Luke Shaw has been rewarded for a strong start to the season with a new five-year Manchester United contract.
Left-back Shaw has been on the fringes for much of his time at Old Trafford, where he moved from Southampton in 2014, with manager Jose Mourinho singling him out for criticism on a number of occasions.
But impressive form in the 2018-19 campaign has earned the 23-year-old a recall to the England set-up and a new deal at United.
Shaw started only eight Premier League games last term but has already played the full 90 minutes in seven top-flight matches this season for United, who are eighth in the table.
“I’m very proud and very happy as well. It’s been an odd four years for me. There have been ups and downs,” Shaw told United’s website.
That’s the same centre-backs who had the second best defensive record in the league last season.
The United manager has yet to use his most-used pairing of Smalling and Jones together this season, however. They both started in the home defeat against Spurs but that was in a back three and Jones hasn’t been seen since.
Looking at last season’s stats it was the England duo who played the most minutes in the league during the last campaign but even if you work out an average for Bailly, Lindelof, Jones and Bailly in terms of clearances, blocks, tackles and interceptions it is the latter pair that come out on top in every category.