From superstar forwards Bukayo Saka of Arsenal and Son Heung-min of Tottenham to defensive stalwarts like Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo and Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk, let’s take a look at the ten best players of the 2024/25 Premier League season so far after 13 Matchdays…and rank them in order.
10. Chelsea ST Nicolas Jackson
At first, I was tempted to go with a player shining for a less successful team like Jarrod Bowen at West Ham, Facundo Buonanotte with Leicester City (on loan from Brighton), or even Everton’s underrated Dwight McNeil.
However, it was too hard to ignore the eight goals Nicolas Jackson has scored for Chelsea this season, combined with the sort of quality all-around play that he has brought since joining the London-based giants, even when he wasn’t scoring goals quite as regularly.
Jackson’s brilliant finish opened the scoring for the Blues in their recent 3-0 drubbing of Aston Villa, and Chelsea shouldn’t be slept on as a team that could make the Premier League title race very interesting soon – if not this season, then definitely next.
In addition to his eight goals, Jackson has added three assists with an average of 1.1 key passes per game, and it looks like Chelsea don’t have to pay a premium price for a No. 9; they already have the second-best striker in the Premier League right now.
9. Tottenham LW Son Heung-min
The signing of another one of the league’s best strikers, Dominic Solanke, has enabled Son Heung-min to transition back to his favorite spot on the left side of the Tottenham attack.
And although Son has “only” scored three goals with four assists, he has been excellent all-around and is able to impact the game more holistically as a winger than as a striker.
Son is averaging 2.2 key passes and 1.5 dribbles completed per game this season as the second-best wide playmaker in the league behind Bukayo Saka, even if he doesn’t have the gaudy assists total to prove it.
8. Chelsea DM Moises Caicedo
Nobody should be surprised if Moises Caicedo climbs up this list into the top five, and there’s a case to be made that he has been as valuable to Chelsea’s top-four success this season as 2023/24 breakout star Cole Palmer.
It’s wonderful to see Caicedo back on form after a rough first season at Stamford Bridge after he was arguably the best defensive midfielder in European football as a breakout star at Brighton.
Caicedo has been just as good in 2024/25 thus far, notching 3.3 tackles and 1.6 interceptions per game as the most active defensive destroyer in the English top flight.
He has picked up where he left off from a stunning summer with Ecuador in Copa America in which he had never seven combined tackles and interceptions per game.
7. Brentford RW Bryan Mbeumo
Brentford forward Bryan Mbeumo has become one of the most in-demand right wingers on the transfer market, breaking out as the latest exciting attacking player in Thomas Frank’s side.
Mbeumo could be the ideal replacement for Miguel Almiron in Newcastle, but, until then, he will be working hard to make sure that Brentford continue to threaten for a European place.
The Bees’ trident of Mbeumo, Yoane Wissa, and Mikkel Damsgaard has been arguably the most fluid in the Premier League this season. Mbeumo has been the best of the bunch with 8 goals, 1.6 key passes per game, and nearly 2.5 combined dribbles completed and fouls drawn per match.
6. Liverpool CB Virgil van Dijk
More people need to be talking about the season Virgil van Dijk is having for Liverpool at the center back position, and I personally wouldn’t fault anyone who ranks the Dutch defender on the podium alongside teammate Mohamed Salah and Arsenal’s Bukayo Saka.
Van Dijk has been dribbled past just 0.2 times per game with 1.9 interceptions per match, in addition to 0.8 tackles per game. That’s an insane ratio of interventions to dribbles allowed, proving that Van Dijk is capable of much more than passive defense.
A lot of the criticisms against him have aged extremely poorly, as Van Dijk has indisputably become the standard by which all center backs in world football are measured against.
5. Wolves AM Matheus Cunha
Mathus Cunha has seven goals and three assists this season on an otherwise poor Wolves team, and his breathtaking performance against Fulham is a reminder that, at his best, Cunha is capable of scoring goals that few on this planet can touch. Who else remembers this one at RB Leipzig?
The fleet-footed Brazilian playmaker has been consistently productive for Wolves this season, averaging 1.8 key passes, 1.8 dribbles completed, and 1.8 fouls drawn per game.
Cunha is legitimately one of the most talented players in the Premier League today, and it is about time the 25-year-old became a household name. He’s only just entering his prime as an attacking midfielder.
4. Manchester City ST Erling Haaland
Erling Haaland has more goals than anyone else in the Premier League, banking 12 in 13 appearances as he looks to break his own record of 36 in a season that he notched in 2022/23 as a first-year Citizen.
The Norwegian also quietly notched eight assists to prove the doubts that he couldn’t create chances very wrong. But funnily enough, Haaland has struggled to create for others this season, which is why he can’t rank any higher than fourth.
There are also criticisms of Haaland underperforming in big matches for Manchester City, such as in recent clean sheet losses to fellow top-four contenders Liverpool and Tottenham.
3. Chelsea AM Cole Palmer
Cole Palmer brought out his trademark celly again at the weekend in a 3-0 drubbing of Aston Villa, and he leads a Chelsea side that has the most amount of players on this list.
That backs up the point that Chelsea are the most improved team in the league this season under Enzo Maresca, and Palmer, despite now sharing hype with Jackson and Caicedo, remains one of the league’s best players.
A Premier League Player of the Season candidate in 2023/24, Palmer has more goal contributions than games played this season with 8 goals and 6 assists across 13 starts.
Fans outside of Stamford Bridge have to be careful not to underrate Palmer because of annoyance with the previous hype train and, more importantly, because players who are as consistent as him tend to become taken for granted.
2. Liverpool RW Mohamed Salah
Mohamed Salah is having a beautiful season at the top of the Liverpool attack, leading the way as a goal-scorer and a provider as he continues to get better and better with age.
It’s crazy to think that Salah is the subject of transfer rumors linking him away from Anfield, because he is too good for the Saudi Pro League and too valuable to leave the club where he has become one of the Premier League’s biggest all-time legends.
Salah has added to that legend this season with 11 goals and 7 assists, making the difference in so many games where Liverpool seemed to be headed for an upset, including against Southampton.
1. Arsenal RW Bukayo Saka
Yet Bukayo Saka takes first place in what is a mild upset. I actually came into this piece with the intention of ranking Salah first, but after digging through the numbers, I am going to go with Saka.
As I said above in the Cole Palmer section, the most consistent players tend to become the most underrated, and a great case for how easy it is to take Saka for granted is comparing how poor Arsenal were without him to how brilliant they are with him.
Saka also gets overshadowed because he sacrifices so much goal-scoring for the good of his teammates. He is averaging three key passes per game with 10 assists in 12 starts, which are both bonkers statistics, particularly for a winger.
He still has 5 goals in those 12 starts and an average of 4 combined dribbles completed and fouls drawn per game. Saka is the best all-around attacking player in the Premier League right now, and Arsenal would be significantly lower than the top four without him.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.