Every Premier League club’s bad luck charm: Palmer, Rodri and Arsenal’s ‘nothing player’ | OneFootball

Chelsea will probably look at Cole Palmer’s personal PPG in an injury-hit season and think it is worth cashing in on interest from Man Utd while they can.

Palmer is ‘open’ to the move, even if it remains a difficult one for Man Utd to pull off for a variety of reasons.

But the mere fact he has the worst personal PPG of any player at Chelsea this season means it is probably being considered in the halls at Stamford Bridge.

Here is every Premier League club’s worst player of the 2025/26 season so far based on their personal PPG, with a minimum of eight appearances required for inclusion.

Arsenal

Perhaps those dissenting, “utter disgrace” Arsenal supporters were right all along. When they signed that petition against his signing in their droves, they likely sensed that after 23 games, Noni Madueke would have a PPG of just 1.79 for the league leaders.

The England forward is a ‘nothing player’ with not a single Premier League goal in over a year. And it doesn’t reflect phenomenally on Arsenal’s summer transfer business that Eberechi Eze (1.88) is next.

Aston Villa

The brilliance of Unai Emery, the resurgence of Emi Buendia, the individualism of Morgan Rogers, the majesty of Boubacar Kamara, the fun of shooting from outside the box and the Marco Bizot of Marco Bizot have all been offered as explanations behind this absurd Aston Villa season.

But the key factor has been overlooked. Tyrone Mings started each of the club’s first five winless games of the campaign, not missing a single minute until he went off injured in the 32nd minute at 1-0 down to Fulham. Villa would win that game 3-1 and jump-start their season without him.

Mings (1.13) has played twice since, losing 2-0 on his return at Liverpool and coming back from injury again to finally taste victory against Newcastle at St James’ Park.

Bournemouth

It feels quite harsh to tar Eli Junior Kroupi (1.17) with any sort of negative brush. The 19-year-old has scored seven sodding goals in his debut Premier League season. But he was really quite present in that patented Andoni Iraola 11-game winless run, with Bournemouth actually unbeaten in the five matches he has missed.

Brentford

While Dango Ouattara (1.18) was on AFCON duty with Burkina Faso, Brentford won four games and drew one. With Dango unchained upon his return, the Bees have been beaten by Chelsea and Nottingham Forest.

Brighton

“We all know his big potential and he can really change the game for us. He’s still a young player,” said grizzled veteran Fabian Hurzeler, “and he’s still in a phase where he needs to develop and we try to help him.

“He’s definitely pushing to start by performance, that’s for sure,” the Brighton manager added of Charalampos Kostoulas (1.08), who was then aided in his development by having to watch James Milner introduced before him in the late stages of a defeat to Fulham.

The Greek teenager has racked up an impressive 183 minutes across 13 appearances, scoring twice. But Kostoulas suffers because he only gets chucked on in the dying minutes when Danny Welbeck eventually starts to disintegrate.

Burnley

Being injured for the August victory against Sunderland, then an unused substitute in both October wins over Leeds and Wolves, really does reflect unfortunately on £20m striker Armando Broja (0.29).

The poor fella last played in a Premier League win so long ago that Abdoulaye Doucoure scored the winning goal against Nuno Espirito Santo’s Nottingham Forest.

Chelsea

It puts a rather different sheen on the entire “transfer request” situation to consider that Chelsea pick up a single point on average whenever Cole Palmer has played this season.

Palmer has featured in just two Premier League wins in 2025/26 – and scored in both – with the Blues proving they are actually just fine without the player many considered to be their irreplaceable talisman.

It is definitely possible to envisage BlueCo cashing in, even if it would be the final straw for many Chelsea supporters.

Crystal Palace

The oldest, most experienced and indeed most expensive of the “kids” Oliver Glasner hurled under the bus before calling what feels painfully like a temporary ceasefire between the outgoing manager and his paymasters, Christantus Uche (0.45) might point out that his longest Premier League appearance of 11 lasted just 24 minutes – and resulted in a win.

Everton

It has been a difficult first year at Everton for Tyler Dibling (1), whose £42m move from Southampton has thus far heralded just four Premier League starts.

Even when David Moyes had his attacking options limited by injuries and AFCON, Dibling struggled to establish himself as a reliable squad member. The opportunities have increased somewhat, but the wait for a goal or assist goes on.

Fulham

Marco Silva has already delightfully formally confirmed that Adama Traore “is likely to leave our football club, yes”. And his 1.2 PPG will be Nuno and West Ham’s problem then.

Leeds

When Daniel James (0.7) last kicked a ball for Leeds, they were 2-0 down at Manchester City and Daniel Farke was headed for the exit.

Leeds staged a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful comeback at the Etihad once James was substituted at half time, with a record of P10 W3 D6 L1 while he has been sidelined through injury.

It does not feel like there will be a natural place for him upon his return. It depends what the Premier League signing of the season says.

Liverpool

That first appearance of the season made promises it could not keep for Rio Ngumoha, whose late heroics against Newcastle seemed to occur on an alternate and entirely nonsensical timeline.

The teenager has played in just one other Premier League win this season: against Burnley three weeks later. The minutes he has been drip-fed by Arne Slot have tried and summarily failed to recapture that initial substitute cameo magic for a player averaging a single point per game.

Manchester City

The holder of the longest ever unbeaten run in club football for any player, Rodri (1.45) has become a bad luck charm for Manchester City.

After finally overcoming some quite severe knee-knack it was assumed that the former Ballon d’Or winner alone could address a great many of the problems Pep Guardiola encountered at the Etihad last season.

Quite understandably, it has been the opposite for a player taking tentative first steps back into a crucial role. Rodri’s only wins when starting this season have come against Ruben Amorim’s Manchester United, Napoli, Exeter and Wolves.

Manchester United

The secret to Michael Carrick’s emergence as the single greatest manager in football history? There are two steps: succeed Ruben Amorim; and forget Joshua Zirkzee (1.43) exists.

Those wins over Manchester City and Arsenal were delivered with a great many changes to the line-up, but perhaps most pertinently they saw Zirkzee dropped from the matchday squad altogether, the Dutchman having previously never failed to make at least a Premier League bench under Erik ten Hag and Amorim.

Newcastle United

Anthony Elanga having a PPG of 1.29 is mental. Tino Livramento (1.69) ranking second behind Fabian Schar (1.75) is crazy. But this is Trippier (1.09), man.

Nottingham Forest

There is a reason Nottingham Forest were happy to offload a £26m summer signing who actually showed a decent level with a couple of goals in the Europa League.

Poor Arnaud Kalimuendo (0.22) had more managers (three) than starts (two) for Forest this season, with nine substitute cameos not quite tipping him past the 90-minute mark.

A loan to Eintracht Frankfurt has already unlocked a different side to Kalimuendo, with two goals in four Bundesliga games. And they obviously changed head coaches less than a fortnight after he joined. Forest that.

Sunderland

The most overrated player at the Stadium of Light, it initially seemed as though £21m had been spent wisely on Simon Adingra (1.07) when the forward assisted a goal on his winning debut and featured in the club’s first three Premier League victories.

But not since the Black Cats ransacked the City Ground and left with three points in September has Adingra played in any win beyond the FA Cup third-round shoot-out against Everton, in which he was substituted before the end.

Sunderland do appear to have belatedly realised that for all the money invested, their wide forward options are a bit naff.

Spurs

It has been an absolute 2022 World Cup final of a season for Randal Kolo Muani (0.87), who likely accepted a Spurs loan on the pretence it would afford him enough game time to make the France squad for this year’s iteration of the tournament.

He will not. Kolo Muani’s only goals in 23 appearances this campaign have come against the club who loaned him to Spurs in the first place, with PSG still hammering them 5-3 at the Parc des Princes despite that Kolo Muani double.

Juventus are lurking with the 27-year-old said to be considering his immediate future already.

West Ham

There have been reports that West Ham might already be willing to sell Soungoutou Magassa (0.5), having barely platformed the £14.7m midfielder since his arrival.

With that said, his most recent Premier League appearance ended at half time of the 3-0 thrashing by Wolves, since which West Ham have won two of their three games.

Magassa has played in one Premier League win: for 19 minutes against Burnley in November.

Wolves

It isn’t difficult to see why Wolves loaned Ki-Jana Hoever (0.00) out as soon as humanly possible. All eight of his appearances for them ended in defeat before Sheffield United took the Dutchman on and promptly lost his first two games, including a shock FA Cup defeat at home to Mansfield.

However, Hoever did finally get the monkey off his back in the victory against Ipswich, the Blades trusting him with just three minutes at the end of a 3-1 win.

Beyond Hoever, Toti Gomes (0.08) is spared inclusion on a technicality. Twelve of his 13 appearances have been in defeats, with the exception coming in the Spurs draw in September, when he came on as a stoppage-time substitute two minutes before Thomas Frank’s side equalised.