With the Premier League campaign ending later this month, we’ve finally reached awards season. On 24 May, the Premier League Young Player of the Season award will be presented to the best player aged 23 or younger at the start of 2024-25.
Trent Alexander-Arnold (2019-20), Phil Foden (2020-21 and 2021-22), Erling Haaland (2022-23) and Cole Palmer (2023-24) are previous winners of the award, but which of the following eight nominees will win the accolade this time around?
We assess the statistics behind their respective seasons, giving reasons for their inclusion in the list of nominees for the 2024-25 Premier League Young Player of the Season.
Liam Delap
In making this eight-man shortlist, Liam Delap becomes the first player to be nominated for the Premier League YPOTS despite playing for a relegated team.
As Ipswich Town dropped straight back into the Championship, the English forward has been their brightest spark and provided opposition defences with many difficult tests thanks to his direct running and physical style.
With 12 of Ipswich’s 35 Premier League goals this season, only Nottingham Forest’s Chris Wood (35.7%) has scored a higher proportion of his team’s goals than Delap (34.3%) in 2024-25.
Twenty-five of his 65 non-penalty shots were attempted after he carried the ball at least five metres in the build-up to the attempt. The former Manchester City player has been among the best ball carriers in the league.
On average, Delap has travelled 14.2m per ball carry in the Premier League this season; only Nottingham Forest’s Anthony Elanga (14.5m) has averaged further among players to play at least 500 minutes of action in the competition in 2024-25.
Anthony Elanga
Anthony Elanga has also been one of the most dangerous ball carriers in the Premier League this season.
A key player in Nottingham Forest’s counter-attacking style, he ranks top of all players in the league to play at least 1,000 minutes this season for the average distance of each of his carries (14.5m), the average distance each of his carries moves the ball vertically up the pitch towards the opposition’s goal (11.0m) and for the proportion of the total distance he carries the ball that is vertically up the pitch (76.4%).
No moment this season displayed his ball-carrying ability better than his goal in April versus Manchester United at the City Ground. From the moment he first touched the ball to the point he shot past André Onana, Elanga travelled 54.1 metres – the longest carry leading to a Premier League goal in 2024-25.
Elanga has also become only the fourth Forest player to reach double figures for assists in a Premier League season (10) and now needs just one more in their final two games to equal the club record set by Bryan Roy in 1994-95 (11).
Ryan Gravenberch
Ryan Gravenberch has reinvented himself to help Liverpool win just their second Premier League title, and a record-equalling 20th top-flight English title.
In his first season at Anfield under Jürgen Klopp, Gravenberch was deployed mainly in the number eight role and made 38 appearances in all competitions, with just 21 of those as a starter, recording four goals and two assists. The former Ajax and Bayern Munich man only started three games in a row once, and prior to the beginning of 2024-25, had not done so since last October.
Moving into the number six role for this season, Gravenberch has played more than twice as many competitive minutes in 2024-25 under Arne Slot (4,048) as he did last season (1,838), and has started 47 of 54 games in all competitions – only four players have played more for Liverpool.
Gravenberch has been key to Liverpool winning the ball back from opponents high up the pitch this season, making more high turnovers than any other player at the club (44) in the competition, with eight of those leading to shots.
No Liverpool player has won possession back from opponents as often as Gravenberch (185) in the Premier League this season, while his tally of interceptions (57) is the second most in the competition behind only West Ham’s Aaron Wan-Bissaka (61).
Dean Huijsen
Remarkably, Dean Huijsen wasn’t even a regular starter for Bournemouth as recently as six months ago, having signed from Juventus last summer in a deal that now looks like a ridiculous bargain at an initial £12.8 million that could rise to £15.3m.
It’ll come as little surprise that 6-foot-6 Huijsen has been one of the best defenders in the air in the Premier League this season, with the Spaniard one of only 13 defenders to have been involved in 100+ aerial duels and win at least 60% of them (60.6%).
His progressive passing out of defence shows that he’s willing to take risks with his distribution. Huijsen ranks third in the Premier League among centre-backs with 1,500 mins played this season for progressive passes per 90 (4.1) – passes in open play which start in the attacking two-thirds of the pitch and move the ball at least 25% closer to goal.
Cole Palmer
Cole Palmer is the reigning Premier League Young Player of the Season, after winning the award in his first season at Chelsea. Thanks to his 33 goal involvements, Palmer became the first player to win the YPOTS award despite not playing for the title winners – a feat he’s hoping to replicate in 2024-25.
Palmer started the season in exceptional form, with 17 goal involvements in his opening 15 appearances of 2024-25 (11 goals, 6 assists), but has only been involved in 6 goals across his last 20 (4 goals, 2 assists). Despite the drop-off in goal involvements, Palmer is second in the Premier League for total chances created (85) behind only Bruno Fernandes, and only Mohamed Salah (82) has created more in open play than him (69).
Palmer’s influence in Chelsea’s attack is shown further by the fact that he’s been involved in the most open-play sequences that have led to a shot in the Premier League this season (246).
One of his most memorable displays of the season came in September, when he scored four goals inside 41 minutes to help Chelsea to victory over Brighton & Hove Albion at Stamford Bridge, becoming the first player ever to score four goals before half-time in a Premier League match.
João Pedro
Still only 23 years old, João Pedro has a bright future ahead of him based on his displays in the Premier League so far.
The Brazilian forward leads his side for goal involvements in the Premier League this season, with 16 in 27 appearances for Brighton & Hove Albion (10 goals, 6 assists), averaging one every 122 minutes of action.
He is one of only four players to have taken at least five penalties in the Premier League this season and kept up a 100% scoring rate (5/5) , alongside Salah (9/9), Justin Kluivert (6/6) and Bryan Mbeumo (5/5). In Premier League history, he’s one of only 20 players to have taken at least 10 and converted at least 90% of them (9/10).
He’s not only good at converting penalties, but he’s got a knack for winning them too. Only compatriot Evanilson (5) at Bournemouth has been fouled to win a penalty more often than João Pedro (3) in the Premier League this season.
Morgan Rogers
Some eyebrows were raised when Aston Villa spent a reported £8m, potentially rising to £15m with add-ons, to sign Morgan Rogers from Championship side Middlesbrough in February 2024.
He had only been at the north-east club for seven months after joining from Man City, but had shown enough for Villa to take a punt on the then 21-year-old. Now, 15 months later, the transfer looks like a steal for Unai Emery’s side.
Only Ollie Watkins (23) has been involved in more Premier League goals for Aston Villa this season than him, with Rogers on 17 thanks to his eight goals and nine assists. He is one of only 16 players to have both attempted 50+ shots and created 50+ chances for teammates in the Premier League this season, and the only one of those to play for Aston Villa.
His creative stats place him among the best in the competition, ranking joint-third in the Premier League this season for xG assisted from open play (7.6) behind only Salah (13.0) and Jacob Murphy (8.8).
William Saliba
In his third season as a Premier League player at Arsenal following various loan moves in the French top flight, William Saliba has cemented his place as one of the best defenders in English football.
Of 150 players to have seen opponents attempt to dribble past them at least 60 times in the Premier League this season, nobody has a better rate at defending in those one-v-one battles than Saliba. The French centre-back has been involved in 78 such situations but successfully dispossessed his opponent 79.5% of the time without committing a foul (62/78).
His aerial ability is also among the best considering only Premier League defenders in 2024-25, too. Saliba has won 62.2% of his aerial duels this season (61/98), which is above the league average for defenders (57.0%).
His passing qualities have helped Arsenal build out from the back, with no player in the Premier League completing a higher proportion of their open-play passes than Saliba this season (94.4%).