There have been seven matches played in the 2025/26 Premier League season at the point of the October international break, so it’s time to rank the top five Player of the Season candidates in order.
5. Tottenham RW Mohammed Kudus
Arguably the best signing of the summer transfer window when combining cost, long-term value, and current quality, Mohammed Kudus is leading all Premier League players in dribbles completed per game with 4.3 and is tied with Jack Grealish in the assists column with four.
Kudus only ranks behind Grealish because the latter means even more to Everton, as Tottenham do have a great defenders and an improved midfield. However, the rest of the Spurs attack is quite poor, and you can hardly imagine Tottenham being remotely effective as an offense without Kudus’s tireless work. That’s the best possible praise that can be given to the Ghanaian winger and his impact already at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
4. Everton LW Jack Grealish
Jack Grealish has transformed Everton from a club that were constantly threatened by relegation into a sleeper for European football, and the change has been almost immediate and linked directly to his presence.
The former Manchester City and Aston Villa star is tied for the league lead with four assists, and he’s also averaging 2.4 key passes and 3.7 fouls drawn per game as the floor-raising focal point that he was always destined to be.
Grealish does his best work and is by far his most aesthetic as a footballer when he’s the star of an otherwise mediocre side, and we’re getting to see the finest of Grealish now that he’s out of the Pep Guardiola system.
3. Chelsea DM Moises Caicedo
You won’t find a single defensive player in European football who is making as much of an impact on matches as Moises Caicedo, because the Ecuadorian superstar is averaging nearly seven combined tackles and interceptions per game while also scoring three goals of his own.
Caicedo is the best ball-winner in the world, with all due respect to Tottenham rival Joao Palhinha, and he is the standout player on a Chelsea team loaded with talent.
Every single great Premier League defensive midfielder that fancies themselves as the best 6 or 8 in the league ends up bowing the knee to Caicedo when facing im face-to-face, and he really deserves more credit as a Ballon d’Or sleeper.
2. Manchester City ST Erling Haaland
No player in the Premier League has scored more goals than Erling Haaland’s nine, and aside from the fine work Jeremy Doku is doing on the wings to support the Norwegian superstar, Haaland is pretty much carrying a rather average Man City side yet again.
Only Tottenham were successful in keeping Haaland off the scoresheet in any single game this season. Haaland admittedly isn’t offering a whole lot besides his goals, but his goals are the most important thing for a Man City side that is still outside the top four.
Without Haaland, Manchester City would have six goals this season, going from the highest-scoring team in the Premier League to ranking only ahead of Wolves and Nottingham Forest in that statistic.
1. Bournemouth LW Antoine Semenyo
Yet as amazing as Haaland has been, Antoine Semenyo deserves the utmost credit for his work on both wings – but now the left moreso than the right in 2025/26 – in turning Bournemouth into the biggest surprise threat in the entire Premier League.
The Cherries are fourth in the table, tied on points with a Tottenham side that the Ghanaian international and his teammates absolutely decimated on Matchday 3. Semenyo’s nine goal contributions are split more evenly across six goals and three assists than Haaland’s 10 with one assist.
Semenyo is carving up defenses on the counter to the tune of 2.1 dribbles completed per game, and his importance to this high-flying Bournemouth side cannot be underestimated.
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.