Who are the best Premier League left-backs in 2024? | OneFootball

The Premier League is home to some of the world’s best left-backs.

Some of football’s most talented full-backs have graced the Premier League, from Denis Irwin to Ashley Cole to Leighton Baines and everyone in between.

But who are the standout left-backs right from the start of 2024?

You’ll find a list below based on their Squawka Score across 20224. Only players who have played 400+ minutes of Premier League football included and wing-backs are excluded.

Here are the five best right-backs in the Premier League.

5. Ben Chilwell

It’s been another frustrating season for Ben Chilwell, who prominently featured under Mauricio Pochettino before a debilitating hamstring injury kept him sidelined from October to January. However, his comeback has been successful. Chilwell, handed more license to bomb forward under his new boss, has yet to trouble the scorers (no goals or assists) but is among the leading left-backs in England’s top division in 2024.

Another left-back who has endured a stop-start campaign is Pervis Estupiñán. He was Brighton’s first choice there before he was sidelined with a muscle injury. Since returning, he went through a period coming off the bench before establishing himself under Roberto de Zerbi. That being said, following one goal and three assists from his opening five appearances, he’s chipped in with one goal from the next eleven, with that effort coming on the final matchday of 2023.

One man’s misfortune is another man’s gain. Seven outings (three being starts) across Arsenal’s first 19 league matches effectively reduced Jakub Kiwior to a defensive understudy, with the Polish international capable of playing at centre or left-back. However, the loss of Oleksandr Zinchenko threw Kiwior into becoming a regular fixture in Mikel Arteta’s starting lineup, and saying he’s repaid his manager’s faith would be an understatement. Kiwior has chipped in with three assists while registering one goal across five appearances.

2. Antonee Robinson

Since Fulham’s return to the English top flight at the beginning of last season, Robinson has been one of their most consistent performers, missing only a few league games. His remarkable defensive statistics cemented his spot in Marco Silva’s first team. He’s made 69 interceptions this season, at least 19 more than any other player, though he still needs to make 87 more to match Kanté’s effort from Leicester City’s title-winning season. Kanté registered an incredible 156 interceptions in 2015/16. Since that campaign, no player has even broken triple figures.

1. Destiny Udogie

Several players are running for the title of Young Player of the Season, and Destiny Udogie is among the contenders. Although he joined Tottenham from Udinese in 2022, the Italian full-back only made his first Premier League appearance this season. And he’s made a significant impact since then. Udogie is an excellent fit for Ange Postecoglou’s tactical approach, having scored two goals and provided three assists.

How did we rank the Premier League’s best left-backs?

We used Twenty3 Sport’s Discovery Tool to run a customised search. The Discovery Tool rates a player’s per 90 output in the metrics detailed below to produce a percentage score, referred to above as the Squawka Score.

Each player’s stats are compared to the average output of left-backs across the past three seasons of big-five European league football. The higher the score, the closer they rank to the 95th percentile and above for each metric.

We also weighted each stat from 1 to 5 to highlight the most important aspects of a left-backs’ play style.

(-) indicates a weighting that favours fewer instances within the relevant metric (e.g. fewest fouls conceded from tackles made)

To be awarded a score, a player must have reached the automatically calculated minutes threshold, in this case 900 minutes in the Premier League during 2023.