Premier League Team Of The Season 2025/2026 – Data Analysis

The 2025/2026 Premier League season saw several major story arcs throughout the campaign. 

Last year’s champions, Liverpool, experienced a fall from grace while Arsenal rose to the top of the table to finally claim the title for the first time since 2003/2004.

Manchester United recovered from a disaster of a league campaign in 2024/2025 and their UEFA Europa League Final loss to Tottenham Hotspur to get back in the UEFA Champions League places, while Spurs remained towards the bottom of the table, engaged in a serious relegation battle. 

AFC Bournemouth, Brighton & Hove Albion and newly-promoted Sunderland all punched well above their weight, while Chelsea and Newcastle United fell well short of expectations. 

All over the table, there were standout individual performances worth highlighting, some in spite of their respective club trajectories in 2025/2026. 

This data analysis article aims to provide a representative Premier League Team of the Season for the 2025/2026 campaign. 

Limiting our selections to a maximum of one player per club, our analysis features some players who demonstrated exceptional all-around performances and some who had truly elite output in one or two key areas for which they’ve earned recognition. 

Goalkeeper: Robin Roefs, Sunderland, 23

Kicking off our Premier League Team of the Season, we’ve gone for Sunderland stopper Robin Roefs (192cm/6’4”, 72kg/158lbs) between the sticks. 

Roefs kept 10 clean sheets with the newly-promoted side, a record bested by just five other Premier League goalkeepers this term. 

This was despite facing the fifth-most shots of any goalkeeper with at least 800 minutes played in England’s top flight this season (157) and having the sixth-most xG against in the league (48.13). 

Roefs’ save rate and prevented goals per 90 are highlighted in Figure 1. 

The Sunderland stopper sits nicely inside the top-right corner of the graphic, indicating his combination of save volume and efficiency, with the fifth-most prevented goals (3.13) and fifth-highest save rate (71.34%) of all Premier League goalkeepers with at least 800 minutes played in 2025/2026. 

Several goalkeepers fall in a similar enough range as Roefs for save rate, but few pair that with as many prevented goals as him, highlighting his impact on his side’s defensive outcomes. 

Beyond his shot-stopping numbers, Roefs ranked second in the league for exits per 90 (2.42) and sixth for aerial duels per 90 (0.68), illustrating a goalkeeper who combined strong shot prevention with proactive sweeping and a strong presence in the air. 

Overall, Roefs commanded his penalty box authoritatively and added clear value to Sunderland’s defensive numbers in 2025/2026, earning him his place in our team. 

Right-Back: Pedro Porro, Tottenham Hotspur, 26

Spain international Pedro Porro (173cm/5’8”, 69kg/152lbs) remains one of the Premier League’s standout full-backs despite Tottenham’s disastrous campaign. 

In 2025/2026, he remained a key creative outlet for Spurs. 

Although he made just two league assists, down from six in 2024/2025, he generated 4.92 xA, which was the best of any out-and-out right-back in the league and highlights that he was unfortunate not to end up with a higher assists tally considering his creative output. 

Figure 3 plots Premier League right-backs’ key passes per 90 against xA per 90. 

As expected, Porro ranks among the league’s most productive right-backs according to these creative metrics. 

His combination of chance creation volume and quality is comparable with that of a creative midfielder, let alone a full-back. 

At the end of the day, it’s crucial to consider defensive contributions when assessing performance at full-back. 

Crucially, Pedro Porro’s attacking involvement does not come at the expense of defensive contribution, where he also performs among the best in his position, demonstrating the two-way effectiveness associated with an elite modern full-back. 

Porro is not the best defensive right-back in the league. 

Though volume is high, his defensive duel success rate is fairly average compared to his peers, while his aerial duel success rate is relatively poor, indicating a weakness in his game.

However, he is still a strong contributor without the ball and considering all he offers in possession, he’s definitely in the conversation around the best Premier League full-backs at the moment. 

Right Centre-Back: Maxence Lacroix, Crystal Palace, 26

Moving across to right centre-back, we’ve chosen Crystal Palace’s most-used centre-back this term, Maxence Lacroix (190cm/ 6’3”, 88kg/194lbs). 

Alongside performance levels, availability is a key consideration in choosing this team, as will become increasingly apparent as we progress through the team. 

For Palace, this trait was paramount in 2025/2026 as they competed on two fronts, domestically and in Europe, where they went on to achieve UEFA Conference League glory.

Lacroix contributed significantly to the Eagles’ campaign, earning his place in this team and the France national team for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. 

Figure 5 plots centre-backs’ defensive duel win percentage against defensive duels per 90. 

Lacroix places among the league leaders for both workload and efficiency, combining elite volume with effectiveness.

The 190cm centre-back’s profile is reinforced by Figure 6, which compares aerial duel win percentage with aerial duel volume. 

Again, Lacroix performs at a high level in both dimensions, highlighting his ability to control physical contests on the ground and in the air. 

Together, these visualisations paint the picture of a defender capable of winning virtually every type of defensive confrontation with high frequency at the top level of club football. 

Lacroix repeatedly appears among the strongest performers in some of the Premier League’s most important defensive indicators. 

His reliability and defensive dominance for Crystal Palace this term make him a strong candidate for recognition in this team. 

Left Centre-Back: Marcos Senesi, AFC Bournemouth, 29

Partnering Maxence Lacroix in our Team of the Season is soon-to-be Tottenham Hotspur centre-back Marcos Senesi (185cm/6’1”, 75kg/165lbs), who was one of the best ball-playing defenders in England’s top flight this term. 

Another centre-back with outstanding availability, Senesi missed just one of Bournemouth’s Premier League games (due to suspension) in 2025/2026. 

He was a leading figure in guiding the Cherries to a sixth-placed finish, which guarantees the south-coast club UEFA Europa League football in 2026/2027. 

Where Lacroix provides his team with defensive security and reliability at the back, Senesi excels primarily through progression and ball-playing quality while also retaining strong defensive numbers. 

Figure 7 plots progressive passes per 90 against progressive pass accuracy. 

Senesi sits far to the right of the distribution, indicating extraordinary progressive passing volume, while maintaining a high level of accuracy.

The profile is reinforced by Figure 8, where progressive runs per 90 are compared with successful defensive actions. 

Senesi occupies a strong position again, demonstrating that his influence extends beyond just passing; he also advances possession through carrying while remaining heavily involved defensively.

While Senesi’s duel-win percentages aren't elite, he profiles as a front-foot defender who gets involved in his team’s defensive efforts at a high volume, looking to prevent attacks from developing through interceptions and proactive engagement.

In possession, he was even more than a distributor for Bournemouth last term, he was, at times, a key creative outlet and deep-lying playmaker who ended the season having generated 2.31 xA and contributed five assists. 

This was not an accident; it is a reflection both of Senesi’s on-the-ball capabilities and the confidence with which he played in 2025/2026, as well as the trust shown in his ability by Andoni Iraola tactics. 

Left-Back: Lewis Hall, Newcastle United, 21

A notable omission from Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup, Newcastle United left-back Lewis Hall (179cm/5’10”, 69kg/152lbs) still earns his place in our Premier League Team of the Season and remains one of the most exciting and complete young full-backs in world football. 

Like Pedro Porro on the right, Lewis Hall contributes heavily both in and out of possession, as indicated by Figure 9. 

Defensively, Hall offers a strong combination of ground and aerial duel volume and success, alongside a relatively high number of interceptions and low foul volume, making his defensive profile well-rounded and responsible. 

Alongside that defensive security, Hall offers his side value in possession in several areas. 

Firstly, his chance creation strongly features aggressive delivery from wide, with crosses targeting the space between the opposing goalkeeper and his defenders into the six-yard box relatively frequent feature of Lewis Hall’s game.

The Newcastle left-back also contributes significantly to ball progression, having played the sixth-most progressive passes (7.95 per 90) of any left-back in the Premier League this term, with the best progressive passing accuracy (77.17%), emphasising that Hall’s in-possession value doesn’t just come from final-third actions but also from helping his team move the ball through the pitch efficiently.

 Figure 10 strengthens this conclusion further. 

Hall records strong dribble volume while maintaining a high dribble success rate, highlighting his ability to progress individually rather than relying on passing combinations alone, which is particularly valuable in wide areas, where ball-carrying ability can quickly transform defence into attack in transition.

Hall's appeal lies in his versatility. 

The 21-year-old consistently appears among the strongest performers across several metrics, rather than relying on a single elite area of performance. 

He represents the archetype of the modern attacking full-back well, in that he progresses play, creates, offers technical security, and remains active in his defensive contributions. 

Central Midfield: Elliot Anderson, Nottingham Forest, 23

Moving on into central midfield, where we’ve selected three players for our Team of the Season, we’re starting off with Nottingham Forest’s Elliot Anderson (179cm/5’10”, 63kg/138lbs), who currently profiles as one of the best two-way midfielders in the Premier League. 

Figure 11 plots successful attacking actions per 90 against successful defensive actions per 90, and Anderson ranks very nicely in the top-right quadrant of the graph, almost in a league of his own. 

The 23-year-old, who started all but one of Forest’s league games this term and came off the bench in the other to feature in all 38 of the Reds’ fixtures, engaged in the fourth-most duels (21.92 per 90) of any central midfielder in England’s top flight this term, winning a respectable average of 52.13%. 

Anderson is more than a combative midfielder; he’s a real creative force in the middle of the park for Nottingham Forest. 

He likes to push into the half-space or even wider and provide crosses for his attacking teammates, having played the sixth-most (2.16 per 90) of any central midfielder in the Premier League this term, with a strong 44.32% accuracy. 

He’s also comfortable taking on opponents 1v1 with dribbles and advancing the ball into more dangerous areas via carries, which provides a platform for another element of his technical quality to shine.