Ranking the 20 biggest PL summer transfers as Man Utd pair storm into top three | OneFootball

While one Arsenal player forces his way to the top a couple of his teammates are drifting and Viktor Gyokeres is still terrible. Meanwhile Manchester United’s trio are all trending upwards.

We’ve now got all 20 of the Premier League’s most expensive summer transfers in the ranking following Yoane Wissa’s long-awaited return to fitness.

Here’s where the players ranked three games into the Premier League season and after nine and then 15, with their previous positions included in brackets.

20) Alexander Isak (n/a, 19, 19)

All of his personal gripes with Newcastle and their ‘broken promises’ considered, along with the injustice surrounding the imbalance of power between clubs and players with regard to contracts, we can’t help but feel quite pleased he’s having an absolute mare at Liverpool.

Any hope that the floodgates might open after his first Premier League goal against West Ham – a fine finish it was too – faded dramatically with arguably even worse performances to strengthen claims that Isak might just be the biggest flop in Premier League history before yet another injury.

Here’s to his speedy recovery as a) injuries are sh*t and b) watching Isak play football is now brilliant no matter how he performs. Back to his best? Great, he’s a wonderful striker. Still terrible? Flopping excellent.

19) Anthony Elanga (11, 17, 18)

We all nodded in agreement with Dave Tickner’s sage assertion that while Elanga might not be worth £55m to any other team, he was to Newcastle because of their excellence in transition on the counter-attack, but are now very much distancing ourselves from that fool of a journalist/man.

In over 1000 minutes he has no goals, just two assists, has spent half the time watching Jacob Murphy from the bench and has forced Eddie Howe into fielding one of his two left wingers in his position on the right.

This graph from football analysis experts Gradient Sports tells you what you need to know…

Anthony Elanga grades thanks to Gradient

18) Yoane Wissa (n/a)

A more than cheeky £30m offer from Fenerbahce for Wissa, six months after his protracted £55m transfer from Brentford and just 477 minutes into his Newcastle career gives a pretty clear indication as to how they view his time thus far on Tyneside.

Having missed the first four months of the season either sulking to force the transfer, injured, or both, he’s scored three goals since returning to action at the start of December – though he was excellent v PSV – currently making him flop adjacent; full status is in the post.

17) Benjamin Sesko (13, 11, 17)

The abiding memories of Sesko’s contribution to English football so far are him stepping up 10th in the penalty shootout defeat to Grimsby Town having put a stoppage-time chance over the bar from roughly four yards out to ensure the game went that far, and getting injured when clean through against Tottenham.

A brace against Burnley to double his United goals tally offered promise that was quickly and fairly comprehensively extinguished when he didn’t make it off the bench in Michael Carrick’s first game in charge against Manchester City, which was also The Best Manchester United Performance Since Sir Alex Ferguson.

16) Viktor Gyokeres (8, 12, 14)

We were concerned for a while that Arsenal fans were becoming indestructible such was the way they brushed off perfectly valid criticism of Gyokeres on their seemingly inexorable path to the Premier League title.

But the quite remarkable return of pessimism despite a seven-point lead in the league and a 100 per cent record in the Champions League. has granted us access once more to poke at the brittle Gunners psyche and Gyokeres’ frankly shocking form is the standout pressure point.

His fine finish against Inter on Tuesday was overdue as his only goal since November 1 in the Premier League came from the penalty spot against Everton. But Gabriel Jesus scored a brace in that game and with Kai Havertz still waiting in the wings Gyokeres will surely soon find himself out of the starting line-up in games that matter if he puts in insipid displays as he did against Nottingham Forest. 

15) Jamie Gittens (12, 16, 15)

He’s done some good things – a stunner against Wolves in the League Cup, a nice assist in defeat at Leeds – but still feels nailed on to be the next young forward to drown in stagnant pool of attacking talent that Stamford Bridge has become in the BlueCo era.

He’s not started a Premier League game since the start of December and although looked decent in Liam Rosenior’s first game in charge against Charlton, won’t be at all encouraged by the new head coach starting Pedro Neto on the left against Arsenal or by Alejandro Garnacho coming off the bench to score a brace.

14) Milos Kerkez (10, 18, 16)

He’s taken to Liverpool like a duck to a frozen pond, expecting to swim but landing arse up with his face in the ice.

For a the first few weeks of the campaign he was playing as though he was constantly trying to make up for mistakes he hadn’t made yet but then duly did make in desperation to impress. He didn’t know where to be or what to do so tried to be everywhere doing everything, and was therefore usually nowhere, doing nothing.

Arne Slot’s move to a style of football some would call functional and others would see as the most turgid sh*te they’ve witnessed at Anfield for many a moon has minimised the space allowed for mistakes, from Kerkez and any of the other culprits.

But signed largely on the basis of his raiding attacking quality the shift has rather cut Kerkez off at the knees. He has one goal and no assists in 29 appearances in his debut season.

13) Xavi Simons (n/a, 13, 9)

Clearly a hugely talented footballer and the obvious suggestion is that he would thrive under a different, less conservative, more forward-thinking manager. We’re not quite so sure.

The football happens all-too frequently around rather than through him and we could list a dozen high-profile playmakers who have arrived in the Premier League and left soon after for whom that was the case.

12) Alejandro Garnacho (n/a, 14, 13)

A couple of goals off the bench against Arsenal followed by a nothing display against Brentford is Garnacho in a nutshell. The jury’s out and frankly we don’t expect them back in session for the rest of what looks to be a predictably frustrating season of infrequent highs from a base of lows.

11) Tijjani Reijnders (6, 9, 11)

Who needs Kevin De Bruyne? Oh, we do. One excellent performance against Wolves was followed by a whole lot of guff from Reijnders, who’s shown glimpses of his quality and scored a few goals of late, but has done nothing like what we expected after that opening-day clinic.

Large periods in games go by in which you forget he’s playing, which is quite the feat for a midfielder in a Pep Guardiola team.

10) Eberechi Eze (n/a, 5, 6)

His first Arsenal goal being the winner against his former club and his next three all coming against the Gunners’ bitter north London rivals whom he was days even hours away from joining instead of them all adds to what was an already pretty clear sense that Eze’s return to his boyhood club was meant to be.

But those were his only four goals and his failure to displace a horribly out-of-form Martin Odegaard from the Premier League starting XI doesn’t bode at all well for Eze’s short-term Arsenal future or for his World Cup chances. He’s featured for just 23 minutes across the last six Premier League games, failing to make it off the bench in four of them.

9) Noni Madueke (7, 10, 5)

We may may never have been more invested in an Arsenal signing doing well after the #NOTOMADUEKE petition but have also struggled with the thought of those unthinkable tw*ts lacking any sort of human decency being allowed to enjoy the football he’s playing.

Here’s hoping they hung their heads in shame as his piledriver against Club Brugge cannoned in off the underside of the crossbar in recognition that they are wholly underserving of nice things. We fear the I Told You So-ists will soon be crawling from the woodwork with Madueke struggling for end product of late.

8) Florian Wirtz (14, 15, 12)

Wirtz has dropped down the growing list of Liverpool problems Arne Slot has to deal with, not least because he appears to be relatively low maintenance in comparison to others (or An Other).

It’s not clear whether a slight uptick in his performances is down to Wirtz’s slow adaptation to the Premier League or if a guy with that much talent is bound to show some quality if afforded enough time on the pitch. We suspect the latter but it doesn’t really matter.

There has been notable improvement but he still needs to do a helluva lot more to ease doubts over his suitability to be the face of the New Liverpool in a post-Mohamed Salah era.

Nothing is quite at the elite yet but it’s all looking decent…

Florian Wirtz grades from Gradient.

7) Joao Pedro (1, 6, 8)

Genuine hope that Chelsea may have found a fully-formed striker to lead their attack after two goals and three assists in his opening four Premier League games has since faded into questions as to whether the Brazilian would even be in a Blues XI looking to challenge for major honours in future after a further five goals and one assist in his last 18 top flight games.

While Liam Delap has so far failed to prove he’s the answer as the furthest man forward, he looks more suited to that role than Pedro, who thrives in a more withdrawn position which is sure to be occupied by Cole Palmer assuming Pedro Neto or Estevao play on the right flank.

He’s a fine footballer and has proven himself worthy of the step up from Brighton, but he’s not the top striker Chelsea needed and still need.

6) Nick Woltemade (n/a, 2, 3)

We will forever have a soft spot for footballers who don’t look as though they should be good at football. Combine that with him being the cause of great mirth for naysayers in the summer having joined for a fee way above his market value as Newcastle’s fourth or fifth-choice striker and him having to replace £125m defector Isak and we were tucking into veritable jambalaya of joy at seeing Woltemade’s early goalscoring form at St James’ Park.

But he’s failed to score in any of his last seven appearances and the brace against Chelsea just before Christmas were his only goals in his last 13 games.

5) Hugo Ekitike (5, 7, 7)

Started superbly with five goals and an assist in his first seven games to raise questions as to why Liverpool spent £125m on another striker, then endured a barren spell with no goals or assists in 12 games – largely off the bench – while Slot tried and failed to bed in his £125m striker, before he scored five goals in three games upon being reinstated to the starting XI to again raise questions as to why they signed an alternative £125m striker.

Liverpool shouldn’t have signed the £125m striker.

4) Mohammed Kudus (3, 1, 1)

Suspicions that those questioning Kudus’ price tag after a very ordinary output of five goals and three assists last season were missing the obvious ‘but he was playing for West Ham’ caveat have been confirmed through his displays for Spurs this term.

He has ploughed a lone furrow as Spurs’ only real attacking outlet for much of the season under Thomas Frank and could very easily return from injury in April to play under a different manager.

3) Matheus Cunha (5, 8, 10)

Four goals and two assists in 21 appearances isn’t enough but Cunha has this wonderful magnetic energy; stuff just happens around him on the football pitch.

He’s one of our absolute favourite players to watch and has already proven beyond doubt – despite those relatively weak numbers – that he has the character required to avoid cowing under the pressure at Old Trafford as so many big-money signing have done before him.

2) Bryan Mbeumo (9, 4, 2)

Like Cunha, Mbeumo looks to have bucked a very long trend in being a high-quality footballer who arrives at Old Trafford and continues being that very same high-quality footballer.

Eight goals and an assist in 18 appearances is a very serviceable return and we can expect the hit-rate to increase should he continue to play in the No.9 position after his goal in the Manchester derby.

1) Martin Zubimendi (4, 3, 4)

As suckers for low stress, technically brilliant defensive midfielders we suspect we will be swooning over the Spaniard for a long time yet. While so many others struggle to come to terms with the pace and power of the Premier League, his transition has been seamless. His goal against Chelsea was sublime. Just a hugely impressive footballer.