There are other aspects of his game that have been flagged in this column over the course of the season but how about his distance covered when running at high speed. Genius IQ data tells us that this totals 33,641.77 metres in the Premier League alone.

That is 3,457 metres more – over two miles more – than anyone else.

Sky Sports to show 215 live PL games from next season

From next season, Sky Sports’ Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.

And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games next season are on Sky Sports.