Every Premier League club’s pleasant surprise this season: Amad, Kluivert, Burn, Tielemans…

Jason Soutar
Amad Diallo, Justin Kluivert, Ryan Gravenberch and Dan Burn
Amad Diallo, Justin Kluivert, Ryan Gravenberch and Dan Burn have exceeded expectations this season

Every Premier League club has enjoyed the surprise emergence of at least one player and from Ryan Gravenberch at Liverpool to Amad Diallo at Manchester United, we have picked one pleasant surprise for all 20.

 

Arsenal: Myles Lewis-Skelly
Spare a thought for Jakub Kiwior, who has fallen behind another left-back in the pecking order. At least Oleksandr Zinchenko is a wanted man and Kieran Tierney will re-join Celtic at the end of the season.

Riccardo Calafiori was signed in the summer but injuries have been a real problem, meaning Mikel Arteta has turned to Lewis-Skelly ahead of Zinchenko, Tierney and Kiwior. He has seamlessly slotted in as an inverted full-back, displaying incredible technical ability and defensive steel.

Against Wolves on Saturday, Lewis-Skelly and fellow Hale End graduate Ethan Nwaneri became the first English Arsenal players aged 18 or under to start a league game together since 1998. Only six times have two English teenagers been named in a Gunners starting XI in the Premier League. The first time was Ray Parlour – who was apparently once 19 years old – and Ian Selley in 1992.

MAILBOX: Is Arsenal conspiracy cult prompted by ‘antagonism and feeling of superiority’?

 

Aston Villa: Youri Tielemans
There were a few candidates at Villa. Jhon Duran and Boubacar Kamara have been fantastic but Youri Tielemans’ performances have taken us by surprise, considering he was moaning about being at Villa months after agreeing to sign for Villa. He has turned things around and is now one of Unai Emery’s most important players.

The summer signing of Amadou Onana looked like shifting Tielemans back to the bench after plenty of game time in the second half of last season but the former Leicester City man has started all 31 Premier League and Champions League matches in 2024/25. Onana, meanwhile, has started 17 of 31, though he has had a couple of injuries.

Tielemans probably goes down as Villa’s player of the season, as well as their pleasant surprise. He has been fantastic.

 

Bournemouth: Justin Kluivert
Congratulations to Andoni Iraola, who is officially the most ‘what a job he is doing down there, by the way’ manager in the Premier League. Every single Bournemouth player is exceeding expectations with the Cherries on a ludicrous 12-match unbeaten run, which includes a 5-0 win over high-flying Nottingham Forest, a 4-1 triumph at Newcastle to end their nine-match winning run, a 3-0 win away to Manchester United, a draw that should have been a win at Chelsea and a home victory over Tottenham.

Son of Patrick, Justin Kluivert, has been a middling forward wherever he has played but has turned up this season and is a huge reason why Bournemouth are flying. He has a silly nine goal involvements in his last four matches, which includes a hat-trick at St James’ Park – his second Premier League treble this season. Nobody saw this coming and if you say you did, you are a liar.

Before this season, Kluivert had seven goals in 32 Premier League matches but has 11 in 22 this campaign, helping propel Bournemouth into a very sustainable push for Europe.

READ MORE: 427 reasons to start taking Bournemouth very, very seriously in Champions League hunt

 

Brentford: Mikkel Damsgaard
Damsgaard joined Brentford in 2022 with high expectations after his European Championship exploits a year earlier, but he was pretty pants…until now!

The 24-year-old Danish international did not score in any of his first two seasons, drawing a blank in 49 consecutive matches before scoring his first in Our League on his 59th appearance. He had registered four assists in the previous 10 matches and his first goal was clearly coming. He now has 10 goal involvements in 23 matches and has been one of Brentford’s best players.

 

Brighton: Carlos Baleba
Brighton started very well under Fabian Hurzeler but have gone off the boil a smidgen. They only have two Premier League wins since beating Bournemouth away on November 23, which was incidentally the last time Iraola’s team lost.

Baleba actually got sent off that day and in the Seagulls’ most recent win, he conceded a penalty. So, yeah… ignoring that, he has been pretty good this season. Performances against Manchester City and West Ham stand out, while he was one of his side’s best players in Saturday’s home defeat to Everton.

 

Chelsea: Noni Madueke
Chelsea were one of the more difficult teams to single out a player. We initially thought Enzo Fernandez but stepping things up as a £105million midfielder is hardly a pleasant surprise; it’s the bare f***ing minimum.

Madueke was one of the players we thought Chelsea might sell in the summer but he has ended up being their most reliable and consistent performer, even if Enzo Maresca has been irked by his application.

The 22-year-old earned his senior England debut in September and has 10 goal contributions in 21 league matches in 2024/25.

 

Crystal Palace: Maxence Lacroix
Whoever was tasked with replacing Joachim Andersen always had a massive job, but Lacroix has done very well. He came to the Premier League unknown by the majority and known only as a pace merchant on FIFA by the rest.

Ignoring his conceded penalty against Brentford on Sunday, Lacroix has rarely put a foot wrong this term and has an impressive four last-man tackles, including one on his debut against Leicester City.

We have been impressed and Crystal Palace fans have been too.

 

Everton: Idrissa Gueye
In David Moyes’ first three games back at Everton, Gueye has shone, especially against Tottenham, which saw him notch two assists.

The Senegalese midfielder made a ridiculous eight tackles in the recent win at Brighton and has been rock-solid in defensive midfield for the Toffees.

 

Fulham: Sasa Lukic
Harry Wilson, Alex Iwobi and Raul Jimenez have all been brilliant for Fulham this season but Lukic deserves his flowers for what has been a very strong start.

People feared for Fulham after they lost Joao Palhinha but thankfully for Marco Silva, Lukic was Right There.

 

Ipswich Town: Cameron Burgess
Having scored in the Championship, League One and League Two, we are rooting for a Burgess goal this season. Ipswich team-mates Sammie Szmodics and Jack Taylor joined an even more exclusive club this season having scored in the National League as well as the top four tiers.

Burgess’ story is pretty remarkable; he played regularly in Ipswich’s League One and Championship promotion campaigns and was in League Two with Salford City five years ago. A decade ago he made four Championship appearances for Fulham and that looked like being the pinnacle of his career, but Burgess does not look out of place in the top flight and is out here picking up man of the match awards against Manchester United.

With only 10 appearances in the Premier League this season, the ex-Oldham Athletic and Accrington Stanley loanee – who represents the Australian national team – should probably be playing more. He has done well with his limited minutes.

 

Leicester City: Jamie Vardy
Wilfred Ndidi has been a rare Leicester highlight this term but Vardy’s scoring record in 2024/25 has been the most pleasant surprise of all 20 pleasant surprises. The Leicester legend has seven goals and three assists in 21 appearances.

Not signing a striker was still silly of Leicester but fair play to Vardy, who is still banging them in at the grand old age of 38.

 

Liverpool: Ryan Gravenberch
There is no contest for Gravenberch at Liverpool. The Dutch playmaker has been outstanding in front of the Reds defence, ensuring Arne Slot has no regrets about missing out on top summer target Martin Zubimendi. While the Real Sociedad favourite is a fantastic player, we are not sure he would have performed at the level Gravenberch has reached this season.

He joined from Bayern Munich last summer with high expectations and was used sparingly under Jurgen Klopp but Gravenberch is thriving under Slot, averaging 52.39 successful passes, 1.71 interceptions, 69.10 touches and only 0.24 aerial duels lost per game.

 

Manchester City: Mateo Kovacic
In a squad full of under-performers, we have singled out Kovacic, who has been tasked with replacing the irreplaceable Ballon d’Or winner Rodri. He plays the No. 6 role differently to Rodri so Pep Guardiola’s system has understandably been altered as a result of the Spaniard’s season-ending ACL injury.

Kovacic has done fairly well. He has hardly been outstanding but it would be a stretch to say he has been below average. How pleasant!

 

Manchester United: Amad Diallo
Despite our persistent amazement at Man United making a good signing in Noussair Mazraoui, it couldn’t be anyone other than Amad, could it? It’s funny how Diogo Dalot and Mazraoui have gone from being arguably Erik ten Hag’s best players and only consistent performers to possibly the Red Devils’ worst starters under Ruben Amorim. Playing wing-back is no picnic.

Amad has defied expectations by blossoming into Man United’s best player this season, scoring nine goals, including a hat-trick to forge a comeback win over Southampton.

READ MORE: Every Man Utd signing post-Sir Alex ranked: Alexis, Antony in bottom two, Amad 20th

 

Newcastle United: Dan Burn
Would you believe me if I said Dan Burn was my inspiration for this feature?

He has put himself right back in the good books of Newcastle supporters with some very solid performances at left-back and centre-back. His last three performances have been pretty rubbish but over the course of 2024/25, Burn has been brilliant and undoubtedly exceeded expectations.

 

Nottingham Forest: Matz Sels
There are a bunch of options when it comes to Nottingham Forest. Selecting a goalkeeper who conceded five goals in his most recent game feels rogue but looking at the bigger picture, Sels has been brilliant.

The former Newcastle shot-stopper has a division-high nine clean sheets this campaign and has firmly cemented himself as Nuno Espirito Santo’s No. 1. It only took Forest 200 goalkeeper signings to finally settle on one.

Of course a few Forest players deserve an honourable mention. You’ve obviously got Chris Wood, then there is Ola Aina, Elliot Anderson, Nikola Milenkovic and Ryan Yates.

 

Southampton: Paul Onuachu
We doubt any Southampton player deserves this, yet we are going to talk about two. Young Tyler Dibling has been their best player and the only positive in a miserable season, but his emergence is not a surprise to those at St Mary’s, who are well aware of his potential.

Perhaps a little bit lazily, Onuachu is our man because he is genuinely entertaining to watch. He’s Got A Decent Touch For A Big Man.

READ MORE: Southampton next? The Premier League’s six worst-ever teams…

 

Tottenham: Archie Gray
There has been nothing pleasant about Spurs’ Premier League campaign. Dejan Kulusevski’s form hardly comes as a surprise but he has been Ange Postecoglou’s best player this season. Brennan Johnson had that great run of form after deleting social media, Dominic Solanke has done well after costing £65m and Pedro Porro is a very, very good right-back. Pleasant surprise, though? Hmm…

It can only be Gray, can’t it? In the wise words of Tickers: ‘We knew he was good, but the maturity and versatility. He’s been f**king brilliant, really. Future England captain etc. You have to frame it as being the good thing to come out of catastrophe and that ideally he wouldn’t have had to prove himself in quite this way, but forged by fire etc. etc. etc. Genuinely absurd for an 18-year-old to not just cope but thrive in Spurs’ environment this season.’

The algorithms do not like Gray but the algorithm does not recognise that has been playing centre-back, left-back and right-back as a scrawny teenager in the Premier League for the first time without looking out of his depth.

 

West Ham: Aaron Wan-Bissaka
Tomas Soucek rediscovering his Covid scoring touch has been most welcome but Wan-Bissaka deserves this.

He has been very consistent at both right-back, left-back and right-wing-back, scoring twice and assisting once in 21 starts. The ex-Man United defender has also completed 37 take-ons, the same as Eberechi Eze and Mohamed Salah and the most for a defender in the Premier League with a completion rate of 52.9 per cent.

 

Wolves: Matt Doherty
Matheus Cunha has been Wolves’ best player by a country mile but we all knew that would be the case before a ball was kicked. Despite their poor Premier League standing, there are a couple of contenders.

Doherty is our man having proven he is not finished as a Premier League footballer with a string of solid performances in defence for Wolves this campaign. He had a good game against Arsenal on Saturday and was the victim of Lewis-Skelly’s vile attack, while he also impressed in wins over Manchester United and Leicester.

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