The Stats-Based Premier League Team of the Season 2025-26

Every end-of-season team pick is a popularity contest. The same names show up on every pundit panel, voted in by vibes and reputation as much as performance. So we tried something different.

We pulled the full 2025-26 Premier League player dataset. Then we asked a simple question: if the numbers picked the Team of the Season, who gets in?

The rules were straightforward. Minimum 900 minutes played (roughly 10 full games) to qualify. Per-90 stats to level the playing field between starters and rotation players. And position-specific criteria, because what makes a great centre-back isn't what makes a great winger.

For defenders, we built a composite from tackles, interceptions, and clearances per 90, then factored in passing accuracy and attacking output. Midfielders were ranked on a mix of ball-winning (tackles and interceptions per 90), creativity (key passes per 90), and goal involvement. For forwards and wide players, goals, assists, and chance creation per 90 carried the most weight. At every position, the per-90 rate had to be elite. Minutes played didn't have a fixed weighting beyond the qualifier, but season-long production and availability were used as tiebreakers.

The result? Four Arsenal players made it. That's what happens when you win the league with the best defense in England. But the real fun is in the picks that don't come from the Emirates.

Goalkeeper: David Raya (Arsenal)

This one wasn't close.

Raya conceded just 26 goals all season. Gianluigi Donnarumma, the next-best keeper on goals conceded per 90, let in 29 at Manchester City. That gap of three goals doesn't sound like much until you remember that three goals is often the difference between a title and second place.

Nineteen clean sheets. A clean sheet percentage of 51.4%. More than half of his starts ended with a zero next to the opposition's name. The only keeper above 40% was Donnarumma at 44.1%. After that, the drop-off was steep.

Raya's case for keeper of the season is basically airtight. Best GA/90, most clean sheets by four. You could argue Donnarumma's save percentage was marginally higher, but he conceded more often and kept fewer clean sheets. The numbers say Raya. Loudly.

The Back Four

RB: Jurriën Timber (Arsenal)

The modern fullback has to do everything. Defend, create, carry the ball, even pop up with goals. Timber did all of it this season.

Three goals and five assists from right-back. That's eight goal involvements from a defender, the most of any fullback in the league. He also averaged 3.30 tackles and interceptions per 90, one of the highest rates among all defenders regardless of position. An 85.3% pass completion rate rounded out one of the most complete fullback seasons we've seen in the data.

Pedro Porro at Tottenham was the other strong candidate. He posted an incredible 1.70 key passes per 90, the highest of any defender in the league. But Timber's all-round profile edges it. More goal involvements (8 vs 3), a higher pass completion rate (85.3% vs 75.0%), and nearly as active defensively (3.30 vs 3.44 tackles and interceptions per 90).

CB: Maxence Lacroix (Crystal Palace)

If you picked your centre-back pairing on pure name recognition, Lacroix probably wouldn't cross your mind. The data doesn't care.

3.06 tackles and interceptions per 90, 7.35 clearances per 90. That gives him a defensive composite of 10.41 across 3,085 minutes and 35 starts. A couple of lower-minute centre-backs posted comparable or higher numbers. Kevin Danso at Tottenham hit 11.27 in 1,494 minutes, and James Hill reached 10.51 in 2,106. But neither sustained it over a full season. Lacroix did.

The closest full-season rival was Marcos Senesi at Bournemouth, who posted a near-identical defensive composite of 10.16 in even more minutes (3,288). But Lacroix separates himself on the ball. 88.2% pass completion against Senesi's 77.7%. When the methodology says we factor in passing accuracy after the defensive composite, this is what it looks like in practice.

One caveat worth naming. Clearance volume, which makes up the bulk of the composite, is partly a function of how much defending your team does. Palace defend more than Arsenal or Liverpool. That structurally favours defenders on mid-table sides, and it's why van Dijk and Gabriel look modest here despite being two of the best centre-backs in the league.

For this piece, we wanted the metric that surfaces overlooked performers rather than confirming reputations. Possession-adjusted numbers would narrow the gap. Raw volume rewards the players doing the most defensive work, game after game, regardless of badge.

CB: Gabriel Magalhães (Arsenal)

Three goals and four assists from centre-back. Seven goal involvements. That's the stat that separates Gabriel from every other defender in the league.

His defensive composite (7.94) is lower than Lacroix's, and that's fine. Gabriel earns his place because no other centre-back combined defensive solidity with genuine attacking output like this. 182 clearances, 88.2% pass completion, and a goal threat from set pieces that teams couldn't handle all season. Lacroix is the better pure defender per 90. Gabriel had the stronger all-round statistical case.

LB: Adrien Truffert (Bournemouth)

Here's your first surprise. A Bournemouth left-back in the Team of the Season.

But look at the numbers. Truffert played 3,379 minutes. That's almost every single minute of Bournemouth's season. In those minutes, he racked up five assists, 4.03 tackles and interceptions per 90, and 143 clearances. For context, that tackles-and-interceptions rate is higher than what most defensive midfielders managed this season.

Digne got more assists, but in nearly half the minutes. Neco Williams matched Truffert's defensive output, but with fewer assists and 55 fewer clearances. Truffert was the most complete left-back in the league this season, and it's not a conversation many people are having. That's kind of the point.

The Midfield Three

CDM: Declan Rice (Arsenal)

Rice has evolved. He's not just the ball-winner anymore. He's the midfielder who does literally everything.

Four goals, five assists, 3.11 tackles and interceptions per 90, and 1.83 key passes per 90. Read that again. He's putting up defensive numbers that would satisfy as a holding midfielder while also creating nearly two key passes per game. In 3,094 minutes. The man doesn't miss games either.

His 87.3% pass completion rate was the highest of any midfielder who also averaged 3+ tackles and interceptions per 90. Nobody else combined creation and destruction at that level. João Palhinha at Tottenham was the league's best pure ball-winner with 5.74 tackles and interceptions per 90, but Palhinha created almost nothing going forward. Rice did both.

CM: Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United)

You can debate whether Manchester United had a good season. You can't debate Bruno Fernandes.

Nine goals and 21 assists. Twenty-one. The next player on the assist chart was Rayan Cherki on 12. Bruno didn't lead the league in assists. He lapped the field. The previous Premier League record in a 38-game season was 20, shared by Thierry Henry and Kevin De Bruyne. Bruno beat it on a team that finished behind Arsenal and City.

His 4.00 key passes per 90 was nearly a full key pass more than any other midfielder (Cherki's 3.03 was second). Across 3,063 minutes. He never stopped.

His 30 goal involvements were second only to Haaland's 35 across the entire league. A midfielder, not a forward. Individual brilliance doesn't get much more individual than that.

CM: Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest)

Nobody outside of Nottingham is talking about this season. They should be.

Fifteen goals from central midfield. Fifteen. Not from a winger drifting inside. Not from a second striker playing behind the front man. From a midfielder at Nottingham Forest who also played 3,097 minutes and chipped in four assists.

For context, that's more Premier League goals than Mohamed Salah (7), Cole Palmer (10), Bukayo Saka (7), or Martin Ødegaard (1) managed this season. Gibbs-White scored more than every creative midfielder in the league except Bruno Fernandes.

Harry Wilson at Fulham deserves a mention. Ten goals and seven assists from 2,673 minutes is a quietly excellent season. But Gibbs-White edges it on goal-scoring volume and total minutes played. A season like this, from a player at a club like Forest, is the whole reason we let the numbers pick the team instead of the pundits.

The Front Three

RW: Jarrod Bowen (West Ham)

West Ham had a rough season. Bowen didn't.

Nine goals and eleven assists. Twenty goal involvements from the right wing, the most of any wide player in the Premier League. And he did it in 3,403 minutes across 38 starts. That's 99.5% of West Ham's total available minutes. In a league where even the fittest attackers tend to miss five or six games, Bowen was on the pitch for essentially all of it.

The 11 assists are what really separate him. No other winger came close. Bowen was West Ham's entire creative engine, averaging 1.19 key passes per 90 while also chipping in with 2.04 tackles and interceptions per 90. On a better team, those 11 assists probably turn into 14 or 15. You can only create the chances. You can't finish them yourself.

ST: Erling Haaland (Manchester City)

Twenty-seven goals. Eight assists. A goals-per-90 rate of 0.82 that makes the next-best striker in the league look pedestrian. You already know the Haaland case. We don't need to build it.

But here's the number that puts it in perspective. His 1.07 goal involvements per 90 means he was directly involved in a goal more than once every full match. Over 2,953 minutes. Across an entire season. That kind of sustained output from a centre-forward is borderline absurd.

Haaland also added 0.76 key passes per 90 and contributed 8 assists. He's not just a goalscorer anymore. He's become a functioning part of City's buildup play, which is scarier than the version of him that just stood in the box.

LW: Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa)

Rogers was everywhere this season. And the numbers back up what Villa fans already knew.

Ten goals and six assists from the left side in 3,280 minutes. That's 37 starts out of 38 league games. He missed one match all season. Nobody else who plays in a wide attacking role can match that combination of output and availability.

Trossard had a better per-90 rate (0.54 vs 0.44), but he only played 2,000 minutes. That's 21 starts out of 38 games. He was a rotation piece on a title-winning squad. Rogers was the starter, every single week, for a Villa side that finished in European contention.

Gakpo and Neto put up decent creative numbers (1.78 and 1.82 key passes per 90 respectively), but neither matched Rogers on total goal involvements. Sixteen goal contributions from a left-sided player across a full season is hard to argue with. He scored 10 of them, which means he wasn't just teeing up Watkins. He was a genuine goal threat in his own right.

The Biggest Snubs

Picking an XI means leaving people out. Here's who nearly made it and why they didn't quite get there.

Igor Thiago (Brentford) scored 22 goals this season. Twenty-two. That's the second-highest total in the league behind only Haaland. In a 4-4-2 he'd walk into this team. But we picked a 4-3-3 with one striker spot, and Haaland's 0.82 goals per 90 makes that an impossible argument. Igor Thiago had an outstanding season. He just plays the same position as the best striker in the world.

Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) is the most painful omission. His 2.47 key passes per 90 was the highest of any wide player in the league. But Bowen's total production was simply bigger: 9 goals and 11 assists to Saka's 7 and 5. That's 20 goal involvements against 12. Saka's per-90 creativity was elite, but Bowen delivered more goals, more assists, and more total output across the season.

William Saliba (Arsenal) had the highest pass completion of any centre-back at 92.9%. But his defensive composite of 6.38 (1.79 T+I/90, 4.59 Clr/90) was well below Lacroix's 10.41 and his attacking output below Gabriel's 7 goal involvements. Elite passer, but the two centre-backs who made it offered more at both ends.

Florian Wirtz (Liverpool) was Liverpool's marquee signing and he delivered 5 goals, 3 assists, and 2.27 key passes per 90 in his debut Premier League season. In another year, that gets him in. This year, Bruno and Gibbs-White had stronger statistical cases.

João Palhinha (Tottenham) was the best pure ball-winner in the league at 5.74 tackles and interceptions per 90. Nobody else topped 5.50. But his creative output was nearly zero (0.33 KP/90), and in a team of the season, you need midfielders who contribute in both directions. Rice does that. Palhinha doesn't.

Cole Palmer (Chelsea) scored 10 goals, but only managed 1 assist in 1,955 minutes. Palmer's goal-scoring is electric, but the overall creative numbers don't match what Bowen and Gibbs-White produced this season.

Rayan Cherki (Manchester City) posted 12 assists and 3.03 key passes per 90, the second-best creative numbers in the league. A genuine contender, but his 4 goals and limited minutes (1,786) compared to the midfielders selected kept him just outside.

Dominik Szoboszlai (Liverpool) was a workhorse. 3,231 minutes, 6 goals, 7 assists, 2.17 key passes per 90, and 2.40 tackles and interceptions per 90. One of the most well-rounded seasons by any midfielder. If we picked 12, he'd be in.

The Full XI

Eight different clubs represented. Arsenal's defensive core earned its place through individual numbers, not just the badge. And at Crystal Palace, West Ham, Nottingham, Villa, and Bournemouth, five players put together campaigns that deserve far more attention than they've gotten.

Disagree with a pick? Good. That's what the comparison tool is for.