By Opta Analyst | Created at 2026-08-26 07:01:52 | Updated at 2026-09-04 02:01:45
1 week ago
Some players endured difficult Premier League seasons in 2025-26 but could be about to bounce back. We look at six aiming to put their struggles behind them and rediscover their best form this campaign.
Matchday 1 of the 2026-27 Premier League season is in the books, giving us our first glimpse of how each team is shaping up for the campaign. Crucially, we also got our first sight of which players have hit the ground running.
For many, like Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai and Manchester City’s Marc Guéhi, strong performances were simply a continuation of the form they showed last season.
But for others, whether through injury, a loss of form, or simply failing to hit the heights expected of them, 2026-27 represents a chance to bounce back.
We comb through the data from the opening matchday to identify six players who endured disappointing campaigns last season but could be poised for a comeback.
Cole Palmer
It took Cole Palmer just 31 seconds on Matchday 1 to equal the number of Premier League assists he got for Chelsea across the entirety of last season.
His flick around the corner in the first minute against Fulham was expertly finished by João Pedro, and was one of several moments of silky, intricate skill that had been all too absent last season as Palmer struggled for both fitness and form. That combination ultimately saw him miss out on a place in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup.
The pair then combined the other way round for Chelsea’s third, with Palmer coolly slotting the ball through Bernd Leno’s legs to score what proved to be the winning goal.
With a summer off and a full pre-season under his belt, Palmer looks poised to recapture the form he showed during his first two seasons at Chelsea. Across those campaigns (2023-24 and 2024-25), Palmer scored 37 goals and provided 19 assists. Only two players, Mohamed Salah (75) and Erling Haaland (57), were involved in more goals than Palmer’s 56.
Chelsea’s number 10 was everywhere against Fulham. He attempted a team-high five shots, had a team-high nine touches in the Fulham box and was outstanding without the ball, too. He won a game-high 10 duels and recovered possession seven times, also more than anyone else for Chelsea.
Palmer looked fresh, fit and free from the groin injury that plagued him last year. If he can stay fit, he is surely too talented to endure another poor season.
Martin Ødegaard
Martin Ødegaard has endured a couple of difficult seasons at Arsenal, with the club captain particularly struggling for fitness last campaign, when he played just 35% of all available minutes.
He’s scored just four goals across Arsenal’s last two full campaigns, and even though they won the league last season, it would be difficult to argue Ødegaard was an essential figure in that campaign.
But his performances for Norway at the 2026 World Cup offered a tantalising glimpse that he was beginning to recapture his best form, and he was instrumental in Arsenal’s 3-0 win on the opening night of the 2026-27 season.
As the passing network below shows, Arsenal’s right-sided triangle of Ødegaard, Bukayo Saka and Ben White was back in full flow, with the Norwegian once again knitting Arsenal’s play together with incision and purpose.
Excluding defenders, only Declan Rice had more touches and completed more passes than Ødegaard, although it’s worth saying the latter’s came in far more advanced and high-value areas.
With his second-half strike, he has already scored more goals across all competitions in 2026-27 (two) than he managed in 36 appearances last term (one), having also scored in the Community Shield win over Man City.
He looked energised, influential and at the heart of an Arsenal performance against Coventry that was very impressive, and perhaps a sign of things to come.
Anthony Elanga
Anthony Elanga has yet to really kick on following his £55 million transfer from Nottingham Forest to Newcastle. After a final season at Forest in which he scored six goals and provided 11 assists, the third-highest total of any player, he failed to score a single goal in his debut season on Tyneside despite making 32 Premier League appearances.
He started just 14 games, though, suggesting he had not done enough to earn a regular place in Eddie Howe’s first-choice XI.
One thing that never left Elanga, however, was his searing pace. The Sweden international hit a top speed of 34.9 km/h during Newcastle’s opening game against Liverpool, the highest of any player in the division on MD1.
That was on full display for Elanga’s opener. He raced onto a through ball from William Osula, leaving Milos Kerkez in his wake, before finishing across Alisson.
The goal ended a run of 40 Premier League appearances without scoring and was Elanga’s first league goal for Newcastle, coming on what was his 33rd top-flight appearance for the club.
Not every team is going to be as vulnerable as Liverpool currently are to counter-attacks, but with the pace of Harvey Barnes and Elanga either side of the technical quality of Yoane Wissa and Osula, Newcastle will pose a significant threat in transition.
That is where Elanga thrived at Forest. They averaged 40.8% possession during his final season at the club, similar to the 39.2% of the ball Newcastle saw against Liverpool. If that trend continues, the Magpies could provide Elanga with the kind of conditions in which he has previously flourished.
Yoane Wissa
Another Newcastle player who disappointed after arriving on Tyneside last season was Yoane Wissa. The former Brentford man joined late in the 2025 summer transfer window as Newcastle’s knee-jerk solution to the departure of their main striker, Alexander Isak. But a long-term knee injury meant it took him until December to make his debut.
That severely curtailed his season before it had really begun, with Wissa scoring just once in 19 Premier League appearances.
His final season at Brentford, by contrast, was a different story. Wissa scored 19 goals and Bryan Mbeumo added 20 as the pair tore up the league as a strike duo.
Wissa’s 19 goals came from 18.6 expected goals, underlining how well deserved his total was. His 0.57 expected goals per 90 ranked behind only four players for chance quality among those to play at least 900 minutes.
Wissa looked far more like that player against Liverpool. He attempted four shots, the most of anyone on the pitch, while his lovely dribble and close control saw him slalom through Liverpool’s midfield before setting up Joe Willock to make it 2-1.
After a season disrupted from the start with injury, Wissa’s display offered an encouraging reminder of the qualities that made him such a dangerous forward at Brentford.
Thierno Barry
It’s safe to say Thierno Barry’s 2026-27 has got off to a better start than last season did.
Having arrived from Villarreal on a four-year deal, Barry had to wait 14 Premier League appearances to register his first goal for Everton. Across those games, he played 631 minutes and attempted 15 shots without finding the net.
This campaign, though, he is off the mark already, nodding home from close range after brilliant work from Iliman Ndiaye down the right.
Barry essentially rotated with Beto for Everton’s starting striker role last season, with Beto starting 17 games and the Frenchman 21.
Neither did enough to fully establish themselves as the club’s first-choice striker, but Barry made an excellent claim for the role on the opening day.
He’s a player who has excelled in other leagues, scoring goals in Belgium, Switzerland and Spain. The Premier League has proven to be a big step up so far, but Barry is still only 23. The raw attributes are there; he just needs to put it all together.
Josko Gvardiol
Josko Gvardiol is an exceptional defender whose footballing intelligence has shown in how seamlessly he adapted to the unusual in-possession demands placed on him by former manager Pep Guardiola.
But he has also been such a success at Manchester City – and worth the vast sum they paid for him – because of his durability.
Between signing for City in August 2023 and 1 January 2025, he was available for 89 of a possible 95 Premier League games, playing a part in 81.
But his 2025-26 campaign was disrupted by a broken shinbone suffered in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea on 4 January. He was sidelined until the final weeks of the season, and he barely played after he came back.
Now, having played 90 minutes against Bournemouth at the weekend, he’s completed a full Premier League game for the first time this year.
Not only that, he also showed that old habits die hard. In new manager Enzo Maresca’s first league game, he popped up in exactly the kind of position that Guardiola would’ve wanted to see him in, scoring a 91st-minute winner. He is the Premier League’s second-highest-scoring defender during his time in England, with 14 goals, behind only Virgil van Dijk (17).
City and Maresca will be hoping for a few more key contributions from Gvardiol this season.
Enjoy this? Add Opta Analyst as a preferred source by clicking here.
Enjoy this? Subscribe to our football newsletter to receive exclusive weekly content. You should also follow our social accounts over on X, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
