Defender Kurt Zouma is officially head and shoulders one the best as the West Ham star recovers from a dark period in his career.
The disgraced West Ham man was infamously seen kicking and slapping one of his cats in footage which surfaced on social media earlier this year, with the RSPCA subsequently taking his two family pets into care.
The glare the ridiculous incident brought on Zouma and West Ham was hugely unhelpful.
But the player apologised and David Moyes elected to continue to select Zouma for West Ham, calling for forgiveness.
Zouma has paid a heavy price for his moment of madness.
Besides the shame and damage to his reputation, the £29m centre back – who was a starter for France when he signed for West Ham – has been banished by his national team.
He has been harangued by opposition fans and the battering he took in the media rather laughably only abated due to the outbreak of war following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Zouma had renewed focus in the immediate aftermath of the incident in what appeared to be a siege mentality mindset from the West Ham ace.
Kurt Zouma officially head and shoulders one the best as West Ham star recovers from dark period
His form eventually suffered, though, towards the tail end of last season and concerns had been raised heading into the new campaign.
But he has arguably been West Ham’s best and most consistent performer this season. And now the statistics back that up.
In fact Zouma is officially head and shoulders one the best as the West Ham star recovers from his dark period.
TheOther14, which analyses stats and data of the clubs outside the so-called “top six” shows that Zouma is the leader in terms of heading duel success in the Premier League.
But not only is he comfortably the best among “the other 14” clubs, the West Ham’s star astonishing 86.1% success rate is miles ahead of second placed Max Kilman (78%) and James Tarkowski (76.5%) in third.
Zouma’s percentage actually means he is among the very best in the entire top flight with 32 headed duels won and – perhaps even more impressively – just five lost.
The West Ham man also features highly in another key defensive stat.
Zouma is has made the eighth highest number of blocks and clearances per 90 minutes so far this season with 5.75 each game.
It is some return to form for Zouma and in many ways redemption too.
He will forever regret the incident that has besmirched his previous good standing.
But everyone deserves a second chance and the West Ham star is certainly taking it with both hands – and his head!
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