A month of Premier League action has come and gone, so now it is time to take stock of the 2025/26 season through the first three matches and hand out some honors to players who are starting the season very brightly.
Goalkeepers are easy to overlook, but the Premier League is chock full of top shot-stoppers right now, including quite a few new faces in new places. With three Matchdays in the books, let’s rank the top five goalkeepers to start the season, basing it solely on their performances in the current campaign.
5. James Trafford, Manchester City
James Trafford won’t be starting in goal for Manchester City for long after the addition of Champions League winner Gianluigi Donnarumma from PSG, as the Italian international is regarded as one of the top three players in the world in his position.
But through his three starts as Man City’s new starting goalkeeper as Ederson’s initial replacement, Trafford showed why he is one of the most promising young goalkeepers in world football, and he has every chance to one day take the starting job away from Donnarumma.
The 22-year-old shot-stopper is second in the Premier League behind only Guglielmo Vicario in terms of post-shot expected goals prevented, and he has been incredibly active between the sticks with Man City, once again, failing to protect their keeper defensively while looking like a shell of their prime selves in midfield.
Trafford was an absolute sensation in the Championship for Burnley, and he is quickly showing that his numbers in the second division translate well in the Premier League. He is a gifted pure shot-stopper.
4. Jordan Pickford, Everton
Jordan Pickford has been holding down the fort in the Everton goal for years, which has usually been a thankless task for the starting goalkeeper of the England national team.
But Pickford will get more spotlight this season on an improved Everton side after they landed a couple of big fish in the summer transfer market, including one of the best players at any position in the league thus far, left winger Jack Grealish.
In his own right, Pickford has been one of the best in English football, too, saving 81.8 percent of the shots he faces with just a goal allowed per game while playing for a team that has been threatened with relegation in recent years.
Pickford covers up so many defensive blushes and is a vocal leader who gives Everton a sense of swagger they wouldn’t have otherwise. The 31-year-old is off to another strong start this season, though it’s not necessarily a hot start, because, well, it’s just business as usual for the veteran keeper.
3. Bernd Leno, Fulham
Speaking of solid veteran goalkeepers in the Premier League, Bernd Leno has been an ace in London for years, and while Arsenal won’t rue losing the German international because of how brilliant David Raya has been these days, Leno didn’t get as much credit as he deserved while playing for the North London giants.
Leno has been even better at Fulham, benefiting from less pressure and the focus on pure shot-stopping. He has been a consistent star in European football for years, going back to his days when he and Marc-Andre ter Stegen came up as young phenoms in the Bundesliga.
Now 33 years of age, Leno is still one of the top goalkeepers in the Premier League. Fulham have allowed four goals in three games with no clean sheets for Leno, but since the German standout has stopped nearly 85 percent of the shots he has faced and is one of only three goalkeepres with more than one post-shot expected goal prevented to this early point in the season, you can’t blame any of that on him.
2. Dean Henderson, Crystal Palace
Supposed to be Manchester United’s heir to David de Gea, the fact that both De Gea and Dean Henderson are playing so well for clubs that overperformed significantly in the 2024/25 season has to be giving Man United fans a world of hurt as they stare down the possibility of another poor season.
Senne Lammens will be an upgrade for Manchester United, but it’s doubtful he’ll be as good as Henderson, who is off to another splendid start this season, even as Crystal Palace subtly put pressure on him this summer by signing former Ligue 1 star Walter Benitez.
Henderson is stepping up to the threat of competition quite well, as he has saved 85.7 percent of the shots he has faced thus far in the 2025/26 campaign. There are only four goalkeepers in the Premier League with just one goal allowed in three games, and Henderson is one of them.
Obviously, Henderson benefits from the continued excellence of the center back pairing of Maxence Lacroix and Marc Guehi, who have, likewise, been one of the Premier League’s elite to start the 2025/26 season.
But Henderson has been a standout in his own right, too, and you can see why Crystal Palace fans value the 28-year-old goalkeeper so highly. He is at the peak of his powers now.
1. Guglielmo Vicario, Tottenham
Even though Tottenham finally conceded a goal last weekend after clean sheets against Burnley and Manchester City to start the season, Spurs only lost 1-0 despite being so thoroughly dominated by Bournemouth that it caused some fans around the Premier League to doubt the quick turnaround under Thomas Frank.
While Spurs will still be in a good place despite that poor performance, the fact that they only surrendered one goal is a positive in and of itself, because it is a testament to the quality of Italian shot-stopper Guglielmo Vicario, who did catch some stick at the end of the 2024/25 Premier League season for a few uncharacteristically poor performances.
Although Vicario’s handling can sometimes fail him, his shot-stopping is A1, and you could make a strong case that only Alisson Becker and David Raya were on his level in the Premier League last season in terms of pure saving ability.
His cat-like reflexes were the stuff of legend in Serie A in helping Empoli avoid relegation, and so far in the 2025/26 season, the Tottenham star is leading all Premier League players in save percentage at 92.9 and post-shot expected goals prevented with a total of 2.2 goals avoided above an average keeper.
It would be presumptuous to call Vicario world-class, but he is indeed one of the top goalkeepers in European football and has been for multiple years in both Italy and now England.
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.