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Harry Wilson
Harry Wilson was often a spectator rather than a player in his first three seasons at Fulham. He made 89 appearances in the league, but 48 of them were from the bench and he was taken off 34 times. Having scored just 12 league goals in three years, he was nearly shipped off to Leeds in the summer.
Fast-forward to today and he has become undroppable, starting 20 of Fulham’s 22 league games. Only four players have been involved in more goals than Wilson’s 12 this campaign – Erling Haaland (24), Igor Thiago (17), Bruno Fernandes (15) and Antoine Semenyo (13). Of those 12 goal involvements, 10 have come in his last 11 league appearances (six goals and four assists).
The Welsh winger is the form player in the league and is increasingly the man Fulham turn to in big moments. When he stood over a free-kick in the 92nd minute against Brighton last Saturday there was a hush over Craven Cottage and a strange sense of inevitability in the air. He stepped up, curled the ball into the top corner of the Brighton goal and turned a draw into a win.
Delivering in big moments has become Wilson’s signature; without his contributions Fulham would be 12 points worse off this season. His eight goals have all been masterclasses in ball striking: from an audacious effort from the touchline at Spurs to his outside-of-the-boot finish against Palace that earned him December’s goal of the month. He has scored eight goals with an xG of just 3.81, giving him a +4.19 xG difference – the second highest in the league.
Igor Thiago
From bricklaying in Brazil to bullying centre-backs in the Premier League, Igor Thiago’s rise has been emphatic. Brentford signed him in the summer of 2024 to replace Ivan Toney, the club’s talismanic striker who scored 72 goals in 141 appearances, but Thiago’s first season was frustrating. Two knee injuries limited him to fleeting cameos and, by the time he returned to full fitness, he was filling a void that had grown larger with the departures of Yoane Wissa and Bryan Mbeumo, who scored 39 league goals between them for the club last season.
Few expected him to carry that weight. Fewer still expected a player who spent his teenage years working manual jobs to support his family after the death of his father, laying bricks while chasing trials across Brazil, to become the focal point of a Premier League side. Five months ago, the notion that Thiago would be chasing Erling Haaland for the Golden Boot would have been dismissed outright. But here we are, 23 games and 16 goals later.
Thiago is the fourth-highest scorer in Europe’s top five leagues (behind Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappé and Haaland) and the top-scoring Brazilian. Carlo Ancelotti has some thinking to do before the World Cup.
Antoine Semenyo
Antoine Semenyo quit football when he was 15 years old. Rejected by Crystal Palace after a string of failed trials at Arsenal, Tottenham, Fulham and Millwall, he was convinced the dream was over and focused on basketball instead. But Semenyo returned to the game through a college programme, where his talent caught the eye and he was snapped up by Bristol City. He honed his craft during loan spells at Bath City, Newport County and Sunderland before tearing it up in the Championship.
Bournemouth recognised his potential and paid £10m to bring him to the Premier League in January 2023. The player that Manchester City signed this month – powerful, direct, relentless in the press – took time to emerge. There were flashes of brilliance under Gary O’Neil, but it was during Andoni Iraola’s management that Semenyo became a star.
The Ghana international hit double figures for goals in the Premier League last season and he began the current campaign with a bang, scoring twice at Anfield on the opening day. Since then, he has taken his game to another level, outpacing his expected goals by 4.36 (11 goals from an xG of 6.64), creating chances, carrying the ball at pace and terrorising full-backs on both flanks. He has attempted 78 dribbles (the seventh highest in the league), and he has taken 49 shots (the 10th most in the league).
Defensively, he has been just as impactful, winning possession in the final third 18 times – the second most in the Premier League this season. “He has improved every single season,” said Cherries boss Iraola after Semenyo’s 10th and final goal for the club. “He has scored 10 goals in half a season and he’s not even a No 9.” He has already scored three goals in four games for City, further proof that the teenage reject was born for the biggest stage.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin
Nearly a decade has passed since a baby-faced Dominic Calvert-Lewin walked through the doors of Finch Farm. The striker joined Everton from Sheffield United for £1.5m on deadline day in August 2016 as a 19-year-old with heaps of potential.
For a while it looked like a perfect match. Calvert-Lewin grew into the team and excelled for Everton after Romelu Lukaku’s departure to Manchester United for £75m. He reached his peak in the 2020–21 season when he scored 29 goals, but the momentum ebbed and injuries began to intrude. Just 12 goals in his last three seasons at Goodison Park left him drifting towards the margins.
His contract came to an end and with it the closing of a chapter spent largely in physio rooms rather than opposition penalty boxes. The club seriously considered offering him one more chance to stay. Instead, Calvert-Lewin walked away, signing a three-year deal with Leeds.
He was looking for a fresh start and he has found it. Calvert-Lewin has scored eight goals in his last 12 appearances and looks once more like the striker who earned 11 England caps. If this run continues, he might add more under Thomas Tuchel this summer.
Jack Grealish
When Jack Grealish arrived at Manchester City for £100m in 2022, he was one football’s most exciting free-flowing forwards, a player who relied on improvisation and was shaped by risk and rhythm. Under Pep Guardiola’s guidance he enjoyed years of success, but also a period of subtle erosion.
Grealish was moulded rather than unleashed at City. Danilo, a former City defender, once described Guardiola’s methods as “like being at university” where players were “brainwashed but in a good way”. Grealish became a willing student. His dribbles per game dropped by 40% in his first season and his freedom was exchanged for control. Trophies came in abundance – three league titles, the FA Cup and Champions League – but the Grealish of Villa Park, smiling and spontaneous, gradually slipped from view. And then he disappeared further, starting just seven league games last season. It felt as if the league had lost one of its brightest talents.
Everton offered an escape route. He was joining a club that have been playing survival football for years. But Everton are no longer peering over their shoulder; they are playing with a certain degree of freedom under David Moyes – and Grealish has been handed the keys.
His starting percentage is back up to the 75% mark he boasted at Villa and his impact has been significant. Grealish ranks third in the Premier League for assists (six); he has created 38 chances – more than any Everton player by a distance; and he recently scored his first goal from outside the box since November 2020 – a strike that was symbolic of his reborn confidence.
“He’s been playing with a smile on his face again and he makes Evertonians smile,” said former midfielder Leon Osman, and it is hard to disagree. His injury could not have come at worse time but Everton fans will be hoping he extends his stay.
This is an article by WhoScored
