Debating “value” can often be difficult, because there are so many ways to ascribe a player’s value to a team. It can be because of their brilliance on the field, statistical dominance, scarcity of position, lack of star players in surrounding areas, or by being part of a dominant team.
Let’s do a fun exercise and look through all the current Premier League teams with experience in the top flight this decade prior to the 2025/26 season (so Sunderland is out) and try to pick out each club’s most valuable player from the 2020s decade thus far.
Wolves
Ruben Neves and Pedro Neto both have strong cases, and I think Rayan Ait-Nouri and Adama Traore merit honorable mentions somewhere in there. But the most recent Wolves star, Matheus Cunha, absolutely has to be considered the best on an individual level.
And when it comes to value, I think he has the pack beat, too. Cunha was a legitimate Premier League Player of the Season candidate in the 2024/25 campaign before finagling his way to Old Trafford, and, look, how many players in Wolves history can you say that about?
Cunha was creating scoring opportunities from sheer nothingness, and, without him, Wolves would have been relegated. Literally, they are the worst team in the league to start the 2025/26 campaign without Cunha on board.
He also had 19 goal contributions in the 2023/24 season, so he was far from just a one-season wonder for Wolves. That said, his one season was so brilliant it almost automatically makes him Wolverhampton’s MVP of the decade thus far.
Aston Villa
Emiliano Martinez is such a tough player to pick against, and I think midfielder John McGinn deserves real consideration here as one of the most underrated all-around players at his position in the Premier League this decade.
But how can anyone pick against Ollie Watkins? He’s been the centerpiece of the Aston Villa attack for years and the player through whom everything goes, both as a creator and as a goal-scorer.
Watkins was consistently delivering above the double-digit goal mark before exploding for 19 goals and 13 assists in the 2023/24 season as Villa became legitimate Champions League contenders.
He then went on to have a successful European Championship campaign for England as Harry Kane’s top backup, and I think that level of difference-making value puts him over Dibu, who, quite frankly, has always been a bigger standout for the Argentina national team than for Aston Villa.
West Ham
Honestly, I didn’t even have to think twice about taking Jarrod Bowen here. The West Ham forward is one of the best right wingers in European football, and that’s no exaggeration.
He was central to the Hammers winning the Conference League, and although the club are nowhere near the top half of the table these days, Bowen is still one of the top forwards in the league and an England national team-quality player.
Bowen has scored at least 12 goals in three different seasons for West Ham this decade, as well as two seasons with at least 8 assists. Hopefully, he doesn’t go forgotten in history to the Premier League mainstream, because he’s been a certified baller.
Burnley
Burnely have only spent three full seasons of the 2020s decade in the Premier League thus far, and almost by default, you have to select a defensive player because of their playing style.
And then in that case, the battle comes between veteran center backs Ben Mee and James Tarkowski. For the 2020s specifically, I think Tarkowski gets the nod over the equally underappreciated Mee.
Tarkowski was always willing to put his body on the line and was a beast in the air. He could mark the best strikers in the Premier League out of the game on his best day and was one of the most feared defenders in English football, reading the game well and snapping into tackles.
Leeds
Leeds were in the Premier League for three straight seasons to start the 2020s before returning in 2025/26, and while Patrick Bamford had an exceptional 2020/21 season with 17 goals and 7 assists in the insane Marcelo Bielsa system, the real choice comes between Jack Harrison and Raphinha.
Do we go with two seasons of greatness or three very good campaigns? That’s the philosophical question here, and I think, ultimately, Raphinha has to be the winner because he was clearly the star of the team over Harrison during his time at Leeds. There’s also the matter that Leeds got relegated after his huge transfer to Barcelona.
Raphinha has since gone on to become one of the best wingers in world football and a certified Ballon d’Or candidate next to, of all people, Lionel Messi’s heir Lamine Yamal, but he was already one of the Premier League’s best wingers for an underdog side, nearly moving to Arsenal or Chelsea before going to Barca.
At Leeds, Raphinha scored 17 goals with 12 assists across two Premier League seasons on the right wing, averaging 2.1 key passes and 1.9 dribbles completed per game in his best seasons as an all-around difference-maker.
Nottingham Forest
Nottingham Forest have had a number of standouts, especially last season when they nearly qualified for the Champions League against all odds, and playmaker Morgan Gibbs-White was one of the most in-demand players on the transfer market last summer.
However, every rugged defensive team needs its goal-scorer up top, and Chris Wood has become one of the best strikers in the Premier League at the age of 33. He’s bagged 34 goals in the last two seasons and has been a real nightmare for defenses to mark with his aerial ability, clinical finishing, and hold-up play.
Manchester United
When a declining Casemiro and Paul Pogba are among your best statistical players of the last five years, you know you are in a bad state as a football club, and Manchester United are busy trying to dig themselves out of the bottom half of the table under Ruben Amorim, far from the hopes of even competing at the Europa League level.
But the silver lining over the course of his horrible 2020s decade has been Portuguese playmaker Bruno Fernandes, who arrived from the Portuguese top flight as a bona fide European superstar with 20 goals and 13 assists in his last full season before making a marquee January switch to Old Trafford.
All he’s done since then is establish himself as one of the elite playmakers in the Premier League and the one guy actually decisively impacting games for Manchester United.
Yes, he has his flaws defensively and when it comes to retaining possession, but Fernandes has been the one guy who can win games for Man United and the sole consistent attacking presence around players like Rashford and Rasmus Hojlund.
Brighton
Solly March gets more than an honorable mention, and others like Moises Caicedo, Alexis Mac Allister, Leandro Trossard, and Kaoru Mitoma have all been highly important to Brighton in various phases over the years.
But for his consistency and his ability to directly contribute to goals, the perennially underrated Pascal Gross has to be the MVP of Brighton’s 2020s to this point.
Gross was the lynchpin of the Brighton attack from a deep-lying playmaking role, but he could pretty much play wherever the Seagulls asked him to. The German international had at least eight assists in three seasons in the 2020s before bolting to Borussia Dortmund, where he immediately had a 10-assist season while back in Germany.
So good that he is arguably the best player in club history, Gross was a cult hero for Brighton and one of the most gifted technical players. He saw the game develop light years ahead of everyone else on the pitch, and if he played for, say, Manchester United or Arsenal, he’d be in a lot more Teams of the Season.
Brentford
Brentford have quite the selection of MVP candidates to choose from, and while Ivan Toney was the first big star to shine for the club upon their arrival in the Premier League, Bryan Mbeumo was always a more than capable No. 2 alongside him on the wing.
And then when Toney left for Saudi Arabia instead of a top Premier League side like Arsenal, Mbeumo stepped out of the shadows and surpassed Toney, becoming one of the league’s elite players before joining a big club, Manchester United.
Mbeumo registered 11, 17, and 15 goal contributions in his first three Premier League seasons, quietly establishing himself as one of the league’s most productive wingers.
And then he went ahead and blew up for 20 goals and 7 assists in the 2024/25 season, becoming the biggest breakout star in the entire Premier League. On his day, Mbeumo was unstoppable and could practically will his way into scoring a goal.
Fulham
It may seem crazy to pick a fullback as a team’s most valuable player, but when you take full stock of Fulham’s 2020s year by year and value consistency above all else, you really have to say that American left back Antonee Robinson has been the standout player for the Cottagers.
A shutdown defender and one of the best one-on-one left backs in the entire world, Robinson is so good that if you actually break down the quality of both players, he’s not far off from Christian Pulisic as being the best USMNT player abroad in European football.
Robinson has averaged at least 2.5 tackles per game in each of the past two Premier League seasons with a minimum of 1.5 interceptions per game in the last three campaigns.
And with 10 assists last season and 6 in the previous campaign, Robinson offers more than enough end product and creativity with his teasing deliveries to make himself the total package at the left back position.
Newcastle
Although Alexander Isak was the biggest superstar for Newcastle over the past two seasons with back-to-back 20-goal campaigns for the Magpies, the beating heart of Newcastle has been midfielder Bruno Guimaraes from the day he joined the club as an underhyped transfer from Lyon.
Epitomizing everything this rugged club and new sporting project is all about, Bruno G. has been one of the best all-around defensive midfielders in the Premier League with great progressive ability, intelligent covering defending combined with active box-to-box ball-winning, and even a penchant for quality in the final third.
Bruno has 35 goal contributions in 3 seasons for Newcastle despite being a deep-lying midfielder, and he combines end product whlie being a player who can consistently average around two tackles per game.
Crystal Palace
Marc Guehi merited serious consideration, and right winger Michael Olise was the better overall player. But because Eberechi Eze spent a longer time as a key player than Olise and was more of a difference-maker on the final scoreline, the London hero ultimately gets the nod.
Eze was the star of the 2024/25 team that won the FA Cup, and he closed that Premier League campaign with his third straight season of at least 14 goal contributions.
The England international made a reputation for scoring bangers, playmaking for the entire team, and leading by example on the ball with tireless work rate and skilled dribbling.
Eze could play just about anywhere in the attack and either eat up blades of grass effortlessly skipping in transition or whittle his way through traffic in the tight areas in and around the penalty box. He is sorely missed at Palace.
Manchester City
Choosing just one MVP for the best Premier League team of the 2020s is one tall task. Erling Haaland broke the record for most Premier League goals in the season and elevated the Citizens to the status of treble winners, while Rodri won the Ballon d’Or as a defensive midfielder – and then Man City completely collapsed a season later when he tore his ACL.
And yet when you break down the numbers comprehensively, the choice ends up being pretty simple. It’s Kevin De Bruyne. Nobody was the face of Manchester City quite like De Bruyne, and nobody in the Premier League had the technical quality or rapidity of thought quite like the Belgian playmaker.
De Bruyne had goal contribution totals of 18, 23, 23, and 14 to start the decade, and even in his down years, he was still averaging around three key passes per game. His “bad” seasons were still dream efficiency numbers for virtually every other attacking midfielder in world football.
Everton
OK, this sounds absolutely insane, but James Tarkowski is not only Burnley’s MVP of the 2020s, but he’s also Everton’s MVP of the 2020s. I know Richarlison was the star who burned the brightest and kept the Toffees alive to start the decade, but he really only had two good seasons in his decade.
Meanwhile, Tarkowski was tremendous for three campaigns, and he was just as responsible for Everton avoiding relegation with even less talented sides than the players Richarlison had around him.
The fearless Tarkowski was actually better for Everton than Burnley, allowing fewer dribbles against him while upgrading his interceptions per game to around 1.5 while on the Toffees.
Everton fans and Premier League supporters owe Tarkowski a lot more respect. Even in 2024/25 when Jarrad Branthwaite went ghost mode, Everton stayed defensively strong enough to stay in games, and that was in no small part to Tarkowski’s leadership and willingness to scrap. He’s a top man.
Chelsea
Cole Palmer has become the new face of Chelsea and taken the Premier League by storm, and there’s a strong case to be made that he’s the second-best player in the entire division behind only Liverpool’s legendary right winger Mohamed Salah.
But I think if you take a step back and look at the 2020s holistically, particularly when you consider that Chelsea won the Champions League in 2020/21 to start the decade before Palmer even arrived at Stamford Bridge, the MVP nod goes to Reece James.
Unquestionably, Palmer is the most talented player on Chelsea and their best player since Premier League icon Eden Hazard, but James has been the best right back in the league and a unique leader and weapon on both sides of the ball.
James was a phenom who burst onto the scene and was so good going forward that I think people forget he once had five goals and nine assists in a single Premier League season as a right back – and then he evolved into the position’s best lockdown defender.
It’s a shame about the injuries, but James is slowly working his way back to being a world-class right back, and the best part is that he’s still only 25 years old despite a wealth of experience and a Champions League trophy on his ledger.
Bournemouth
Neto was a highly underrated goalkeeper, Marcus Tavernier has been a key cog in the wheel since Bournemouth’s return to the Premier League, and Dominic Solanke had 19 goals in a league campaign before making a 65 million pound switch to Tottenham Hotspur.
But for my money, there’s been nobody more game-changing and dynamic than right winger Antoine Semenyo, who was already a good player in the 2023/24 but then blew up and became one of the Premier League’s top wingers in 2024/25 with 11 goals.
Semenyo is one of the toughest players to catch when he gets going, as he can go from 0 to 100 in an instant. All of the hard work he does out wide opens up so much space for the striker and attacking midfielders, and thus he becomes the main foundational piece for Bournemouth from which everything develops.
Tottenham
Pedro Porro actually gets a sneaky shout, and Harry Kane was so tough to leave off after his insane 2020/21 and 2022/23 Premier League seasons, but for his consistency throughout the decade, Son Heung-min has to be Spurs MVP of the 2020s.
Son was either Tottenham’s best or second-best player in every season since 2020/21, and even in 2024/25 when he was declining, he was still Spurs overall MVP for leading the team in Premier League goal contributions. Before injuries and wear-and-tear set in, he was one of the best players in the league that year, too, in the first half of the season.
The South Korean icon is gone but definitely not forgotten at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He had two seasons with 17 goals and two seasons with 10 assists while never contributing to fewer than 16 goals in a Premier League season as the hard-working, intrepid No. 7 out wide (or through the middle in 2023/24 when Kane first left to Bayern Munich).
Arsenal
Arsenal have fielded several top players during their rise to becoming perennial Premier League title contenders under Mikel Arteta, but it would be blasphemous to pretend as if any of those players are in the same league as Bukayo Saka.
The right winger has been Arsenal’s star man for the past four seasons since breaking out with 11 goals and 7 assists in the 2021/22 campaign. His consistency and all-around game are breathtaking, because even though he is still only 24 years old, he has literally been Arsenal’s best player in every season since his inaugural breakout game.
Injuries are the only thing Saka have left to slay – well, other than major silverware. He can hug the touchline, cut inside and score, interchange with players, cross, defend, and do just about everything else a dream world-class winger should. Arsenal are lucky to have him.
Liverpool
Alisson Becker and Virgil van Dijk are world-class monsters who have been one of the three best players in their respective positions since the start of the 2020/21 season, but it would be equally insane to pretend like this MVP honor for Liverpool belongs to anyone other than Mohamed Salah.
The Egyptian icon literally has an argument for being the best Premier League player of all time, and while that debate is sure to get everyone riled up, the numbers are gaudy.
Even past the age of 30, Salah is still undoubtedly the best current Premier League player. He had a ridiculous 29 goals and 18 assists last season after already posting 18 and 10 the previous season, and he had 19 and 12 and 23 and 12 in the previous two campaigns with 22 goals to kick the decade off.
Salah scores at will, and he’s also become an even more dangerous creator and progressor of the ball as he’s refined his all-around game with age. The man only gets better and better, and only a fool would disavow Salah of his unique greatness and place in world football history among the pantheon of great forwards.
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.