This year’s battle for the Premier League player of the season award is an intriguing one. There is no clear frontrunner.
There have been several seasons in years gone by when the standout performer across the campaign has been blindingly obvious. No one was going to challenge the record-toppling iteration of Mohamed Salah last term, while the likes of Luis Suárez (2013–14), Cristiano Ronaldo (2007–08) and Thierry Henry (2003–04) dwarfed their rival nominees.
However, there is a real challenge for fans voting on this year’s list of nominees. The Premier League’s title favorites Arsenal are a balanced orchestra of talent without a clear soloist while Manchester City’s figurehead, Erling Haaland, has endured a dip compared to his own stratospheric standards.
It should be stress that all the nominees would be worthy winners, but some would be more deserving than others.
Ranking Criteria
- Overall performance: The first consideration for an award based upon the quality of performances.
- Consistency: The challenge of a league season is that it lasts 10 months and spans 38 games.
- Team importance: Take this player out of their side and they should struggle.
Who Should Win the 2025–26 Premier League Player of the Season Award?
8. Erling Haaland (Man City)
Appearances: 34
Goals: 26
Assists: 8
Erling Haaland is a victim of his own success. A haul of 26 league goals should not be sniffed at, but it represents his third-highest tally across four Premier League campaigns. City’s perennial top scorer is well aware of his own exacting standings: “People are more shocked when I don’t score than when I score.”
That surprise must have subsided across the festive period when Haaland scored one non-Premier League goal during a 13-game spell between Christmas Day and mid-April.
7. David Raya (Arsenal)
Appearances: 36
Wins: 24
Clean Sheets: 18
David Raya offers a real test of this award’s criteria, which should strictly revolve around Premier League performances. Arsenal’s goalkeeper has performed many heroics in the Champions League and his absence from the Carabao Cup final was a major reason why Arteta’s side limply rolled over at Wembley, yet, his consistency domestically hasn’t quite been as impressive as many may think.
When analyzing the quality and quantity of shots on target which Raya has faced in the Premier League this season, Opta estimate that an average goalkeeper would have conceded around 24 goals. In reality, Raya has shipped 26.
A modern goalkeeper should be judged on more than just shot-stopping—and few are as confident with the ball at their feet as Raya—but a failure to even perform at average in this regard cannot be ignored.
6. Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest)
Appearances: 35
Goals: 13
Assists: 4
If this was an award for the calendar year of 2026, Morgan Gibbs-White would be a lot higher up the list. Nottingham Forest’s one-man swarm was clearly shaken up by a summer of transfer drama with Tottenham Hotspur and never took to life under Ange Postecoglou.
Sean Dyche and latterly Vítor Pereira reaped the rewards of Gibbs-White’s best form. Since the turn of the year, the England hopeful has rattled in an unrivaled nine non-penalty goals, inspiring Forest to the seventh-best form across the entire division. Unfortunately, the consideration has to stretch across the whole season.
5. Igor Thiago (Brentford)
Appearances: 36
Goals: 22
Assists: 1
This has been a remarkable campaign for Brentford’s Brazilian hitman. After stewing over two knee injuries which limited him to one Premier League start during his debut season in England last term, Igor Thiago has been a prolific revelation.
With just two weeks of the club campaign remaining, the 24-year-old has only been outscored by Kylian Mbappé, Harry Kane and Erling Haaland across Europe’s top five leagues, three of the world’s best strikers playing for undisputed super teams which have never been described by their former managers as a “bus stop.”
4. Gabriel (Arsenal)
Appearances: 30
Goals: 3
Clean Sheets: 16
Gabriel is the embodiment of Arsenal’s greatest strengths this season: defensive supremacy and set-piece dominance. The level of fear inspired by the burly Brazilian in the opposition penalty area is palpable ahead of each dead-ball delivery, while he offers a similarly dominant presence in his own box.
Arteta’s one-man wrecking ball is the more obvious force of nature in Arsenal’s center back pairing, yet arguably hasn’t even been as good as his partner, William Saliba (who somehow escaped any nomination). The French half of the defensive duo is more understated in his work, gliding around the pitch to put out fires before they catch aflame.
3. Antoine Semenyo (Bournemouth/Man City)
Appearances: 35
Goals: 16
Assists: 4
Antoine Semenyo has had two seasons befitting individual recognition. The former Bournemouth forward lit up the south coast across the opening half of the campaign, either scoring or assisting 38% of all the Premier League goals netted by the Cherries.
The allure of Manchester City was too much for Semenyo (or Bournemouth) to resist in the middle of the season and Pep Guardiola’s side rapidly benefited from his arrival. Forming the fourth point of City’s new-look attacking quartet in 2026, Semenyo is the side’s joint-top scorer in the league since his arrival.
The only thing counting against the two-footed maverick is how well Bournemouth have fared in his absence. The Cherries are unbeaten in 15 matches without their departed talisman.
2. Bruno Fernandes (Man Utd)
Appearances: 33
Goals: 8
Assists: 19
The player of the year in the eyes of the Football Writers’ Association may very well snatch a second individual prize. There is no doubt that Bruno Fernandes is Manchester United’s best player—an unchallenged status since his arrival in February 2020—and he is putting together one of the most statistically impressive seasons in the competition’s history.
The playmaker chasing the all-time assist record is ridiculously unrivaled when it comes to chance creation: Fernandes is responsible for teeing up 124 shots this season, second on the list is Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai, with 68.
The only issue for Fernandes is that United have not been able to collectively match his lofty individual level until Michael Carrick’s appointment in January.
1. Declan Rice (Arsenal)
Appearances: 35
Goals: 4
Assists: 5
The most important player for the league leaders, Declan Rice would be a fitting recipient.
There are few players in the division as well-rounded as Arsenal’s talismanic central figure. Be it orchestrating play from the base of midfield, dovetailing with Martín Zubimendi in a double pivot or crashing from box-to-box during a lung-busting passage of play, there is little Rice cannot do. A fact he underscores in almost every outing.
As Arteta gushed: “The good thing with Declan is he’s so consistent, so reliable. He’s always there.”
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