Ranked: The top 50 players going into the new Premier League season

Well, that was fast, and not long after it was over, it is set to begin again. The 2025-26 Premier League season kicks off on Friday when defending champions Liverpool host Bournemouth at Anfield. Then, 37 more matchdays and the 2026 World Cup will be here before you know it.

If you believe in "pacing," "rest," and "self-care" -- or you'd decided to take a break from the never-ending soccer this summer -- you should know that Premier League teams have been active in the transfer window. But lost amid the excitement of the latest mega-transaction and all the new names coming to the leagues was the departure of three all-time great Premier League players.

In my opinion, Kevin De Bruyne is the best midfielder in Premier League history, and he's off to play for Napoli. Also, Trent Alexander-Arnold left Liverpool for Real Madrid as the Premier League's all-time leader in assists among fullbacks. And Son Heung-Min, perhaps the most widely beloved player in league history, joined LAFC after 10 seasons at Tottenham, where he was the only player in the world who might've been a better finisher than Lionel Messi.

Put more simply, KDB, TAA and Son kicked a soccer ball better than just about anyone who has ever lived.

And so, as we gather to rank the best players again in the return of ESPN's Premier League Top 50, three top-25 stalwarts have disappeared from the list. Who replaced them? And who filled out the 47 other spots? Let's get to the list.

But first: our ranking methodology

Ranking soccer players is incredibly hard! Advanced analytics have improved not only at measuring a wide range of metrics, but also at contextualizing them to identify what truly matters.

With most players only possessing the ball for a couple minutes every game, most of what a player does happens without the ball. And while player tracking data is zooming forward and becoming more widely available, it's still quite hard to contextualize what any of that off-ball movement means or what it's actually worth.

When you factor in tactics, player-to-player interactions and shifting strategies as the score changes, objectively valuing performance becomes a challenge -- even the savviest teams have yet to fully solve.

That, though, doesn't mean we shouldn't try. And so, how did we arrive at this list?

First, we had to figure out what we were ranking. A list of the best players in the Premier League compared to the average player at their position would not be very interesting or insightful. It would be primarily Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City, and some Chelsea players. These are the best teams in the league and they pay more for salaries and transfer fees than everyone else (other than Manchester United).

Instead, this list values both playing time and performance. While a guy who played 13 games for Manchester City might be a better player than one who played every minute of every game for Bournemouth, the latter has a chance to provide more value.

To do that, I've leaned on Michael Imburgio's DAVIES model, which aims to value everything a player does with the ball. The model also adjusts for age and for position, which means looking at last year's numbers helps project forward to this season. At the very least, it's a solid starting point.

However, even with the positional adjustments, the players who create danger around the goal are the ones who provide the most value, so this list is definitely skewed toward those players. The transfer market and the salaries teams pay players tend to support this idea, too.

Lastly, this is a conservative list, leaning heavily on what we saw last season and then a little bit on the few seasons before that. If someone was injured last year, they're placed lower than if you could somehow guarantee a return to form and health this season.

On top of that, we're mostly waiting to see how the new arrivals to the league will perform. Until we see, say, Viktor Gyökeres and Hugo Ekitike translate their performances from lower leagues to the Premier League, we're leaving them off. But if it's clear they're both taking to the league just fine, they could each be in the top 25 should we do this again in two months.

As with any good list, I took all of that information and then ordered the names in a way that I thought looked right. Here's the top 50 we've ended up with:

50. Eberechi Eze, attacking midfielder, Crystal Palace

T-49. Antonee Robinson, fullback, Fulham

T-49. Milos Kerkez, fullback, Liverpool

Robinson played at least 3,000 minutes in each of the previous three seasons. And in 2024-25, only three players registered more assists, only two players made more tackles+interceptions, only two players reached a higher maximum speed (per Gradient data) and only three players sprinted (reached a speed of 25 kilometers per hour or more) more often.

He's an elite athlete who doesn't get hurt and who actually does valuable things on the soccer field. If he was five years younger, he would've had the same market interest this summer as Liverpool's new left back, Milos Kerkez.

47. Ismaïla Sarr, winger, Crystal Palace

46. Kai Havertz, forward, Arsenal

Havertz is both (A) lower than I'd normally have him, and (B) higher than Gyokeres, the player who was theoretically signed to replace him. But he led Arsenal in goals last season despite missing nearly half of it.

Two years into his Gunners career, he's averaging over 0.6 non-penalty goals+assists per 90 minutes, while doing all of the other little things, like making off-ball runs, creating space for his teammates, linking play, pressing and winning headers. It wouldn't shock me if Gyokeres scores more goals, but Arsenal wins more games with Havertz in the lineup.

45. Nathan Collins, center back, Brentford

44. Murillo, center back, Nottingham Forest

While I wouldn't feel good about Murillo joining a possession-heavy team, he's a big part of the reason why Nottingham Forest's system worked well enough to get them into the Europa League.

He's blocking shots and clearing loose balls left and right, and he's a good enough dribbler and passer to help spark the handful of dangerous counter-attacks Forest need each game just to stay afloat.

43. David Raya, goalkeeper, Arsenal

42. Martín Zubimendi, midfielder, Arsenal

If you're peak age and both Liverpool and Arsenal try to sign you in consecutive summers, then you automatically get bumped into the list. Playing for a much more possession-heavy team, will Zubimendi be able to influence the attack more consistently than he did at Real Sociedad? If he can -- and does -- he could move up the list.

41. Marc Guéhi, center back, Crystal Palace

40. Rúben Dias, center back, Manchester City

39. Savinho, winger, Manchester City

38. Dango Ouattara, winger, Bournemouth

We're taking Ouattara and Savinho together because they fit the same mold: young guys who played limited minutes but created a ton of danger while they were on the field.

Despite not even playing 2,000 minutes, Savinho finished second among all Premier League players in expected possession value created from open play:

Ouattara, meanwhile, barely reached the 2,000-minute mark, but he played all across Bournemouth's front line, finished the season in the top 15 for non-penalty expected goals+assists, functioned as a fantastic outlet and put in a ton of defensive work. Given that his expected numbers were higher than his actual output, a savvy, richer team (if one exists) should see if Bournemouth would be willing to let him go.

37. Alex Iwobi, midfielder, Fulham

36. Jordan Pickford, goalkeeper, Everton

Shot-stopping performance can be pretty volatile from season to season for goalkeepers, but if we look at goals we'd expect a keeper to concede (per Stats Perform's post-shot xG model) and compare them to the goals he actually conceded, only two keepers have saved more than 10 goals above average.

Leading the list is the highest-ranked goalkeeper on this list (read on to see who it is). Second: Pickford, who has conceded 12.2 goals fewer than expected since the start of the 2022-23 season.

35. Ollie Watkins, striker, Aston Villa

34. Yoane Wissa, forward, Brentford

33. Jarrod Bowen, winger, West Ham

32. Matheus Cunha, forward, Manchester United

31. Kaoru Mitoma, winger, Brighton

30. Bryan Mbeumo, winger, Manchester United

Watkins, Wissa, Bowen, Cunha and Mbeumo all occupy a similar level of the Premier League hierarchy: above-average Premier League attackers who play a ton of valuable minutes for teams outside of the league's top tier, but who also might not be good enough to start for a team in that top tier.

These players all take on huge responsibilities in possession, but Mbeumo is the only one who shines off the ball, too. Only Crystal Palace's Daniel Muñoz made more sprints or high-speed runs (between 20 and 25 kilometers per hour) than Mbeumo did last year.

29. Noni Madueke, winger, Arsenal

28. Nicolas Jackson, striker, Chelsea

Among players with at least 5,000 minutes played over the past two seasons, here's who put up a better expected goals+assists rate per 90 minutes than Jackson:

• Mohamed Salah
• Erling Haaland
• Alexander Isak

So, the guy who is tied with Thierry Henry for winning Footballer of the Year the most times, the guy who holds the record for the most goals scored in a Premier League season and the guy who might change teams for €120 million this summer.

Chelsea are clearly trying to get rid of Jackson, and his replacement, João Pedro, looked quite good at the Club World Cup. But João Pedro hasn't come close to Jackson's performance level in the Premier League yet, and Chelsea's personnel decisions don't carry as much weight for me as some other clubs. My guess is that whoever gets Jackson is going to end up being quite happy.

27. Omar Marmoush, forward, Manchester City

We didn't see a ton of creativity from Marmoush in his first half-season in the Premier League, but he stepped into a pretty dysfunctional, ever-changing team and produced from the jump.

His goal-scoring and shot production remained the same going from the Bundesliga to the Premier League. With Man City theoretically a little more settled and with a full offseason to figure out whatever it is that manager Pep Guardiola wants him to do, it wouldn't shock me if he's even more productive this season.

26. Dominik Szoboszlai, midfielder, Liverpool

25. Morgan Rogers, attacking midfielder, Aston Villa

Rogers would seem to be a classic stats-vs-scouts guy: a big, flashy player who just doesn't actually do the things that really matter. Sure, he had eight goals and 10 assists last season, but his expected goals+assists rate ranked just 51st among all players who featured in at least one third of their team's minutes.

Except, Rogers is doing a bunch of the things that shot-based stats don't pick up. Per Gradient, 16.7% of his passes were played into what they call "dangerous areas" -- behind only Salah and Bukayo Saka among players who played a high volume of passes.

He was also second behind Salah in both passes that led to a half-chance and/or a clear chance:

Not only that, Rogers received 310 line-breaking passes, 40 more than any other player in the league. If he also finds a way to start taking more shots, then he's going to be a superstar.

24. Enzo Fernández, midfielder, Chelsea

23. Ryan Gravenberch, midfielder, Liverpool

Some fun stats, from Gradient, that allow us to quantify Gravenberch's impact: He broke a defensive line with a ball carry 40 times last season -- tied for first in the league. He received 131 passes while opening his body to goal -- fourth in the league. And he received 221 passes that broke the opposition attacking line -- 50 more than any other player in the league.

Beyond Salah going supernova, Gravenberch was one of the biggest reasons Liverpool improved last season under new manager Arne Slot. His ability to find space and turn through pressure allowed the team to be way more patient in possession, which made the defense better.

But his ability to break forward at speed meant that they frequently took these settled possessions and still managed to turn them into the high-speed transitional attacks that made the team so dangerous under previous manager Jurgen Klopp.

22. Alisson Becker, goalkeeper, Liverpool

21. Martin Ødegaard, attacking midfielder, Arsenal

When he was healthy last season, Ødegaard still wasn't as dangerous in front of goal as he was in either of the past two seasons:

• 2022-23: 0.52 non-penalty expected goals+assists per 90 minutes
• 2023-24: 0.45
• 2024-25: 0.37

I think a good chunk of that can be attributed to his injury and the injury to Bukayo Saka. Now, I do think last year helped me figure out who was more important to Arsenal: Saka or Ødegaard?

But even as the goal threat died down, the Arsenal captain still did all of the vital stuff in buildup play that he always does. If he's healthy this year, along with Saka, those goals and assist numbers should rise back up.

20. Youri Tielemans, midfielder, Aston Villa

19. Jan Paul van Hecke, center back, Brighton

Taking Tielemans and Van Hecke together, we have arguably the two best passers in the Premier League. Neither one is much of a defender, but they're both so good on the ball that their liabilities on the other end would only matter to a handful of teams in the world.

To put some numbers on it, only two players in the Premier League completed more than 275 line-breaking passes, and only two players in the Premier League completed more than 25 passes that broke multiple lines.

Tielemans led the league with 319 of the former and finished second with 30 of the latter, while Van Hecke broke lines 308 times and broke multiple lines a league-leading 31 times.

18. Ibrahima Konaté, center back, Liverpool

17. Antoine Semenyo, winger, Bournemouth

16. Alexis Mac Allister, midfielder, Liverpool

15. Florian Wirtz, attacking midfielder, Liverpool

I know I said this was a conservative list, but I think this is a conservative ranking for a player who could simply be the best player in the league next season. Since the 2017-18 season across the Big Five leagues, there are three players who have beat an opponent off the dribble at least three times and completed at least six progressive passes in more than one season.

Lionel Messi did it five times. Eden Hazard did it twice -- and so has Florian Wirtz. Messi was 30 or older in all of those seasons, while Hazard was in his prime: ages 26 and 27. Wirtz doesn't turn 23 until the end of the upcoming season.

14. Rodri, defensive midfielder, Manchester City

I'm also considering this a conservative ranking. Rodri was number 1 on this list -- and my pick for Ballon d'Or -- before he tore his ACL last October. If he's healthy, he's automatically back in the top five. But he's 29 -- just beginning to creep beyond his peak years -- and again, he tore his ACL 10 months ago.

13. Gabriel Magalhães, center back, Arsenal

12. Moisés Caicedo, defensive midfielder, Chelsea

11. Josko Gvardiol, center back, Manchester City

10. William Saliba, center back, Arsenal

He's still a fantastic player and could easily end this season as the consensus best center back in the world. But I tend to view center back play in the same way I look at offensive-line performance in the NFL. If you're the best offensive lineman in the league for 90% of the game, but then you get called for holding penalties the other 10% of the time, you're canceling out so much of your value because the downside of a penalty (ending a drive) is so big.

Same goes for errors at center back, and Saliba made a bunch of high-profile mistakes last season.

9. Bruno Fernandes, attacking midfielder, Manchester United

Last season, per Gradient, no one in the Premier League pressured an opposing player more often than Fernandes. And last season, no one in the Premier League completed more passes that switched the field or went over the top of the opposing defense.

He also led Manchester United in expected goals, expected assists, actual goals, actual assists, shots, chances created and ball recoveries. He was second in combined tackles+interceptions.

If he wasn't with Manchester United last season, they might've actually gotten relegated.

8. Bruno Guimarães, midfielder, Newcastle United

Arguably the most valuable pass in soccer is the one that gets completed beyond the defensive line. Sure, it might not directly lead to a goal, but these are the plays that create the situations in which a goal can be scored. Maybe it puts an attacker in on goal, but if not, it causes a cascading effect where a defense now has to react to a player in possession behind them, rather than in front of them.

The best defenses are able to scramble back, slow down the guy on the ball, prevent any square passes toward the goal and then also cover all of the attackers who are running back into the space they just scrambled out of.

No defense can do this right every time, while most defenses screw it up most of the time. And well, per Gradient, Bruno Guimaraes completed a pass that broke the defensive line 104 times last season. No one else in the Premier League completed more than 77.

7. Declan Rice, midfielder, Arsenal

Can I interest you in a midfielder who is going to give you somewhere between 10 and 15 goals+assists every season, carry and pass the ball upfield at an elite rate, take set pieces for the best set-piece team in the Premier League, score two free kicks in a Champions League matchup against Real Madrid, play anywhere in a midfield three, rarely be out of position defensively, run faster than 90 percent of the other players at his position, win lots of headers and be right in the middle of the best years of his career?

No? Then you definitely don't want Declan Rice.

6. Virgil van Dijk, center back, Liverpool

Let's have some fun with defensive statistics. These are Virgil van Dijk's tackle+interception numbers in each of his six full seasons with Liverpool:

• 2018-19: 2.07 per 90
• 2019-20: 1.66
• 2021-22: 1.38
• 2022-23: 1.84
• 2023-24: 2.24
• 2024-25: 2.54

What can you take from that? Not much!

Last season wasn't the best of VVD's career just because he made a lot of tackles and interceptions. If anything, I'd say those numbers indicate that he's starting to slow down. He's not able to cut off attacks before they start as often as he has in the past, so now he's forced to make more plays on the ball. But in addition to the tweaks made by Slot, Liverpool's defense was so great last season because Van Dijk and Konate made so many plays.

It's fascinating to see how great players age, and at 34, Van Dijk now has to defend differently in order to remain a great defender. At the same time, I think he has become an even more valuable passer than he used to be. In each of the past two seasons he completed more than 91% of his passes -- something he'd never done before. Now, that number would be meaningless on its own, but it's coupled with an increase to career-high levels of progressive passes: 200 in 2023-24 and 198 last season.

5. Alexander Isak, striker, Newcastle United

Since 2022, when Isak joined Newcastle from Real Sociedad, only three players have played at least 6,500 minutes and averaged at least 0.7 non-penalty expected goals+assists per 90 minutes. Those players:

• Haaland: 0.9
• Salah: 0.8
• Isak: 0.7

Haaland and Salah are two of the greatest attackers the league has ever seen, and Isak has been right there with them since he came to England.

Given that he plays for a worse team with significantly less attacking talent around him, you can easily make the case that his underlying performance -- finding space for his own chances, creating chances for his teammates -- has been just as good as Salah's or Haaland's.

The only catch: He's barely broken the 6,500-minute barrier, while Salah's played over 9,000 minutes and Haaland's north of 8,000. Since joining Newcastle, Isak has played under two-thirds of the available league minutes. If he can play more than that, like the 81% of minutes he featured in last season, then he's a genuine superstar. If not, then he's going to drop down a bunch of spots on this list.

4. Bukayo Saka, winger, Arsenal

This is probably my favorite stat from last season: Bukayo Saka started 20 games out of Arsenal's 38-game season, and only three players in the Premier League finished the year with more assists.

That's not some fluky nonsense, either. The site FBref tracks expected assists, or the likelihood that every pass a player makes would lead to a goal if the receiver decided to attempt a shot. Mbeumo led the league with 9.3 xA, Salah and Cole Palmer were tied in second with 9.1, Bruno Fernandes was fourth with 8.0 and, yes, Saka was fifth on 7.8.

Saka was making a leap last season -- his first year with an expected goals+assists rate north of 0.7 -- and here's to hoping he's able to pick up where he left off before he hurt his hamstring in December.

3. Erling Haaland, striker, Manchester City

It was an "off" year, and he ended the season with 19 non-penalty goals and three assists. Even with Salah's monster season in 2024-25, Haaland still has 18 more non-penalty goals since he joined the league in 2022-23.

Now, his limitations in buildup play and his inability to do much more than make runs into the box mean that he's not going to lead this list unless he leads the league in goal-scoring by a significant margin. But would you bet against him doing that again this season?

2. Cole Palmer, attacking midfielder, Chelsea

The only player who attempted more shots than Palmer this past season was Antoine Semenyo. The only players who created more chances were Salah and Bruno Fernandes. Only nine players completed more progressive passes. And only 14 made more progressive carries.

In the broadest sense, attackers are supposed to do three things: take shots, create shots and move the ball up the field. If you want to throw in one more requirement: Put pressure on the ball. And per Gradient, only 12 players made more pressures than Palmer did.

He was the only player in the league who was among the best at all of the things we expect attackers to do. Even though he didn't score or assist as much this past season as he did the year before, the 2024-25 season was Palmer's true breakout campaign as a do-everything superstar. He only scored one league goal after Jan. 14, but that came from shots worth nearly 5.0 xG. You've seen this guy kick a ball; he's not a below-average finisher.

Even with that fluky cold streak, he ended the season with 11 non-penalty goals and nine assists. He's going to be a Player of the Year candidate for the next half-decade-plus.

1. Mohamed Salah, winger, Liverpool

Who else? He led the league in goals, assists, passes into the penalty area and touches inside of the penalty area. That, my friends, is the whole ball game.