Footballers’ form is one of the most interesting things in all of sport.
One day a player can look absolutely useless, and the next they’re a superstar. Just look at someone like Serge Gnabry, the one-time West Brom reject is now one of Bayern Munich’s best players.
Form, confidence, coaching, call it what you want, a footballer’s talent level can change in an instant.
Players can improve drastically almost overnight, and we’ve seen our fair share of improved stars in the Premier League this term.
With that in mind, we’ve had a go at picking our most-improved Premier League XI of the season.
GK: Aaron Ramsdale
From back-to-back relegations with Bournemouth and Sheffield United to shining at Arsenal, Aaron Ramsdale looks like a different player this season.
The England international has now firmly established himself as the Gunners’ number one, and he’s already more than doubled his tally of five clean sheets last season.
Ramsdale seems to have really settled at Arsenal, and under the coaching of David Seaman and the tutelage of Mikel Arteta he’s really come on.
RB: Trent Alexander-Arnold
Amid his brilliance this term, it’s easy to forget that Trent Alexander-Arnold was having a bit of a torrid time this time last year.
Indeed, the right-back was left out of the England squad this time 12 months ago, he was struggling to create as much as he usually does, and he was seemingly suffering defensively due to Liverpool’s injury crisis at centre-back.
However, he’s now back to his best, he has 11 assists from full-back already this term, and he’s undeniably one of the best players in the country right now.
CB: Joel Matip
This is an interesting one.
Towards the end of last season, it looked as though Joel Matip’s Liverpool career could be coming to an end. He’d fallen behind Joe Gomez in the pecking order in 2019/20, he’d suffered yet another bad injury in 2020/21, and the arrival of Ibrahima Konate this summer seemed to be the final nail in his coffin.
However, Matip has proven almost everybody wrong and reclaimed his place in this Liverpool side.
The Cameroonian is now one of the first names on the Reds’ teamsheet, and earlier this season Phil Thompson even said that he’s been better than Virgil van Dijk.
Matip has somehow, at the age of 30, found another gear.
CB: Romain Saiss
Wolves have one of the best defensive records in the league this season and Romain Saiss has been at the heart of that backline.
The 32-year-old has started almost every game under Bruno Lage, and while Willy Boly and Conor Coady have received the plaudits in recent years, Saiss is now having his moment in the spotlight.
FourFourTwo magazine even ranked him higher than Virgil van Dijk in their list of the 100 best Premier League players right now, and while we hate to use the Dutchman as an example twice, he really is the barometer of centre-back greatness right now.
LB: Ben Davies
This one is kind of cheating as Davies plays more as a centre-half these days, but he has truly transformed under Antonio Conte.
He could barely get a game ahead of Sergio Reguilon last season, but now, on the left-side of a three-man defence, he looks right at home.
Davies is playing his best football since joining Spurs under Conte.
CM: Joelinton
Who saw this coming?
Joelinton, arguably the worst striker in the Premier League over the past two seasons, is now a dominant, energetic, battling midfielder.
The Brazilian is no longer a number nine, and his transformation under Eddie Howe has been staggering.
He still has some way to go towards justifying that £40m pricetag, but he’s now headed in the right direction.
CM: Conor Gallagher
It saddens us to think that Conor Gallagher had to play the majority of last season under Sam Allardyce.
The Chelsea loanee spent last team getting relegated with West Brom in rather unspectacular fashion, but this term, he’s spread his wings with the Eagles at Crystal Palace.
Gallagher has eight goals to his name, and almost every single time he steps onto the pitch he puts on a show for the fans.
This is a player with an incredibly bright future.
CM: Thomas Partey
Thomas Partey is finally looking like the player Arsenal thought they were signing last summer.
The Ghanaian’s first season in the Premier League was a poor one, but to be honest, Arsenal were a shambles last term, and as the Gunners have improved this season, so has Partey.
His decision making looks smarter, his touch looks much better and his energy levels have gone up a few notches.
Partey is finally living up to his billing in an Arsenal shirt.
RW: Jarrod Bowen
Jarrod Bowen was already fantastic before this season. After all, he scored eight goals last term, but this year, he’s kicked on in spectacular fashion.
He’s already bettered last year’s goal and assist tallies, despite playing nine fewer games, and it’s clear for all to see that he should be in line for an England call-up in the not so distant future.
Bowen has gone from being good to being great this season.
LW: Emile Smith Rowe
The third Arsenal player in our team. If last season was Emile Smith Rowe’s breakout campaign, this one has been a star-making season.
Smith Rowe has hit nine goals for Arsenal this term, a massive upturn on his measly two strikes last season, and while Gabriel Martinelli has been keeping him out of the team in recent weeks, we still have to give Smith Rowe the plaudits he deserves.
The youngster has found his cutting edge this season, and he should have double-figures for goals by the end of the campaign.
ST: Jean-Philippe Mateta
Last season was nothing short of a disaster for Jean-Philippe Mateta.
He scored just once after arriving in the January transfer window, and upon Patrick Vieira’s arrival, there was already talk of the striker being sold.
He was massively out of favour at Selhurst Park at the beginning of the season, playing just 61 minutes of Premier League football in Palace’s first 18 games, but since then, he’s looked like a different player.
Mateta started having an impact up top, Palace triggered their option to buy on deadline day, and the forward hasn’t looked back since.
He now has four goals to his name this season, including three in his last five, and if he’d started the campaign in this type of form, he’d be on course for double-figures.
Mateta has gone from being completely undesirable to absolutely undeniable as Palace’s first-choice striker.
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