Arsenal won the title. Liverpool imploded. And Mohamed Salah — a man who scored 29 league goals just last season — ends his Anfield farewell with seven. ESPN's Ian Darke has picked through the wreckage and the glory to name his Best and Most Disappointing XIs of the Premier League season, and the contrasts are stark.
The Best XI: Arsenal lead the way, City provide the firepower
Darke's 4-3-1-2 Team of the Year is built around Arsenal's spine. David Raya claims the goalkeeper spot — now a three-time Golden Glove winner — with William Saliba and Gabriel forming what Darke calls the league's best defensive partnership. Declan Rice anchors the midfield, described as the "tireless torch bearer" in Arsenal's charge to end a 22-year title drought.
Erling Haaland leads the attack. Twenty-seven goals, eight assists, and a quiet patch mid-season that he still came through to win the Golden Boot. At this point, Haaland going "quiet" means he's scoring one every two games instead of one per game.
The more interesting selections are in the margins. Darke shoehorns Dominik Szoboszlai in at right back — not his position, but the pick reflects just how thin Liverpool's season was. Szoboszlai's long-range free kicks against Arsenal and City were among the season's standout moments. He's essentially the one man at Anfield who showed up consistently.
Granit Xhaka at Sunderland is arguably the selection of the piece. The Switzerland international left Bayer Leverkusen for newly-promoted Sunderland, brought his leadership and standards with him, and dragged the Black Cats to seventh and a Europa League spot. That's not a development anyone predicted in August.
Bruno Fernandes rounds out the XI as the attacking midfielder, and the numbers back it up: 21 assists in a single season — a new Premier League record — and twice as many chances created as any other player. Under Michael Carrick, United have found something. Fernandes winning Footballer of the Year is hard to argue against.
Antoine Semenyo completes the forward line. Joined City from Bournemouth in January, scored on debut, finished with 17 league goals across both clubs, and backheeled the winner in the FA Cup final against Chelsea. That backheel alone probably seals his place on this list.
The Most Disappointing XI: Liverpool's season summarised in a back four
Three Liverpool players — Kerkez, Mac Allister, and Salah — make Darke's Most Disappointing XI, which tells you everything about the scale of the collapse at Anfield. The club conceded 53 league goals, a record for a 38-game season. Milos Kerkez, signed after impressing at Bournemouth, was regularly found out of position and carries a share of that blame.
Salah's inclusion is the headline. Darke admits it may be "harsh" given it was his farewell season, but seven goals after 29 the previous campaign is impossible to overlook. Salah publicly accused manager Arne Slot of throwing him "under the bus" and took veiled swipes at the tactics, calling for a return to "heavy metal football." That's not the exit of a man at peace with how his final chapter was written.
Cole Palmer's decline at Chelsea is the other story worth watching. A year ago he was arguably England's best player. Now he's been left out of Thomas Tuchel's World Cup squad. A persistent groin injury and Chelsea's structural chaos haven't helped, but at 22 you expect more resilience. His odds of reclaiming that status before the World Cup feel long right now.
Phil Foden's omission from the England squad also lands here. Rayan Cherki pushed him out of the City starting XI, and Darke is measured rather than damning — a summer's rest, and maybe Foden rediscovers his level. Maybe. But a player of his quality losing his club place to a rival who arrived mid-season is a significant slide.
Yoane Wissa's £55 million move to Newcastle has been a flat-out failure so far. Nineteen goals for Brentford last season. One league goal for Newcastle this campaign. The transfer market doesn't always translate, and Wissa is this season's clearest example of that.
- Best XI (4-3-1-2): Raya; Szoboszlai, Saliba, Gabriel, O'Reilly; Xhaka, Rice, Anderson; Fernandes; Semenyo, Haaland
- Most Disappointing XI (4-3-3): Perri; Wan-Bissaka, Romero, Kilman, Kerkez; Nørgaard, Mac Allister, Palmer; Salah, Foden, Wissa
Salah's final Premier League season ends with him in a Most Disappointing XI. That's the last image — not the goals, not the trophies, not the tears at his farewell. Seven goals and a very public falling-out with his manager.
