Who are the Premier League’s best wide-forwards right now? | OneFootball

The Premier League is home to some of the world’s best wide-forwards.

Some of football’s most talented wide players have graced the Premier League, from Eden Hazard to Robert Pires to Mohamed Salah and everyone in between.

But who are the standout wide-forwards right now?

With the 2024/25 season fast approaching, here are the best-performing wide-forwards in the Premier League ranked by their Squawka Score from last season. Only players with 1,710+ minutes (half of the possible minutes across the season) under their belts are considered.

5. Bukayo Saka

The Arsenal forward had another incredibly productive season, scoring 16 goals, two more than his previous best. He also provided nine assists, two fewer than last season. However, regarding minutes per goal involvement, Saka scored or created a goal every 117 minutes compared to 127 minutes the previous campaign.

He had at least 20 more touches in the opposition box than any other Premier League player in 2023/24 and was directly involved in more goals than any of his teammates. He also equalled some records of some Arsenal legends, becoming the first Englishman to score 15+ goals in a Premier League season for Arsenal since Ian Wright in 1996/97, the first Englishman to score 20+ goals in single season for Arsenal since Theo Walcott in 2012/13 and the first Englishman to score home and away for Arsenal against Tottenham since Ian Wright in 1993/94.

4. Phil Foden

Team: Manchester City

Squawka Score: 76%

Phil Foden enjoyed his personal best season for Manchester City, helping them to a record-breaking fourth consecutive Premier League title. He scored more goals in the Premier League (19) and across all competitions (27) in 2023/24 than in any other campaign and provided eight league assists.

In 2023/24, he ranked joint fourth for goal involvements and notched his second hat-trick of the calendar year recently against Aston Vill and was named Premier League Player of the Season, becoming the first Englishman to win the award for Man City and the first Englishman for any side since Jamie Vardy in 2015/16.

3. Son Heung-min

The pressure on Son was immense when his partner-in-crime, Harry Kane, left for Bayern Munich last summer. However, Son rose to the occasion like the pro he is. He finished a disappointing season with his joint second-best goal return (17) and matched his best assist output (10), becoming one of just six players to score 10+ goals and provide 10+ assists in six different Premier League seasons after Eric Cantona, Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Didier Drogba and Mohamed Salah.

10 of his 27 goal involvements were against the sides that finished in the campaign in the top four.

2. Cole Palmer

Pep Guardiola won’t have too many regrets during his career, but allowing Cole Palmer (at his request) to leave the Etihad may be one of them. The 22-year-old was nothing short of a revelation at Stamford Bridge, and he’s grown to be Chelsea’s most dangerous attacking threat.

Palmer’s overall numbers across last season were eye-catching. He was directly involved in more Premier League goals than any other player (22 goals, 11 assists), with only Erling Haaland scoring more goals and Ollie Watkins providing more assists. His 33 goal involvements meant that he was also directly involved in more Premier League goals in 2023/24 than any other Chelsea player has ever managed in their debut season for the club, breaking Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink’s record.

In 2024 alone, he bagged back-to-back Premier League hat-tricks at Stamford Bridge against Manchester United and Everton (where he scored four goals) and become the first ever Chelsea player to be named the Premier League Young Player of the Year.

1. Mohamed Salah

Team: Liverpool

Squawka Score: 80%

Despite it not being his best season for Liverpool, Mohamed Salah still put up incredibly impressive numbers, setting several records. He finished the 2023/24 campaign with 18 goals and 10 assists in 32 Premier League appearances, becoming the first player in the competition’s history to score 10+ goals AND provide 10+ assists in three consecutive seasons.

The Egyptian also created more big chances from open play (22) than any other player in Europe’s top seven leagues and was directly involved in at least one goal against every opponent apart from the three promoted sides. He became the first player in Liverpool’s 131-year history to score 20+ goals across all competitions in SEVEN consecutive seasons and the first player in football history to score in five consecutive away games against Manchester United.

Squawka Score metrics and weighting

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 wide-forwards 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 wide-forwards’ play style, with five being the most important.

Here are the metrics used and weighting given to each metric to come up with the overall Squawka Score:

To be awarded a score, a player must have reached the automatically calculated minutes threshold, in this case, 1,710 minutes in the Premier League during 2023/24.

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