Ranked: The top 50 players of the Premier League season so far

When I ranked the top 50 players before the Premier League season started, the landscape of the league seemed relatively settled. Liverpool and Arsenal would battle it out for the title; Manchester City might do the same if Rodri came back healthy; Chelsea seemed adrift from that top trio, and also everybody else as the surefire fourth-best team in the league.

Those teams were the clear four best teams because they had the clear four-best rosters. So, how do we explain where we find ourselves today?

Nine games into the season, Arsenal are in first, yes, but then they are followed by ... Bournemouth, Tottenham, and Sunderland? Did you read that right? Bournemouth, Spurs, and Sunderland really round out the top four? And then Man City are down in fifth, Liverpool in seventh, and Chelsea -- the Club World Cup champions! -- are sitting in ninth? And they haven't even played Man City or Arsenal yet?

It has been a season of displacement thus far, but it's too early to say whether it has also been a season of realignment. Almost everyone on Arsenal's squad is playing at a high level, and so is City striker Erling Haaland, but after that? It becomes less clear. How do you rank anyone on Liverpool or, for opposite reasons, Bournemouth? Would you rather have, say, Antoine Semenyo or Florian Wirtz?

To get the answers, keep reading. Welcome to the latest edition of ESPN's Premier League Top 50.

A quick reminder of what these rankings are

The rankings are a combination of who I think the best players are (i.e. the ones who would contribute the most to winning if they were to play every minute of every game) and the players who are providing the most value (i.e. the players who are actually playing minutes and helping their teams win). This way we don't have a list comprising only players from a couple of clubs.

In making this latest edition, I tried to find a balance between where I thought things were at the start of the season and what we've seen over the first nine weeks. I have a hard time believing that Liverpool's players, for example, have suddenly all become ineffective scrubs, so you're going to see a lot of players who haven't played well yet this season still on the list. Except, they're almost all significantly lower than they were at the start of the season. The opposite, then, is true of Arsenal: don't want to overreact too much to their great start, but almost everyone is getting a bump up.

That's generally my thinking: make adjustments based on the first nine games but also don't completely overhaul your opinion of a player based on the first nine games.

As always, this is biased toward players who do things that are quantifiable -- there is a lot that happens on the field that we still can't count, but I'm more likely to be wrong by chasing after them too aggressively -- but it's also not a purely data-based list.

And lastly, anyone who is currently injured for a significant amount of time is not eligible for the current edition of the list. OK, now: to the list!

- Why we already know Arsenal will win the league
- Who's your pick: Mappe or Lamal?
- Are set pieces ruining the Premier League?

50. Reece James, full back, Chelsea

49. Tyler Adams, midfielder, Bournemouth

Adams has played 97% of the minutes for the second-placed team in the Premier League. And I don't think those two ideas are unrelated to each other.

Though Bournemouth are likely to cool off at some point, they're still fielding a very competitive side despite losing 75% of their defense and arguably their best attacker over the summer. Adams is one of the few constants from last season, and although the Cherries utilize their midfielders in buildup the same way a 12-year-old is utilized as an outfielder during the Home Run Derby, the American's elite anticipation and ball-winning skills allow them to play such a chaotic and direct style so effectively.

48. Matheus Cunha, forward, Manchester United

47. Marcos Senesi, center back, Bournemouth

46. Sandro Tonali, midfielder, Newcastle

45. Morgan Rogers, attacking midfielder, Aston Villa

44. Michael Kayode, fullback, Brentford

Kayode's long throw-ins might ... be the single-most-dangerous attacking weapon in the Premier League. Per Stats Perform's expected possession value (xPV) model, which puts a goal-probability value on everything a player does on the ball, he's lapping the field when the ball is in his hands.

Former Stoke City player Rory Delap, the original proponent of the long throw, would be proud.

43. Daniel Muñoz, full back, Crystal Palace

42. Iliman Ndiaye, winger, Everton

41. Estêvão, winger, Chelsea

40. Micky van de Ven, center back, Tottenham

39. Yankuba Minteh, winger, Brighton

38. Jack Grealish, winger, Everton

If you want to understand just how weird this season has been so far, take a look at this chart:

Perhaps the weirdest bit among all the above weirdness: Everton have three players in the top 10. And then Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall is 11th. No other team have more than one player in the top 11.

I'm not sure if we've ever been able to say this about a David Moyes-coached side, but it currently is true: Everton are not a good team, but they are a fun team.

37. Eberechi Eze, attacking midfielder, Arsenal

36. Jordan Pickford, goalkeeper, Everton

35. David Raya, goalkeeper, Arsenal

34. Alexis Mac Allister, midfielder, Liverpool

33. Guglielmo Vicario, goalkeeper, Tottenham

Vicario has give up at least two goals fewer than expected, as measured by Stats Perform's post-shot xG model, in each of his first two seasons in the Premier League. And he's already at 3.09 so far this season. As long as he's healthy, he's the best shot-stopper in the league at this point.

He also does it the way most great goalkeepers do: with fantastic positioning rather than highlight-reel reaction saves. Per Gradient Sports data, he has made zero positional mistakes when facing a shot so far this season.

32. Rúben Dias, center back, Manchester City

31. Adam Wharton, midfielder, Crystal Palace

30. Jérémy Doku, winger, Manchester City

Across Doku's first two seasons in the Premier League, I was convinced that he was making Manchester City worse. He'd rack up truly absurd dribbling numbers, but he never turned it into shots for himself or his teammates. And more than that, his dribbles took forever. Sure, he might beat his defender eventually, but what good is that when the opposition defense has 20 seconds to recover and none of your teammates have any idea how to react to your movements?

Well, it seems as if Happy Gilmore might've learned how to putt. Through nine matches, Doku has an 88.2 passing grade from Gradient -- that's on a scale of 100, and it ranks as tied for the eight-best mark in the Premier League. Despite touching the ball 10 times less often per 90 minutes than he did last season, he's creating significantly more chances and generating way more expected assists.

29. Cody Gakpo, forward, Liverpool

28. Ismaïla Sarr, forward, Crystal Palace

27. Dango Ouattara, forward, Brentford

26. Jan Paul van Hecke, center back, Brighton

25. Jean-Philippe Mateta, forward, Crystal Palace

Take a look at Mateta's shot map, sized by the xG value of each attempt, from the match against Bournemouth:

He took 10 non-penalty shots from worth 2.88 xG. Since 2008, the only player to generate more was Arsenal's Alexandre Lacazette, who managed 2.97 non-penalty xG against Manchester United in December 2012.

24. Bryan Mbeumo, forward, Manchester United

23. Marc Guéhi, center back, Crystal Palace

Five players from the team that are in 10th place? They have the third-best xG differential in the league, behind Arsenal and City, and they'd be favored on a neutral field against any of the non-Arsenal teams in the current top four.

22. Jurriën Timber, full back, Arsenal

This might be too low? This probably is too low? Whatever. I can't say enough about how well Timber has played this season. Last season, he was a great defensive full back who really didn't add much value in possession. This season, he's a great defensive full back who is adding more value in possession than any other in the league.

Among full backs, only Newcastle's Kieran Trippier has completed more progressive passes. Timber's 14 passes into the penalty area lead the way at his position. He has generated the third-most non-penalty xG of any player on Arsenal. And he's tied for the league lead with Newcastle midfielder Bruno Guimarães in through balls completed (8).

It has been really fun to watch him develop. If he keeps it up, he'll be even higher next time we do this rank.

21. Elliot Anderson, midfielder, Nottingham Forest

There are two players across Europe's Big Five leagues this season who have completed more than 70 progressive passes and made more than 30 tackles+interceptions. One of them is AC Milan's Luka Modric, who has won a Ballon d'Or. And the other one is Anderson, who plays for the team that are 18th in the Premier League.

The 22-year-old has officially made the leap. He has already completed more than half as many progressive passes as he did all of last season. Whether or not Forest manage to avoid relegation, Anderson isn't long for the City Ground.

20. Enzo Fernández, midfielder, Chelsea

19. Ibrahima Konaté, center back, Liverpool

18. Florian Wirtz, attacking midfielder, Liverpool

17. Martín Zubimendi, midfielder, Arsenal

16. Antoine Semenyo, winger, Bournemouth

15. Ryan Gravenberch, midfielder, Liverpool

14. Rodri, midfielder, Manchester City

13. Alexander Isak, forward, Liverpool

12. Mohamed Salah, winger, Liverpool

Ranking Salah and the two players before him was the hardest part of this exercise. Salah was the obvious No. 1 choice before the season started because he was, obviously, the best player in the Premier League last season. Rodri, meanwhile, was No. 1 before the start of last season, and Isak was No. 5 before this season began.

But Salah is having the worst season of his career, Rodri can't stay healthy for Man City and Isak has both been unhealthy and ineffective in the limited minutes with his new team Liverpool. If we were just ranking players based on their performances this season, then I don't think any of them make the top 50. But we also have recent track records of elite performance for all of them.

So, when predicting their future performance, I've tried to blend what we've seen so far this season with what we've seen in past seasons. And given how much these two teams have invested in these three players, I'm not sure any of them would be happy with Salah, Isak, or Rodri playing at a fringe-top-10 level for the rest of the season.

11. Josko Gvardiol, center back, Manchester City

10. Bruno Fernandes, midfielder, Manchester United

Fernandes continues to be one of the two or three best passers in the Premier League, year after year, but this might be his best one yet. Per Gradient, he's the highest-graded passer in the Premier League this season (96.1 out of 100). He's second in the league after Anderson for progressive passes, and he's completing his passes at a higher clip than ever before.

Oh, and he has attempted more shots than all but one other Man United player, and he has made more tackles+interceptions than all but three of his teammates. He has almost single-handedly kept his club afloat over the past five years.

9. Virgil van Dijk, center back, Liverpool

Like almost all Liverpool players, he hasn't warranted this ranking with his play so far this season, but he was the best center back in the league last season, so we're averaging out the two.

My biggest critique of Van Dijk's play this season has been his positioning when the ball goes wide. Last season, he and Ibrahima Konaté broke up so many opposition attacks by reading an early cross and beating an opposition forward to the spot in the center of the box. This season, Liverpool have conceded a bunch of goals from this exact situation. A winger beats a full back down the line, and then the center backs are too slow to recover, a square ball gets slipped across the box, and bam, goal.

That said, he still has been dominant in the air. He has won 46 aerial duels -- seven more than anyone else in the league -- and he has won 78% of all of his aerial duels -- the best mark in the league, by a good margin, among anyone who has contested at least 25.

8. Dominik Szoboszlai, midfielder, Liverpool

Before the season, it seemed as if £100 million new arrival Wirtz might replace Szoboszlai as Liverpool's de facto attacking midfielder. Nine games into the season, Szoboszlai has easily been Liverpool's best player.

Per Gradient's data, he has covered 98.44 kilometers of ground this season -- fifth most of anyone in the league. But he's also second in the league for distance covered while sprinting: 3.86 kilometers at a speed of 25 kpm or more. Among the 25 or so players who have covered at least 90 kilometers this year, Szoboszlai has the highest percentage of that distance covered while sprinting. Put simply: he's in his own class.

But we already knew that. What gets him so high up here is that he has done all of that while not only playing three different positions at a high level (including at right back) but also while becoming an invaluable player for Liverpool in possession. So far this season, only Anderson and Fernandes have completed more progressive passes.

7. Bruno Guimarães, midfielder, Newcastle

You can think of the opposition defensive lines this way: The attacking line is the easiest to bypass, but it also carries with it the highest penalty for failure. The defensive line is the hardest to break through, but it also comes with the smallest penalty for failure. The midfield line, meanwhile, is the worst of both worlds: harder to break through than the attacking line, and a much higher downside than a failed pass through the defensive line.

Per Gradient's data, only nine players have completed at least 25 passes that broke the opposition midfield line, and only one of them has completed at least 80% of his attempts at breaking the midfield line. That would be Bruno Guimarães, who also leads the league in both passes attempted (20) and passes completed (9) that break the opposition defensive line.

He's just a brilliant player who understands the risks and payoffs of the different areas of the field as well as anyone in the league.

6. Moisés Caicedo, midfielder, Chelsea

I'll let Gradient's grades do the work here:

After arriving to Chelsea as a ground-covering ball-winner, Caicedo has developed into one of the best all-around midfielders on the planet. He has become a reliable, high-volume passer, he can dribble through traffic and drive the ball forward, and if you give him enough time and space to shoot, he can break the sound barrier.

Now, I wouldn't expect Caicedo to keep scoring screamers from outside the penalty area, but I also never would have expected him to start scoring screamers from outside the penalty area. At the very least, opponents are going to have to respect Caicedo if he has the ball at the top of their box, and that should open up space for his teammates.

5. William Saliba, center back, Arsenal

In terms of pure defending, there's not another better center back in the world right now. And yet, he's not even the highest-ranked center back on his team.

4. Bukayo Saka, forward, Arsenal

Saka, quietly, has been pretty quiet to start the season. Almost all of his top-line attacking numbers compare unfavorably to Salah's; he's taking the fewest shots per 90 minutes of his career, and he's also creating fewer chances than he has in either of the past two seasons.

But even without the goals and assists, he's still providing a ton of defensive value -- unlike most other star attackers. And I think he's also generating a lot of danger that's not always leading to a teammate attempting a shot.

But more than that, Salah is at an age (33) when most players do start to decline, while Saka is at an age (24) when the opposite tends to happen. There's a small chance that all of these minutes he has played at a young age have slowed him down, but I'd expect Saka to get back to his best as Arsenal's schedule starts to ease over the next couple of months.

3. Declan Rice, midfielder, Arsenal

Things Rice can do at a high level: score goals, create goals, make runs into the box, deliver a set piece, hit a free kick, win headers, read opposition attacks, win 50-50 balls, pass the ball forward, carry the ball forward.

Things Rice can't do at a high level: I don't know, turn out of pressure in his own defensive third, maybe? Beat players one-vs.-one? I kind of hate it when he tries to rap into a microphone ...

He's the best all-around midfielder in the world. No one else combines the truly dominant physical profile with the technical production: passing, carrying, goal scoring. Given the choice of any midfielder in Europe, I think I'm taking him.

2. Gabriel Magalhães, center back, Arsenal

OK, OK, hear me out.

He's a great defender -- the maniacally active ball-chaser and agitator to fit perfectly alongside Saliba's languid cool. Yes, he's not even the best defender on his own team, but I think he has become a way more reliable player over the past couple of seasons. And we've seen that in how the team haven't fallen apart when Saliba has been injured for a good chunk of this season.

And then Gabriel is the single-most important on-field figure in the set-piece dominance that might win Arsenal the league. If he's not touching the ball, then he's creating space for someone else to score because the opposition defense are so occupied with his threat. And if he's not being doubled-teamed, it really does seem as if Arsenal score every time he gets his head near the ball -- whether directly from him or for a chance he creates for someone else. He has scored only once this season, but he has had a major effect on every set-piece goal Arsenal have scored.

The Gunners are the best team in the league because of never-before-seen levels of dominance in possession and on dead balls; Gabriel is the only player at the forefront of both.

1. Erling Haaland, forward, Manchester City

By scoring zero non-penalty goals through the first nine games of this season, I'm closer to second place on the Premier League goal-scoring charts than the player in second is to Haaland in first. He has turned the Premier League into the Austrian Bundesliga.