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The Premier League is the richest football league in the world, and is widely regarded as the most competitive one too.
Over the years, many top players have graced the Premier League, bolstering its aura and global appeal. In the process, they have helped their teams carve a niche for themselves in the competition.
Not every player hits the ground running, but some came with an immediate impact, instantly transforming the club's fortunes. On that note, here's a look at the five players with the longest unbeaten run in home games in the Premier League for a single club:
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#5 Jaap Stam - 40
Jaap Stam is one of the best defenders to have graced the English top flight. Although the 49-year-old spent only four seasons in the competition with Manchester United, he won three titles in as many years.
Stam, who scored just once in 79 league games for United, was on the winning side 52 times, losing on just five occasions.
The Dutchman, who arrived at Old Trafford from PSV Eindhoven in the summer of 1998, was a key player in United's historic 1998-99 continental treble-winning campaign.
#4 Alex - 41
Alex had a successful five-season stint with Chelsea in the late 2000s and early 2010s.
In 86 games in the English top flight, the 39-year-old scored seven times and provided two assists. In his debut campaign in the competition in 2007-08 after arriving from PSV Eindhoven, Alex bagged two goals and as many assists. He scored once in 16 games in the Blues' triumphant 2019-10 campaign.
Alex lost ten league games but won 55 times, helping Chelsea keep a clean sheet on 38 occasions.
#3 Shaun Wright-Phillips - 42
Shaun Wright-Phillips has had a fairly successful career in the Premier League. The former midfielder played over 300 games in the competition for three different clubs.
Wright-Phillips bagged 32 goals and 35 goals across 14 seasons in the English top flight, with most of these goal contributions across two stints for Manchester City. The 40-year-old's only Premier League triumph, though, came with Chelsea in 2005-06, with Wright-Phillips contributing three assists in 27 games.
His last league game came with Queens Park Rangers in 2013-14, with the player not making a goal contribution in four games that season.
#2 Lee Sharpe - 59
Lee Sharpe is a three-time Premier League winner, winning three of the competition's first four editions in the early 1990s with Manchester United.
The left midfielder bagged 22 goals and 25 assists in 175 games in the competition. Most of these goals (17) came with United. Sharpe contributed 14 goals and 16 assists in his three triumphant Premier League campaigns with the Old Trafford outfit.
After leaving Manchester United in the summer of 1996, Sharpe made 60 Premier League appearances for Leeds United and Bradford City. All five of his goals during this period came while he was at Leeds.
#1 Virgil Van Dijk - 60
Virgil Van Dijk has been a colossal signing for Liverpool. Eyebrows were raised when the Reds splashed €84.65 million in January 2018 to land the former Southampton centre-back.
However, the Dutchman silenced his naysayers with a series of superlative performances, becoming a mainstay at the heart of the Liverpool defense. In the process, he has become one of the best active centre-backs in the game.
Van Dijk played a key role in the Reds reaching successive UEFA Champions League finals (2017-18, 2018-19), winning in 2019. He also made an impact in the Premier League.
Liverpool finished second in a titanic 2018-19 title race, falling short to Manchester City by a solitary point. The Reds amassed 97 points, with Van Dijk playing all 38 games, contributing four goals and two assists. Jurgen Klopp's men won 17 of their 19 home games, drawing the other two.
The Reds fared even better next season, dropping only two points at home, as they won their first league title in three decades and first in the Premier League era. Van Dijk once again played all 38 games, scoring five times and assisting once.
With the Dutchman suffering a season-ending injury last year, the Reds lost six league games at home as the defending champions finished a distant third in the league. Van Dijk, back to full fitness this season, has powered the Reds to within six points of league leaders Manchester City, with the Dutchman contributing three goals and an assist so far this campaign.
In the process, the 30-year-old created a new record for the longest unbeaten run at home in the Premier League era.
The Dutchman has scored three times and provided one assist as the Reds eye an unprecedented continental quadruple.
