Why Arjen Robben Ranks Among the World's Top 3 Footballers on Current Form

Arjen Robben scored a goal and assisted two more on Friday night as Bayern Munich comfortably beat Koln 4-1.

It was just the latest man-of-the-match performance for the Dutchman, who's been a thorn in the side of all his club's Bundesliga opponents all season long. At present, he has to be considered one of the top three players in the world.

Robben's story is an improbable one—the 31-year-old being in the midst of what may well be remembered as the best season of his career individually. Mentally broken after missing two vital penalties as Bayern finished runners-up in three competitions in the spring of 2012, he suffered another setback at Euro 2012 as his Netherlands side were humiliated with three group-stage defeats.

Robben was injured for most of the fall campaign thereafter and relegated to a substitute's role in many of the club's biggest games (especially in the Champions League), as Franck Ribery, Toni Kroos and Thomas Muller formed Jupp Heynckes' preferred first-choice attacking midfield trio.

When many would have given up, Robben put his best foot forward and redeemed himself and more. After a season-ending groin injury to Kroos at the beginning of April 2013, he turned it all around. The winger started all the big games for the remainder of the season and was instrumental in his club claiming the Champions League title, scoring in both semifinals and assisting the opener and netting the winner in the final.

Since then, Robben has seemingly been on another planet. Last season's tally of 21 goals was just two below his career high, and his 17 assists were four more than his previous best. And now with 11 Bundesliga matches and as many as 10 more Champions League and DFB-Pokal fixtures yet to be played, he has a chance to shatter his personal records: He's in red-hot form and already on 17 league strikes (a career best) and 19 overall, with nine assists.

Although hugely talented, the veteran Robben's success can largely be attributed to his attitude. In a recent interview with Donald McRae of the Guardian, he revealed that his continued fitness is due to his tireless effort in training and extra sessions in the gym.

That and his own self-criticism—McRae quotes him as saying, "These days you have guys who are 19 or 20 and they've played their first game and they feel they’ve made it. It's not true. There's always so much to improve, no matter your age"—explains why he's reached his peak so late in his career.

Robben's statistics may be fantastic, but numbers are hollow without analysis, and it would be an injustice to him and his phenomenal form not to point out his significance to the Bayern team at present.

Ever since 2007, Franck Ribery has with rare exception been the heartbeat of the Bavarians' attack. Other players may have stepped up for a few games on occasion, but he's always been the man to shoulder the burden of creating goals, with Robben playing a huge, but mostly supportive, role.

The former's nature as a playmaking type (as opposed to the latter being more of a scorer) has facilitated the creation of these roles, but they've largely stood consistently. Or, at least they had until the 2014-15 campaign began.

This season, things have been entirely different. Ribery has played more than half of a match on just 14 occasions this season, and although effective off the bench and even in a starting role, he hasn't been the star man. Bayern needed someone else to step up and bear the creative responsibility. And although Mario Gotze took on that part for a few weeks early in the campaign, Robben has been the consistent one throughout.

He was man-of-the-match in the opener against Wolfsburg and scored the winner against Dortmund in Round 10. He's only failed to score or assist in five out of his 19 starts, and WhoScored.com ranks him behind only Lionel Messi on aggregate player ratings among all European leagues, while German magazine Kicker rates him as by far the Bundesliga's best player.

But in recent weeks, he's taken his game to the next level. Robben has scored in eight of the last nine Bundesliga matches and has seven goals and five assists in his last five league games.

Looking around Europe, it's hard to find a player as influential as Robben, or one in such phenomenal form. Harry Kane and Antoine Griezmann are honorable mentions, but in spite of being in generally good form, they are a touch below where they were a few weeks ago.

Bas Dost tallied nine goals in February to Robben's seven (plus a brace on Sunday) but not a single assist and arguably had more help from Kevin de Bruyne (who, in turn, had plenty of help from Dost in recording three goals and two assists during the same period, plus a treble of assists last weekend) than Robben had from his teammates.

Cristiano Ronaldo (two goals, two assists) had a relatively quiet (by his standards), suspension-reduced February before scoring a penalty over the weekend in an otherwise muted performance. Among the usual suspects for the "world's best" title, only Lionel Messi (seven goals, five assists) and Luis Suarez (five goals, three assists) can compete with Robben's form over the last month, at least statistically.

As great as his season has been up to this point, Robben will be the first to admit that his performance thus far means little without some finality. He showed up in spectacular fashion for Bayern in the telling games in the spring of 2013, and that was without doubt the greatest achievement of his career to date: It made the difference between the failure of 2012 and the treble of the following campaign.

More goals and assists may not be decisive in Bayern's Bundesliga title run (their lead over Wolfsburg is almost insurmountable at this point), but they will maintain Robben's form and bolster his confidence as the campaign enters its telling phase.

For now, he's absolutely one of the top three footballers in the world. And as Bayern aim for a second treble in three years, it's hard to see anyone stopping him.

@Mr_Bundesliga