With the 2025\u201326 Premier League campaign approaching its final act, the Player of the Season conversation is sharpening. The prize has been awarded since the 1994\u201395 campaign and is most often claimed by a member of the title-winning team, though exceptions have emerged in recent years.<\/p>\n
Gabriel: If Arsenal prevail in a tightly contested title race, their defensive unit will take much of the credit and Gabriel stands out. The Brazilian has marshalled what is the best defence in the division, currently leading the way for goals conceded and clean sheets. He has also been a major threat at set pieces, contributing three goals and four assists in the Premier League. Defenders rarely attract Player of the Season honours; R\u00faben Dias and Virgil van Dijk are two of just five past winners at centre back. Gabriel\u2019s case therefore depends heavily on Arsenal winning the title.<\/p>\n
Antoine Semenyo: The 26-year-old has delivered an exceptional campaign across two clubs. He scored 10 goals for Bournemouth in the first half of the season before joining Manchester City in January. Like Marc Gu\u00e9hi, Semenyo has been a transformative winter addition as City climbed back into the title picture. He has been an immediate and consistent starter under Pep Guardiola. While Semenyo may lack some of the glamour of other contenders, his individual form has been impressive. For his candidacy to gain traction in the voting, City would realistically need to win the title, and one of his teammates appears better placed to claim the prize if they do.<\/p>\n
Erling Haaland: The Norwegian striker is leading the league for strikes and remains City\u2019s primary goal threat. He won the award in 2022\u201323 and became the first player in Premier League history to win the Young Player of the Season award alongside the Player of the Season prize in the same season. His numbers this term are not as frightening as in past years, but they remain substantial. City would be nowhere near the title without his steady stream of strikes, and a third Golden Boot looks probable. If City win the title, Haaland is the most likely winner.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Five leading candidates for 2025\/26 Premier League Player of the Season, ranked and explained. Guide<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12793,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[192,739,1056,172],"tags":[1162,801],"class_list":["post-12794","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal","category-bournemouth","category-man-city","category-epl","tag-analytics","tag-antoine-semenyo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12794","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12794"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12794\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12794"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12794"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12794"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}