Lucas Paqueta of West Ham United is challenged by Moises Caicedo of Chelsea during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Chelsea at London Stadium on August 22, 2025 in London, England.placeholder image
Lucas Paqueta of West Ham United is challenged by Moises Caicedo of Chelsea during the Premier League match between West Ham United and Chelsea at London Stadium on August 22, 2025 in London, England. | Getty Images
A number of players from London clubs have impressed in the early weeks of the Premier League season
The early WhoScored Premier League Team of the Season so far is dominated by players from London clubs with nine of the XI stars named playing their football in the capital.
Early leaders Liverpool have no representatives with Sunderland’s Dan Ballard and Everton ace Jack Grealish the only men from outside of London teams who have made the cut.
In truth, Spurs and Chelsea dominate with seven of the XI taken up by those two sides while Arsenal have one representative and a West Ham player taking the final spot.
WhoScored Team of the Season so far as London clubs dominate
Tottenham goalkeeper Guglielmo Vicario makes the cut in-between the posts while the back four is made up of Arsenal defender Jurrien Timber, Chelsea’s Trevoh Chalobah, Ballard and another Chelsea player in Marc Cucurella.
Mohamed Kudus of Tottenham, Chelsea midfielder Moises Caicedo and West Ham’s Lucas Paqueta make up the midfielder alongside Grealish. The attack is fronted by Joao Pedro of Chelsea and former Everton forward Richarlison - who is now of Spurs.
Ballard and Pedro both have the highest ratings with 7.9/10 with Grealish and Chalobah sharing a 7.7/10 rating. Pedro and Grealish are the only players from the WhoScored XI to be nominated for Premier League Player of the Month.
West Ham, Arsenal, Tottenham and Chelsea managers reflect on start to the season
Speaking after his side beat Nottingham Forest 3-0 before the international break, Graham Potter said: “The world we’re in, things change quickly but, for us, we didn’t doubt the fight in the team, we didn’t doubt the spirit in the team, we didn’t doubt the quality in the team.
“But when results are like they are, people are looking for things and reasons and you can get very simplistic sometimes. The players deserve the night tonight, they deserve the win, they deserve the performance because of how they’ve acted and I’m really proud of them for that.”
Spurs lost their last outing 1-0 to Bournemouth. New boss Thomas Frank said of the season so far: "I think two good performances and one bad, so I would like to avoid bad performances. I think the lower level was too low today, so that's what we need to raise. I think, again, work ethic and character in the team was good, but I think we lacked some football bits."
Mikel Arteta is remaining positive after Arsenal’s loss to Liverpool, as he reacted after that game: “You can take a lot of positives from the game. I haven’t seen Liverpool often look like that at home like they did against us. We go on again.
“You have to put the ball in the back of the net when you have chances. We were much better than last year when we drew the game — much, much better. Today when we had three, four, five chances in the box, 1v1, we just have to finish.”
Chelsea are still unbeaten after a controversial win over Fulham last weekend.
“I am very happy because we have played three games and have seven points,” said Blues boss Enzo Maresca afterwards.
“Today I wasn’t happy after the first half because we didn’t play on the ball in the way we prepared the game, and we were not good enough at winning second balls and duels.
“Second half, we were completely brilliant. On the ball, we were very good, won most second balls, and we dominated the game. We deserved to win the game. We dominated in the second half and if you’re not strong enough against this team, you will struggle.”
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