Darren Fletcher is a really, really good football player. He is competitive, runs hard and is above average in possession of the ball. And he has so far this season made an extraordinary jump in his level of play.

Alan Hansen recently referred to the midfielder as "the unsung hero of Manchester United" and "the player that sums up the difference between [Man Utd] and [Arsenal]". David McDonnell of The Daily Mirror referred to him as "arguably Sir Alex Ferguson's most influential midfielder" and "the closest thing to Keane that Utd fans have seen."

To paint a more tangible picture, Fletcher averages 60 passes per game, 15 above average for his position, passes at an 85% success rate, again well above average for his position and so far this season is putting up "a good day's Javier Mascherano" like defensive numbers alongside those passing stats. We have not played much this season but Fletcher has increased his tackles per game from 3.4 last term to 8 this term. 8 tackles per game is better than what Javier Mascherano and Jon Obi-Mikel are managing in their games, and they play more singularly defined defensive roles than the Man Utd midfielder. Fletcher is running box to box, stopping opponents (literally) and contributing a little to attack (It should be noted that Fletcher is on pace to give away 140 free kicks this season, maybe a new EPL record. He has been a persistent fouler. Make your own decision on whether this is good). He is everywhere on the pitch. In short, he has been an almost dream midfielder.

I have in the past lauded Fletcher as an underrated EPL player. That was two seasons ago when he was a bit-part player and I believed that he would be the best midfielder on many an EPL club. Two seasons ago Fletcher averaged 52 passes per game and 5 tackles per game. Last season he played more and averaged 59 passes per game and 3.4 tackles per game, excellent numbers, but you can see that the step Fletcher has made so far this season has been defensive.

Two years on and Fletcher has articles in the major English newspapers calling him the difference between two of the best clubs in the world, a phrase worthy only for world class players. I'm not yet going to jump on the bandwagon. Three games does not make "above average" Darren Fletcher "world class" Darren Fletcher. Three games won't make my decision for me. Fletcher must keep up his form, which requires extraordinary fitness, to make his mark on the football world.

EPL watchers should keep an eye on Fletcher to see if he can keep up his level of play. I would be surprised if his current level is retained for the duration of the season, but the retention would be good to see.

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edit: another take on this which I forgot to mention but deserves mentioning is that Man Utd are not as good this season. They've lost width in the form of the World Player of the Year which is putting more pressure on their central midfielders both offensively and defensively: offensively to be better at retaining possession through the middle of the pitch and defensively to tackle opponents who will undoubtedly see more of the ball in the Man Utd half than in previous seasons.