Coutinho, Hazard, Scholes: The Premier League's top 10 No.10s have been ranked

Alan Shearer and Micah Richards have picked the best players to play in the number 10 position from the Premier League era.

Unsurprisingly both men disagreed on pretty much everything as their rankings lists ended up looking very different indeed.

But they did agree that former Chelsea, Liverpool and England man Joe Cole is one of the best they’ve seen in the top flight since 1992.

Shearer opted for Manchester United legend Paul Scholes as his top pick, while Richards went with ex-Arsenal great Dennis Bergkamp.

Both also think highly of Gary Lineker‘s former partner-in-crime Peter Beardsley, with the Premier League’s record scorer making a space for him in the top five number 10s in the competition’s history.

But the pair disagreed with each other over players such as former Chelsea ace Eden Hazard, who Richards placed third and Shearer placed fifth.

And they also couldn’t agree on Hazard’s old comrade Juan Mata, with Shearer placing him as high as seventh compared to Richards’ tenth.

He was followed closely by another former teammate Cole, who was named sixth on both lists despite spending most of his career playing on the wing.

Philippe Coutinho, Bruno Fernandes and Mesut Ozil also made it into the top 10 as Shearer and Richards ranked the Premier League’s best number 10s in football history – with some assistance from Lineker of course.

But there were also some surprise names missing from the list, including West Ham icon Paulo di Canio and Manchester City star Kevin de Bruyne.

Addressing the pair, Lineker told the Match of the Day Top 10 podcast on BBC Sounds: “I think he’s one of three players that could’ve won this, Silva, Bergkamp and Scholes.

“You’ve [Richards] gone Dennis Bergkamp obviously and you’ve