Ten Premier League stars to rival David Raya as ‘most improved player’ | OneFootball

Peter Schmeichel is far from the only one to have had egg smeared all over his face through the outstanding performances of David Raya for Arsenal.

“I didn’t understand when he came from Brentford, I didn’t understand because they had Aaron Ramsdale here and Ramsdale was doing very well,” Schmeichel said.

“I didn’t get it and I was very critical at the time: you can’t have two number ones, you’ve got choose, why do you bring him in?”

Questioning whether Raya was any better than Ramsdale haunts several so-called football experts of this parish and Mikel Arteta’s gleeful “and I was hammered when I brought him in” quip at the start of this season only plunged us further into that particular hot-take shame well.

“I think he is probably the most improved player in the Premier League over the last two or three seasons,” Schmiechel added in a claim it’s difficult to argue with.

But we’ve had a go, focusing not specifically on the last two or three seasons, but on the rise of these 10 Raya rivals from their lowest Premier League ebbs to where they are now.

Jeremy Doku (Manchester City)

Jeremy Doku’s evolution from head-down speedster to high-IQ creator is something very few would have predicted having watched him for Manchester City in the previous two seasons before the current campaign, but listen to any of his intelligent interviews; his drive to improve and the space he allows for self-reflection is so, so impressive.

He was always impossible to stop in full flow; his acceleration from a standing start is unmatched. But the final ball or decision in the final third was a huge cause of frustration when he so frequently got into a position to hurt opposition teams.

He got 11 assists before being struck down through an injury this season and looks set to play a significant role in the title race upon his imminent return.

Granit Xhaka (Sunderland)

There can’t be many deeper pits of despair from which to crawl from than the one Xhaka found himself after being stripped of the Arsenal captaincy on the back of being jeered off the pitch by his own fans and telling them to “f*** off” as he did in October 2019.

A biopic of his career that no-one needs or is asking for but will presumably be made by AI at some point would likely pick out that moment as the making of the man, and his career has blossomed on the basis of him being a real man since.

Having won the favour of Arsenal fans back through some brilliant football and leadership under Mikel Arteta, he left to win a very unlikely Bundesliga title with Bayer Leverkusen before returning to the Premier League and playing a huge role in an absurdly comfortable return to the top flight for Sunderland.

James Garner (Everton)

Left Manchester United for £9m three-and-half seasons ago and is now playing at a level to suggest his boyhood club may not currently be in a position where they need to fork out £100m on a new midfielder had they kept him.

He’s made the second-most tackles (90) in the Premier League behind Joao Palhinha (94) and the second-most interceptions (47) behind Moises Caicedo (50). Thomas Tuchel reportedly is, and absolutely should be, intrigued by him as an option for England at the World Cup.

Ryan Gravenberch (Liverpool)

He came very, very close to leaving Liverpool after a season of misuse under Jurgen Klopp, who played him as a box-to-box midfielder in front of Alexis Mac Allister, before Arne Slot pushed the Dutchman deeper into the No.6 role which Gravenberch made his own last season and has continued to largely impress while others around him have looked all at sea.

Harry Wilson (Fulham)

Any Fulham fan now claiming they hailed Wilson’s failed move to Leeds on deadline day as a key to their season at the time is telling porky pies. We doubt more than a handful of them were remotely bothered that his scheduled flight to Leeds Bradford airport was cancelled at the last minute.

An unbelievable season in the Championship for them which yielded 10 goals and a ridiculous 20 assists from the Welshman preceded a smattering of goal contributions in the next two campaigns in the Premier League to suggest the winger is one of innumerable footballers slightly too good for the second tier but not quite good enough for the elite level.

Boy has he proved the doubters wrong. Only Erling Haaland (29), Bruno Fernandes (20) and Igor Thiago (19) have more goals and assists combined than Wilson (15) in the Premier League this season, and so many of the nine goals he’s scored have been absolute belters.

Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea)

The cause of widespread derision upon arriving at Chelsea for a cool £107m and winning just three of his first 18 Premier League games under Graham Potter and then Frank Lampard.

Mauricio Pochettino’s arrival offered scant relief from the mirth, which peaked upon Fernandez being one of the main targets of Gary Neville’s “billion pound bottlejobs” jibe when they lost the Carabao Cup final to ‘the Liverpool kids’.

But the World Cup winner found his feet under Enzo Maresca last term and is now arguably the Premier League’s best goalscoring midfielder. Only Bruno Guimaraes (9) has found the net more than Fernandez (8) this season and Cole Palmer’s move back to the wing illustrates just how important he’s become to the Blues’ attack in that No.10 role.

Patrick Dorgu (Manchester United)

Ruben Amorim’s first signing as Manchester United manager was therefore a scapegoat of a failing and ultimately doomed system as a left wing-back in a squad of players otherwise unsuited to his 3-4-3 system at a football club not prepared for or willing to make such radical change.

Dorgu scored brilliant goals in each of Michael Carrick’s first two games in charge, against Manchester City and Arsenal no less, which when added to assists against Chelsea and Aston Villa and a goal against Newcastle makes for quite the collection of big-game goal contributions for a footballer who will at worst be a hugely useful squad player for Manchester United.

Matheus Nunes (Manchester City)

It’s probably about time to concede that there might be something in playing Nunes at right-back.

He looked horribly out of place for a while having been shoehorned into that role as it appeared Pep Guardiola was more looking to find a spot for a footballer he felt he should play on the basis of him costing Manchester City £53m rather than actually believing him to be a viable option in that position.

The only three games City have lost in their last 24 being those Nunes hasn’t played in – Bayer Leverkusen, Bodo/Glimt and Manchester United – offers fairly irrefutable evidence of his important to the team.

Marc Cucurella (Chelsea)

Todd Boehly must have questioned his decision to sign Marc Cucurella from Brighton purely because Manchester City wanted him for a good while after the fluffy-haired wind-up merchant arrived at Stamford Bridge for £62m in the summer of 2022.

Graham Potter believed the Chelsea fans had a “real dislike” for the Spaniard as he was hailed as one of the all-time Premier League flops after his debut season, but is now one of the players they love most; if there’s a brand of footballer the Blues faithful love it’s one who rubs opposition players up the wrong way and is roundly abhorred by rival supporters.

Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Leeds)

Barn doors and banjos will have featured prominently in football boardroom discussions as sporting directors considered taking a punt on Calvert-Lewin on a free transfer in the summer, along with requisite concerns over the striker’s ability to make it off the treatment table long enough to hit anything with anything.