We’re midway done-ish!
The Premier League is now 21 video games in — only a bit previous the precise midway of the 38-game season — and we have reached some extent the place the league is taking every week off and each workforce has performed each different workforce not less than as soon as. So, which means it is time to test in on the varied award races.
Many of the Premier League’s awards are decided by statistics: Golden Boot (most objectives), Playmaker of the Yr (most assists), Golden Glove (most saves), and, sure, in addition they have one thing referred to as “The Premier League Most Highly effective Purpose,” which is given to the participant who kicks the ball the toughest earlier than it crosses the purpose line.
However there are 4 different “main” awards which might be enjoyable to consider: purpose of the season, younger participant of the season, supervisor of the season and participant of the season. Right here is who deserves every award to if the season ended as we speak, plus the subsequent two runners-up.
Purpose of the Season
If it looks like there have not been as many nice objectives this season, it is as a result of, effectively, there have not been that many open-play objectives.
A purpose from a throw-in or a nook kick has such a excessive bar to clear for it to deserve a spot on this listing. Certain, we would throw a bone to a kind of clipped diagonal balls to a man on the high of the field who then volleys it into the higher nook, however groups are getting smarter about set items, so they don’t seem to be attempting that anymore. And, sadly, the fantastic thing about most nice coals comes from the inefficiency by which they come up.
On the similar time, it does seem to be we have seen a minor reemergence of gamers simply smacking the ball as exhausting as they’ll and hoping it stays underneath the crossbar. Possibly as a result of defenses are extra organized and more durable to interrupt down than ever earlier than, there’s extra space within the space extending out from the highest of the field and a bit of extra freedom or frustration resulting in some extra objectives from lengthy vary?
Anyway, sufficient with the theorizing, and on to my high three picks for Purpose of the Season.
3. Dominik Szoboszlai vs. Arsenal, Aug. 31
I really like the headline on the Premier League’s web site for this one: “Szoboszlai makes historical past with Guinness Purpose of the Month award.” What sort of historical past did he make for this glorious free kick? Was it the hardest-hit lifeless ball of the last decade? Can they measure spin now, and so did that factor have much less spin than any shot ever recorded? Is that this the newest successful direct free-kick purpose in a match between the earlier season’s high two groups?
No, the historical past Szoboszlai apparently made was that he grew to become the primary participant from Hungary to win a Premier League-trademarked award. What an necessary day for Hungarian soccer.
On the time, this appeared prefer it is perhaps crucial purpose of the season. It marked three straight wins for Liverpool, and after two extra consecutive victories, they’d already constructed up a six-point lead on Arsenal. Quick ahead to as we speak and Arsenal are comfortably in first place, 14 factors forward of fourth-placed Liverpool.
2. Harrison Reed vs. Liverpool, Jan. 4
When it is not your yr, typically it is actually not your yr.
Reed hadn’t scored a Premier League purpose since April 15, 2023. He’d scored three Premier League objectives in his whole profession. He turns 31 on the finish of this month. He’d solely performed eight Premier League minutes in 2025-26 previous to this match, and the one cause he was subbed on within the 89th minute in opposition to Liverpool was as a result of Fulham have a number of gamers away on the Africa Cup of Nations.
I hope he would not take one other shot this season as a result of if he would not, then he may win the Premier League’s Purpose of the Season award together with his solely try.
1. Zian Flemming vs. Wolves, Oct. 26
That is my favourite form of purpose: technically good, aesthetically easy, and intellectually good.
It appears really easy: one man kicks it straight, after which one other man kicks it straight, and it finally ends up at the back of the online. However this purpose by no means occurs with out a good 45-yard diagonal ball underneath strain, and the go by no means occurs if Flemming would not acknowledge it, peel off the defender’s shoulder, and sign that he is an choice for a ball excessive.
However what I really like most is how the purpose makes use of the complexity of the game as a decoy. The Wolves defenders are so anxious about the entire totally different potential passing combos beneath that they offer the passer an excessive amount of time to lookup and go away simply one other house for the attacker to run into.
Then, as soon as the go is performed, everybody on the sector begins operating towards the ball — watch the video: each groups drift in the identical route the ball is heading, particularly Sam Johnstone, the Wolves goalkeeper. And that is what permits Flemming to faucet the ball into the online: the flight of the ball makes it so the side-footed shot spins the ball in the other way you’d anticipate, and the momentum of the play pulls Johnstone simply far sufficient away that he cannot dive shortly sufficient, again from the place he got here.
The perfect purpose of the season got here from a sport between the 2 worst groups within the Premier League.
– Is Premier League parity an indication of high quality — or these groups stink?
– Rating switch wants for high golf equipment in January
– The within story of why Man United sacked Ruben Amorim
Younger Participant of the Season
What occurs when the Premier League realizes that gamers peak sooner than everybody as soon as thought on the similar time that the Premier League’s monetary benefit over the remainder of the world reached escape velocity? You get a league with a ton of unbelievable younger gamers.
I’ve solely chosen three, however there are in all probability not less than 10 others worthy of this award, which works to the perfect gamers aged 23 or youthful in the beginning of the season.
Jérémy Doku has made the leap this yr. Elliot Anderson will in all probability begin for England on the World Cup. Ryan Gravenberch gained it final yr and continues to be eligible. Michael Kayode‘s throw-ins are extra beneficial than possibly every other particular talent from every other participant. Moisés Caicedo, Florian Wirtz, Josko Gvardiol, Riccardo Calafiori, Rayan Cherki, Cole Palmer, Alejandro Garnacho? All eligible for this award. And Bukayo Saka will in all probability — and rightfully — truly win it if he stays wholesome for the remainder of the season.
Nonetheless, we’re giving this out purely based mostly on the participant’s efficiency from the primary half of the season. So, here is the highest three.
3. Adam Wharton, midfielder, Crystal Palace
For the unfamiliar, Opta’s anticipated possession worth (xPV) is only a solution to decide how a lot every little thing a participant does with the ball will increase or decreases their workforce’s possibilities of scoring.
For instance, Liverpool’s Milos Kerkez is eligible for this award. He is not going to be successful this award as a result of, amongst different issues, he is contributed minus-0.4 xPV to Liverpool this season. Usually, the one gamers who contribute detrimental values are forwards as a result of the metric would not award gamers for capturing, and forwards usually will both lose possession when the ball is in a high-value space or they’re going to go the ball backward, out of a excessive worth space. For Kerkez, his xPV matches what you’ve got seen in the event you’ve watched; he isn’t serving to Liverpool win soccer video games.
Wharton, although, is doing the other for Crystal Palace. He is the one participant within the league who ranks within the high 10 for anticipated possession worth added through defensive actions and within the high 10 for open-play passing. He is 21 years previous, and he is already the most effective midfielders on the planet.
2. Hugo Ekitike, ahead, Liverpool
One easy solution to calculate the “worth” a participant has offered to a workforce is to take their xPV, add it to the variety of non-penalty objectives they’ve scored, and see what comes up.
The promise of Ekitike, when Liverpool signed him, is that he was the uncommon middle ahead who might do each: rating objectives but additionally create all types of different worth in buildup play, together with his means to win headers, beat gamers off the dribble, and create harmful alternatives for his teammates. And regardless of enjoying in a principally dysfunctional workforce for a lot of the season, Ekitike has already proven that, at age 23, in probably the most aggressive league on the planet.
Solely two 23-and-under gamers have generated greater than eight non-penalty objectives and xPV mixed, and Ekitike is one in every of them.
1. Morgan Rogers, attacking midfielder, Aston Villa
There’s one most important cause why Villa are 11 factors away from sixth place, greater than midway by way of the season: Rogers has gone nuclear. This is his shot map thus far this season:
That is six objectives from simply round 2.5 anticipated objectives, or xG. And whereas I completely wouldn’t anticipate that to proceed, Rogers has gained so many further factors for his workforce by scoring so many low-probability alternatives.
Add that to the truth that he is the most effective half-space gamers within the league — he is second within the league in by way of balls accomplished; he is the one who takes Villa’s affected person possession and turns it into precise hazard — and Rogers has offered extra worth to his workforce than every other younger participant within the league.
Supervisor of the Season
Earlier than we get into the alternatives, I would similar to to level out the previous six winners of supervisor of the month. Final March, it was Nuno Espirito Santo … with Nottingham Forest. In April, it was Vitor Pereira with Wolves. In August, it was Liverpool’s Arne Slot. In September, Crystal Palace’s Oliver Glasner. After which the final two winners have been Ruben Amorim (Manchester United) and Enzo Maresca (Chelsea).
So, 4 of these six guys have been fired, one in every of them is someway on the new seat regardless of successful the Premier League in his first season in England (Slot), and the opposite one is presently teaching a workforce that emerged from the vacation interval with one level from 5 matches (Glasner) — all of which have been in opposition to groups within the backside half of the desk on the time.
What does that imply? It jogs my memory of a bit from FiveThirtyEight a pair years in the past that checked out how virtually everybody that gained Government of the Yr within the NFL was fired quickly after. One potential cause why: the award went to groups who outperformed expectations, and groups usually outperform expectations as a result of they get fortunate or do one thing unsustainable. The award then raises the workforce’s expectations, after which they hearth the chief after they regress again to the imply.
This warrants additional analysis within the Premier League, however I feel the reasoning right here is sort of related. Possibly not fairly for Amorim and Maresca, however they each misplaced their jobs after a downturn in outcomes and a public falling-out with the entrance workplace.
So, how can we determine three managers who aren’t inevitably going to come back crashing again to Earth?
3. Daniel Farke, Leeds United
I’m conscious that roughly zero individuals who learn this column will agree with me. However hear me out: all {that a} supervisor actually has management over is the possibilities their workforce create and concede. Whether or not the goalkeeper makes a save or the ahead converts the header, that is principally divorced from no matter ways and patterns and participant interactions led to the shot within the first place.
And sure, Leeds are presently in sixteenth place. However by way of 21 video games, they’ve a roughly even xG differential — adequate for Eleventh-best within the league. And in contrast to Burnley and Sunderland, Leeds actually did not spend huge this previous summer season. Wage estimates have them as a bottom-three payroll workforce, and Transfermarkt estimates them because the second-least beneficial squad within the league.
Regardless of their efficiency within the Championship final season, Leeds have relegation-level expertise, they usually’re performing like a borderline top-half-of-the-table workforce. Sunderland and Burnley, in the meantime, are twentieth and nineteenth in xGD.
Not solely that, Farke actively made a tactical change halfway by way of the season that immediately coincided with an uptick in his workforce’s play. Regardless of their place within the desk, Leeds are outperforming their assets in a really possible way, and their supervisor made a really actual change that had a really actual impact on their performances. Come the top of the season, I do not suppose this selection goes to look as unusual because it does proper now.
2. Mikel Arteta, Arsenal
Arsenal are the perfect workforce on the planet proper now. They only are — they by no means surrender objectives they usually seemingly go three deep at each place. They spent €63.5 million on a middle ahead who has been a complete flop (Viktor Gyökeres), and it hasn’t mattered in any respect. All of their star gamers have been out for important durations of time resulting from harm and, once more, it hasn’t mattered in any respect.
It is no assure that they win the league — even when they preserve their present efficiency degree. However they’re additionally the favorites to win the Premier League and the Champions League. You may’t ask for greater than that.
Whereas this was a neatly and patiently and expensively constructed workforce that’s peaking as all of its core gamers enter their peak years, Arteta deserves a ton of credit score for the distinctive mannequin of play he is landed on. He is helped create one of many higher defensive groups we have ever seen by way of an method that limits objectives each by dominating possession and by being equally comfy defending in their very own penalty space. That is a uncommon mixture, and it is lethal when mixed with a degree of set-piece execution we have hardly ever, if ever, seen earlier than.
All of it simply makes a lot sense collectively: there’s sufficient offensive talent to chase video games when want be, however the dominant protection makes the set piece objectives particularly beneficial since Arsenal needn’t rating as a lot. And people burly bodily defenders who’re so exhausting to attain in opposition to? They double as dominant set-piece threats.
Set items have been the game’s most undervalued tactical useful resource, and Arteta’s Arsenal are exhibiting us what occurs when one of many richest and most proficient groups on the planet takes full benefit.
1. Keith Andrews, Brentford
If this have been any membership apart from Brentford, Andrews can be No. 1 with a bullet. This workforce misplaced their two finest strikers this summer season, they usually misplaced the coach who seemingly guided them out of the Championship and into Premier League stability when Thomas Frank went to Tottenham. You may by no means imagine what occurred subsequent: There are 17 video games remaining, and if the season ended as we speak, Brentford would qualify for the Champions League this season.
The explanation I am a bit of unsure of the selection right here is that we all know Brentford are one of the crucial data-driven golf equipment on the planet, and their supervisor might need much less affect on proceedings than every other within the league does. However I feel that claims extra about what the fashionable position of the supervisor is than something about Andrews himself. The trendy supervisor (or head coach, as groups are more and more choosing because the title) must work with an ever-churning assortment of gamers, work out one of the simplest ways to rearrange them on the sector, and be OK with fixed communication and route from individuals who aren’t truly soccer coaches. Hasn’t Andrews carried out all of that?
It isn’t simply that Brentford are in fifth, both. Per FBref’s estimates, they’ve the smallest wage invoice within the league, they usually have a plus-0.2 xG differential per sport — presently eighth finest within the league and aggressive with the three groups above them. It is actually unimaginable how Brentford proceed to lose their finest attackers, yr after yr, and by no means worsen. Andrews is my selection for supervisor of the season as a result of this yr, they acquired higher.
Participant of the Season
With the decline of open-play scoring within the Premier League this season, we have additionally seen a decline in particular person attacking efficiency. There’s been a grand whole of 1 world-class attacker within the Premier League this yr, which is weird but additionally form of enjoyable, because it opens issues up within the POTY dialog for defenders, midfielders, and possibly even goalkeepers?
However the longer I checked out this, I began to comprehend that there are solely two gamers who actually appear to warrant the POTY designation by way of the primary half of the season. And so, I am nonetheless deciding on a high three, however take into account No. 3 to be extra of a symbolic selection.
3. Gabriel Magalhães, middle again, Arsenal
I am rather less excessive on this choose than I was as a result of I view middle backs just like the NFL views offensive linemen. The penalty for making a mistake is so large that it is actually exhausting to beat the detrimental worth you create by getting referred to as for holding or, say, falling down and letting Newcastle’s Nick Woltemade have a free header from three yards our or, I do not know, passing the ball to Bournemouth’s Evanilson whilst you’re underneath no strain and he is standing immediately in entrance of an empty purpose and in addition enjoying for the opposite workforce.
Gabriel did each of these issues, however then he additionally went on and scored objectives for himself in each of these video games. Now, he is solely scored three objectives this season, however he has two extra assists and might be the one most necessary determine in Arsenal’s single most necessary energy: their set piece goal-scoring. On high of that, he is one of many beginning middle backs in one of the crucial dominant defenses of the fashionable period. Arsenal have allowed 14 objectives this season and half of them got here within the handful of matches Gabriel has missed.
2. Declan Rice, midfielder Arsenal
You do not want stats to know how good Rice is — simply watch a sport. He is probably the most bodily dominant English midfielder since … no, yeah, I am simply gonna cease it there. He is probably the most bodily dominant English midfielder ever. He covers a ton of house, his ball placing shrinks the sector, his ball carrying makes it seem to be Baltimore Ravens Operating Again Derrick Henry wandered onto a soccer area, and c’mon. He simply appears freaking large on the market.
It is humorous. In line with FBref, probably the most related participant to him is PSG’s João Neves. Neves was the beginning defensive midfielder for the perfect workforce on the planet final season. He is unbelievable, and Rice does every little thing he does whereas additionally being a lot larger than him.
However listed here are some stats simply to substantiate what you see each weekend. The corporate Gradient Spots grades each motion by each participant within the Premier League every weekend, throughout quite a lot of classes, after which they normalize the grades on a 0-100 scale. The six main ones, to my thoughts, are passing, capturing, crossing, carrying, defending carries, and making challenges. And there is just one participant within the league who grades out at a 75 or higher in all six classes:
Rice is the perfect all-around midfielder on the planet, and I do not suppose there’s actually even an argument for anyone else.
1. Erling Haaland, middle ahead, Manchester Metropolis
Objectives win soccer video games, and Golden Boot-leader Haaland has twice as many objectives as all however one different participant within the Premier League. Not solely that, Haaland additionally has practically twice as many anticipated objectives as any participant within the Premier League.
I ceaselessly discover myself leaving Haaland’s entries temporary in workouts like this, however I feel that is type of the purpose: He would not do a lot else, however he does crucial factor in soccer twice in addition to virtually anybody else in England. What extra do you want me to say?
