Now that a full five Matchdays have been completed in the 2025/26 Premier League season, it’s time to take stock of the best players in the English top flight right now and rank the 10 best Premier League Player of the Season candidates.
All statistics are courtesy of WhoScored.com
10. Liverpool ST Hugo Ekitike
New Liverpool striker Hugo Ekitike has been getting all the shine while Alexander Isak works his way into the starting lineup, and the Frenchman has been absolutely tremendous all-around and exactly as advertised.
With three goals through five matchweeks, Ekitike is already a touch away from equaling Darwin Nunez’s goal-scoring total last season, and we’re not even two months into the season.
On top of the goals, Ekitike is averaging two dribbles completed per game and is showing the ability to go wide and link up with other players. He is always going to have a role in this side, even when Isak seals the No. 9 position every week.
9. Crystal Palace CB Maxence Lacroix
Maxence Lacroix’s more well-known center back teammate Marc Guehi merits Premier League Player of the Season consideration, but for the sheer quality of his on-the-ball defending, the Frenchman gets the nod.
Underrated since his days at Wolfsburg, Lacroix has blossomed into one of the Premier League’s top center backs and is currently averaging 3.4 combined tackles and interceptions per game with 5.8 clearances per match and just 0.2 dribbles completed allowed per contest.
8. Chelsea ST Joao Pedro
The intelligent and well-rounded Joao Pedro has been outperforming his more expensive – and more hyped – new Premier League striker signings, and he’s doing so by adding a little bit of everything to the Chelsea attack as the Robin to Cole Palmer’s Batman.
Joao Pedro has five goal contributions through the first five games of the 2025/26 Premier League season, and if he keeps this up and manages to be more consistent than he was at Brighton, he could end up in the top five of the rankings list.
7. Tottenham RW Mohammed Kudus
Another excellent new addition to a Big Six club, Mohammed Kudus was actually coveted by Chelsea for months before joining the Tottenham project, intrigued by the idea of being the focal point of the attack under Thomas Frank.
So far, Kudus has been a revelation and the main star for Tottenham, who are in the top three of the Premier League table after five Matchdays. Kudus is averaging nearly four dribbles completed per game with three assists, vastly upgrading Spurs previously subpar wide playmaking.
6. Liverpool CB Virgil van Dijk
Virgil van Dijk is 34, but maybe even moreso than fellow Liverpool superstar Mohamed Salah, the man is only getting better and better with age, and he’s gotten to that insane legendary level where he barely even has to put a foot in and he has the whole opposition shut down.
The Dutchman is averaging 1.2 interceptions per game to just 0.4 tackles and 0.2 dribbles completed allowed per match with 9.2 clearances and a full block per contest.
Those are jaw-dropping numbers, and if Liverpool needed the defensive stability more than they already do, Van Dijk would be proportionally valued higher. He is a Premier League Player of the Season candidate in almost any campaign.
5. Bournemouth RW Antoine Semenyo
Bournemouth are legitimate threats to qualify for the Champions League next season, based on how dangerous they have looked so far this season, and that’s even after losing star defenders Milos Kerkez and Dean Huijsen this past summer to literal Champions League favorites.
Antoine Semenyo was one of the top breakout stars in the Premier League last season, and the 25-year-old has been even more outrageous this season with five goal contributions and 2.2 dribbles completed per game.
He has been unplayable at times with more efficiency and end product, making more economical use of his dribbles. The way he interrelates on and off the ball with underrated teammates like Evanilson makes him a focal point on the wings like none other.
4. Everton LW Jack Grealish
Although the results have run dry for Everton, Jack Grealish has remained a huge threat even without any assists in the last two matches, as he’s still had eight combined key passes against Liverpool and Aston Villa.
Currently, the 30-year-old Premier League icon is averaging 2.6 key passes and 3.4 fouls drawn per game, and there may not be a single player who is as important as his team’s success as Grealish is to Everton.
With four assists this season, you wouldn’t put it past the former Aston Villa and Manchester City star to create 15 of them at Goodison Park, as he and Iliman Ndiaye have suddenly. formed the best performing wing partnership in the Premier League so far this season.
3. Chelsea DM Moises Caicedo
It’s the year of the defensive midfielder in world football, and the best teams in the world all have a top-class defensive midfielder, and Moises Caicedo is absolutely one of the best of them.
Caicedo is off to a torrid start defensively, winning possession almost at will – and even scoring beautiful goals. The Ecuadorian superstar is averaging 4.2 tackles and 3.0 interceptions per game, and he’s proof that the most impactful defensive players these days are the No. 6/8 profiles who can literally win the ball for a team 7-10 times per game.
2. Liverpool DM Ryan Gravenberch
Yet the most valuable defensive midfielder of the season has been Ryan Gravenberch, who has been the puppetmaster pulling the strings for Liverpool, outshining the hyped up and expensive attack ahead of him.
Gravenberch is capable of scoring lovely goals from sheer nothingness or creating brilliant assists from deep, and in his second season as a world-class midfielder in the Arne Slot system, the Dutch international is showing even more lethal end product for his side.
The 23-year-old is an elite ball-winner, progressor, creator, and even shooter from distance. Gravenberch has no significant weaknesses in his game, and after already being a Premier League Player of the Season candidate in the 2024/25 campaign, he’s been even better to start the 2025/26 season.
1. Manchester City ST Erling Haaland
The leading Premier League Player of the Season candidate is, once again, Manchester City superstar striker Erling Haaland, who still scores goals for fun despite all of Man City’s issues and their remaining question marks in midfield after a poor 2024/25 season.
Haaland has six goals in five games and is by far the Premier League’s leading goal-scorer, proving that while there are new faces in new places around the league, the Norwegian is still the king of them all – and he doesn’t need Kevin de Bruyne to sniff out chances. Without him, Man City would be a wreck.
Joe Soriano is the editor of The Trivela Effect and a FanSided Hall of Famer who has covered world football since 2010. He’s led top digital communities like The Real Champs (Real Madrid) and has run sites covering Tottenham, Liverpool, Juventus, and Schalke. He also helped manage NFL Spin Zone and Daily DDT, covering the NFL and pro wrestling.