Anthony Martial's growing importance this season

Bengaluru, April 28: Anthony Martial was just 19 years old when United made him the most expensive teenager in the world in 2015, splashing out £36m on his signature.

Since then it’s been quite the roller-coaster journey. Having taken his debut Premier League season by storm, he endured two somewhat frustrating seasons under Jose Mourinho. There were even talks of United selling him to recoup the fee.

He has not had a fair start under new boss Solskjaer either, with inconsistency still a big factor. However, despite some deviation in gameplay, still, there aren’t many youngsters like him in the division that possess such huge goal scoring feet.

In a challenging season irked by regular injuries, several players benefited hugely and showed massive improvement under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Marcus Rashford’s long-term absence has added even more pressure on Martial, but the France international has responded with one of the best campaigns of his career to date.

The evaluation is backed by a significant amount of stat. Below we are putting some of his best highlights of this season which would suggest why he has put inconsistency behind him and risen to the challenge as Manchester United's best-attacking threat.

- Martial has scored 16 goals and provided five assists at a rate of a goal or assist every 120.3 minutes in 34 appearances.

- It is his best joint productive season in Premier League despite nine games left to play and missing six games through injury.

-Martial is just one goal short of his best-ever campaign for Manchester United. With still several games to play it is fair to assume it could be his best goalscoring campaign for the Red Devils.

- Manchester United have not lost any of the 10 Premier League games this season in which Martial has scored.

- United averages 1.6 points per game when Martial starts compared to 1.3 points per game in his absence.

- United also have better goals per game number with Martial on the pitch. United averaged 1.7 goals per game in the Premier League When Martial starts compared to just 0.7 goals per game when he misses out.

- Martial has eight goals against PL top six since 2018-19 in just 10 starts.

- He has scored goals in three consecutive Manchester derbies, first player since Eric Cantona. He has also scored in both Premier League Manchester derbies this term since Cristiano Ronaldo in 2006-07.

All such stats clearly suggest that the 23-year-old looks to be relishing his game more than ever and has accumulated some seriously impressive highlights over the last couple of months. Considering the season starts up again this could be his best season in English football. Hopefully, the player will improve further from now on growing as the typical number 9 Manchester United constantly envisioned.