Bruno Fernandes
There is a version of this season in which Bruno Fernandes left Manchester United in the summer. “The club wanted me to leave,” he said in December. Thankfully for United fans, he stayed, navigated the tactical ambiguity of playing for Ruben Amorim and led the team back into the Champions League.
Fernandes has been at the centre of everything good United have done this season. He has 19 assists – one short of the 20 achieved by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne in the seasons when they won the PFA player of the year award – and has created 124 chances for teammates, 56 more than Dominik Szoboszlai in second.
His ability to block out the turmoil at his club and consistently produce world-class performances is admirable. This season has been particularly turbulent, with Fernandes deployed as a deep-lying midfielder under Amorim before his sacking. Despite being played out of position, the captain kept his head down and contributed five goals and eight assists before returning to his preferred No 10 position under Michael Carrick. Since that change, United’s form has followed suit: 15 wins and just, three draws and two defeats in 20 games, with Fernandes contributing 11 assists and three goals.
Declan Rice
Mikel Arteta once described Declan Rice as a lighthouse: “Someone who brings a focal point, clarity and direction to everybody.” Though not the most conventional metaphor for a footballer, the description has felt entirely accurate this season. Arsenal are just two wins away from their first league title since 2004 and Rice has been at the heart of virtually everything positive about their campaign. He can operate as a holding midfielder who shields the defence, a box-to-box engine who drives transitions, and an advanced No 8 who contributes in the final third.
Rice is essential to Arsenal’s buildup play; he is the player who gets the ball up the pitch and turns possession into scoring chances. He ranks second in their squad for forward passes and among the league’s most frequent ball carriers, ranking second for carries and sixth for progressive carries.
His influence doesn’t stop there, though. He has created more chances (63) than any other Arsenal player, ranks fifth in the squad for shots attempted, and is top for final-third passes and entries. With Martín Zubimendi taking on more of the defensive burden, Rice has been free to move further up the pitch, where he can use his elite passing to break defensive lines.
He is just as influential when Arsenal are out of possession; he leads the team for ball recoveries and ranks second for interceptions. Rice prevents danger before it happens – his ability to read the game is second to none, he cuts out threats before they reach the box, and he is physically strong in duels. Arsenal have by far the best defensive record in the league this season – they have only conceded 26 goals in 36 games – and he has been crucial to that success.
Erling Haaland
Most strikers can only dream of scoring 26 goals in a Premier League season. For Haaland, it is becoming routine. He scored 13 goals in his first 10 league games this season, which put him on course to break the Premier League record of 36 he set in his first season at City in 2022-23 – when he won the player of the year award.
The goals have slowed in the past few months. He hit the milestone of 100 Premier League goals – in just 111 games, the fastest in history – in December, but he has scored just five non-penalty goals in the league since the turn of the year. Context matters. After the departures of Kevin De Bruyne, Ederson, Ilkay Gündogan and Kyle Walker, Pep Guardiola adopted a more direct approach that leans on the pace and verticality of players such as Rayan Cherki, Antoine Semenyo and Jérémy Doku.
Haaland’s role has evolved. He now shapes attacks as much as finishes them, dragging centre-backs out of position and creating space for runners. His eight assists this season, matching his best return from the 2022-23 season and ranking third in the league for open-play assists, is evidence of that. With City’s title dreams still alive and Haaland staring down a third golden boot in four seasons, he has a good chance of collecting another player of the year accolade.
David Raya
Goalkeepers rarely dominate the headlines in the title race, but David Raya’s numbers and moments of brilliance have made him impossible to ignore this season. He has kept clean sheets in half of Arsenal’s league games (18 of 36), enough to win his third consecutive golden glove – something only Pepe Reina, Joe Hart and Ederson have achieved in the Premier League.
Raya has been decisive in big moments for Arsenal. From the full-stretch fingertip save against Brighton that preserved their place at the summit in December, to his stoppage-time heroics against Chelsea in March – when he clawed away what seemed like a certain equaliser – and the point-blank stop from Mateus Fernandes against West Ham. These are not just outstanding saves but defining moments in the title race.
Premier League titles are often decided by fine margins and you can point to numerous moments when Raya has been the difference between another season of disappointment for Arsenal and potentially lifting the trophy.
Rayan Cherki
At a time when footballers are often criticised for being too regimented, or “robotic” as Gary Neville said after a drab goalless draw in the Manchester derby last year, Rayan Cherki has been a breath of fresh air, a flashback to the glory days of the Barclays era. Audacious, improvisational and unafraid of expression, Cherki embodies everything the modern game has been losing.
He is the first player who has joined City with a sharp, unpredictable edge and resisted being smoothed into a conventional Guardiola system player, which is a testament to his raw, unfiltered talent. Guardiola admitted as much himself, saying: “I am a manager who likes control, we know this. So sometimes, on the touchline, it is so, so tough to watch. My heart … pff. He gets the ball, he starts the tricks, and my instinct is to shout: ‘Rayan, please, play simple!’ But if I tell him ‘stop this’, I destroy the player.”
City used to rely on the creative magic of De Bruyne to break down stubborn defences. Cherki has become the player who breaks games wide open. Whether it’s a quick turn, a clever pass through a crowd, or a moment of daring, he is City’s main problem solver. That 83rd-minute winner against Nottingham Forest in December, the two assists that undid Chelsea, and his weaving solo run against Arsenal in April all show a player who can change a game in an instant. With 16 goal involvements, Cherki is also one of the most productive players in the league. His peers might appreciate his rabonas, keepy-uppies and showboating more than his manager, however.
This is an article by WhoScored