With the 2025-26 Premier League season ended, we look at the campaign’s six best players
Bruno Fernandes
The Premier League player of the season, an award well deserved after breaking the assist record in the league with 21 assists, above Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne, both at 20. Fernandes was Manchester United’s creative heartbeat as they rose from a 15th-place finish last season to finish third place. His numbers go beyond the assists. Fernandes created an incredible 136 chances all season, almost twice as many as the second player on the list, Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai with 78. He was creative both in open play and on set-pieces, and he tops the charts for most attacking metrics this season, including big chances created (33), expected assists (12.3), open-play expected assists (9.1), passes into the box (326), through balls (39), successful final third passes (662) and line-breaking passes in the final third (210), according to Opta. For an example of his impact this season, look no further than United’s last game against Brighton, where Fernandes helped open the scoring by dropping the ball on Patrick Dorgu’s head from a corner kick, before running through to finish past Bart Verbruggen himself in the second half to seal the victory.
Erling Haaland
Haaland may have lost some form in the second half of the season but Manchester City would never even have been in a title race if not for the Norwegian. It seemed like he was the only attacking player City had earlier in the campaign, scoring all of their Premier League goals but for two own goals scored by Burnley’s Maxime Esteve. He went ahead to comfortably claim the Golden Boot with 27 goals. He broke Alan Shearer’s Premier League record by reaching 100 goals in 111 appearances. After scoring a double against Bournemouth in November, he unveiled a new robot celebration in acknowledgement of the popular joke that he is a goal machine, joking on social media: “Guess I couldn’t hide it any longer”. Fulltime Herald wrote after that game at the Etihad that Haaland scoring has become “almost an inevitability, a thing to be managed rather than avoided”, and when the Norwegian is in form, it can feel that way.
Special delivery for the Coca-Cola Golden Boot winner 📦 pic.twitter.com/3nsk2eDrzJ
— Premier League (@premierleague) May 24, 2026
David Raya
Arsenal have hardly had a standout player this season. Their title win has been more of a team effort, the power of the collective rather than the brilliance of the individual. But one person who seems to stand out is Raya, a force of nature between the sticks. Every Premier League title-winning side has always had a great goalkeeper and Raya will not look out of place on that exalted list. Far from it. He won the Golden Glove again this season with 19 clean sheets, four more than the next man, and the joint-most for Arsenal in any league season, alongside David Seaman, who also kept 19 clean sheets in the 1993-94 and 1998-99 seasons. Far from merely being protected by Arsenal’s solid defence, Raya is a big part of what makes that defence so solid, helping his side to a paltry 27 goals conceded. Some of his saves were simply remarkable and others plainly kept Arsenal on track as they pursued the title, most notably his superb save to deny Matheus Fernandes against West Ham in matchweek 36.
Dominik Szoboszlai
Dominik Szoboszlai has been great for Liverpool since he arrived but this season was truly exceptional. Only United’s Fernandes created more chances and completed more final-third passes than the Hungarian. Szoboszlai also ranked among the league leaders for set-piece assists and successful crosses while topping Liverpool’s charts for line-breaking passes in the final third and possessions won. Without him, Arne Slot’s side would have been staring down into the blackness of an abyss with much greater pull. But after 13 goal contributions, including four direct free-kick goals, the most by a Liverpool player in a single season and the highest tally in the league, Slot’s side were able to finish fifth and just about make Champions League football.
Igor Thiago
The dark horse of the season, Igor Thiago stepped up for Brentford in the absence of last season’s fantastic duo Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo, and he scored 22 goals, second only to Haaland, to leave Brentford just shy of a European finish. The Bees were unable to find the solitary goal they needed at Anfield on final day to pip Brighton to the Conference League but Thiago’s performance deserves much praise, his form in front of goal earning him a Brazil call-up for this summer’s World Cup. He has never scored below 22 league goals in any of his three full seasons as a football player and after an injury hit debut season at Brentford last season, he came into this season in his stride, maintaining his impressive goal scoring ability in a league that is supposed to be daunting to new recruits from abroad. That Thiago could and should have had more than his 22 goals is a mark of how impressive his campaign has been.
Goal number 2⃣2⃣ for @BrentfordFC‘s Igor Thiago this season!
The Bees double their lead against West Ham 📈 pic.twitter.com/4HgDlQ9YkR
— Premier League (@premierleague) May 2, 2026
Nico O’Reilly
Pep Guardiola has a track record of moulding young players into positional beasts and Nico O’Reilly is the latest example of that incredible work. Originally a midfielder but played as a left-back, O’Reilly drifted centrally at will and attacked space at the crucial moments. His eight goal contributions belie the impact he had, particularly in the second half of the season, on a Manchester City team that pushed Arsenal for the title until the final weeks. His young player of the season award was well deserved.
