Every Premier League Team's Most Disappointing Player So Far

The November international break is here, halting Premier League action as we approach the one-third mark of the 2024-25 season.

Players jetting off to represent their countries always offers an opportunity to step back and take stock of the campaign so far. On this occasion, the players who have underperformed are under the microscope.

It might be harsh to pick out poor individual performances in a team sport, but it's difficult to deny these names are adding little to the success—or are not helping reverse the ill fortune—of their respective teams.

Read on for one player from each Premier League team who will be grateful for the fortnight off to reflect and recalibrate as they look to improve their club form.

We start off with a slightly controversial pick, as Gabriel Jesus has only suited up for 122 minutes in the league so far. That extends to 489 minutes across 15 appearances in all competitions.

The Brazilian is decidedly out of favor at the Emirates Stadium for one reason or another, but just one goal and one assist—both coming against Preston North End in the Carabao Cup—still represents a dreadful return at this point in the season.

In a team that doesn't play with a recognized centre-forward, the 27-year-old has been pushed to the fringes by Mikel Arteta. But his output when given an opportunity has done little to convince the Arsenal boss to give him a run of minutes.

Jesus won't be joining Brazil as the Seleção take on Venezuela and Uruguay, allowing him to put some work in on the training ground and in the gym in an effort to impress the manager. With his club on a poor run of form, he might even get an opportunity to change the tide when league play resumes.

Leon Bailey truly emerged as a lethal threat for Aston Villa last season, spurring the club's resurgence under Unai Emery with 10 goals and nine assists in league play from the wing.

In the 10 league games he's featured in this season, he's stayed on the pitch for 90 minutes just once, and he's returned just two assists—both in draws—during those outings.

Recurring hamstring injuries might be a factor in his reduced output this season, while a little more rotation from Emery as he keeps his squad fresh with more games on the horizon might be affecting his rhythm.

However, it's a shame the Jamaican has seemingly regressed after some stellar performances last season.

Since leaving Athletic Club Bilbao in 2018 in a big-money transfer to Chelsea, Kepa Arrizabalaga's stock has continued to fall.

A loan move to Bournemouth to help the Cherries mitigate the loss of former No. 1 Neto to Arsenal seemed like a win-win scenario, with the club getting an experienced shot-stopper on short notice and the player getting a chance to rebuild his reputation.

It has not worked out so far.

The 30-year-old has played just six games for the south-coast side, conceding 10 in the process. A clean sheet in a 2-0 win against Arsenal has been the lone bright spot.

Injury has prevented him from making more of an impact, but even when he has played, he has looked like the weak link in a side flirting with a spot in the top half of the league table.

After a fine end to last season in the Championship on loan with Hull City, Brentford were convinced to send Liverpool around $35 million to sign Fabio Carvalho.

A return of two goals and three assists in 14 games across all competitions is a slightly underwhelming return on that investment.

The Bees are having to adjust to life post-Ivan Toney, and Carvalho has found minutes hard to come by. Still, a club with limited financial resources spending that much money on a player would like to see more bang for its buck.

Carvalho could yet become a Brentford star, but on the evidence so far, this looks like it might have been a bit of an overspend.

A campaign affected by injury last season halted the momentum of Pervis Estupiñán, who looked to be another in the long line of excellent purchases by Brighton & Hove Albion.

In 2024-25, that forward thrust has almost ground to a halt.

The Ecuador international has provided no goal involvements in eight Premier League games this season for the impressive Seagulls. To put that in perspective, the 26-year-old provided a goal or an assist every 4.5 games for the club across the last two campaigns.

He gets a bit of a let-off for starting only five games this season, but in a Brighton side that is again punching above its weight, Estupiñán stands out as an underperforming element.

The most expensive player in Premier League history has been forced to watch from the bench for most of the 2024-25 season.

Enzo Fernández featured in the starting XI for six of the first seven games of the season, missing Week 4 against Bournemouth with an illness. But since the opening whistle of Chelsea's Week 8 meeting with Liverpool, he's watched on as Roméo Lavia has partnered Moisés Caicedo in the middle of the park.

In truth, the Argentina international has disappointed since arriving at Stamford Bridge midway through the 2023-24 season. If Lavia had been fit last season, he might have pushed Fernandez to the bench much earlier than he eventually did.

At 23, Fernández has plenty of time to get back in the manager's good books. But with Enzo Maresca showing a ruthless streak in the Blues' dugout, the midfielder is going to have to put in some serious work to do so.

In 13 games following the arrival of manager Oliver Glasner last season, Jean-Philippe Mateta went on a remarkable scoring run that saw him bag 13 goals.

With just three goals in 11 league games during this campaign, the Frenchman has fallen wildly off the pace for the struggling Eagles.

Mateta's emergence was impressive considering the player only scored 11 in the span of nearly three seasons before the Austrian's arrival, perhaps proving that previous bosses Roy Hodgson and Patrick Vieira hadn't quite figured out the best way to utilize him. However, it's looking more and more like that hot streak was a fluke.

Palace sit 18th in the Premier League with just one win, and Mateta's drastic cooling off has a lot to do with it.

Many had assumed that as long as Dominic Calvert-Lewin could put his injury woes behind him, he could go on to become one of the best homegrown strikers in the Premier League.

However, at 27 years old and after a full season of mostly uninterrupted play, he might be running out of time to make good on that potential.

Back-to-back strikes in Weeks 3 and 4 against Bournemouth and Aston Villa, respectively, gave a little hope that maybe he was back to his best. However, he's not been involved in a goal since for an Everton side that desperately needs them. The 10 goals the Toffees have scored so far is the third-worst tally in the top flight this season.

With a relegation battle again looking likely at Goodison Park, the club perhaps needs to look at a different style of play to make use of his strengths. DCL has been used as a target man for a long-ball game for most of the season, leading the league with 8.5 aerial duels contested per game, per WhoScored.com.

Perhaps a little more time on the ground could help Calvert-Lewin shake off the "disappointment" tag.

Rodrigo Muniz came to the rescue of Fulham last season after Aleksandar Mitrović's sale to Al-Hilal.

The Brazilian stepped up in the second half of the campaign with nine goals from February onwards, filling the void left by the powerful Serb and helping the Cottagers pick up 12 points to steer them away from a possible relegation scrap.

However, he cooled off around April, only scoring once as the season wound down. In the 2024-25 campaign, he's managed just one goal and one assist.

There was palpable excitement around west London with the 23-year-old's emergence, but that enthusiasm has been quieted somewhat. Thankfully, Raúl Jiménez is rolling back the years and Harry Wilson is performing miracles off the bench to help Fulham to seventh place in the table.

It would be nice if Muniz could relocate his scoring boots, though.

The tale of Kalvin Phillips continues to look like it won't finish with a happy ending.

The 28-year-old earned plaudits during his time at Leeds United, consistently being one of the club's best performers. Those impressive showings earned him 31 England caps and a big move to Manchester City in 2022.

Since then, it's all gone wrong for the Yorkshireman.

A stint with West Ham United on loan in the second half of last season did little to remind onlookers of his talents, and he's not exactly set tongues wagging with Ipswich Town so far this term.

But getting consistent game time is so important for Phillips to rewrite the ending of his story, and at least he's getting it with the Tractor Boys.

That Ipswich earned their first win of the season last time out against Tottenham Hotspur while he was suspended doesn't bode well for him, though.

In what was a fairly lean summer transfer window for Leicester City, Bilal El Khannouss arrived in its closing moments to headline the club's incomings for a fee in the region of $26 million.

Fans would have been hoping for a little more than just the one goal in all competitions so far.

All things considered, the Foxes haven't done so badly on their Premier League return, with victories over Southampton and Bournemouth helping to keep them clear of the relegation zone for the time being.

If they want to remain a safe distance from the drop, though, they will need their new star player to step up. Of course, it would help if he was given a little more game time, with just 200 Premier League minutes clocked up this season.

It's not entirely his fault, but it's hard to argue El Khannouss' Premier League career has been anything but disappointing so far.

We hear you, Liverpool fans. Dominik Szoboszlai has been putting in the hard yards, providing relentless energy and hassling opposition players all season.

That's all well and good, and that effort should be commended, especially since it seems to be a direct requirement from manager Arne Slot. But his decision-making in the final third and propensity to spurn big opportunities with an errant pass or a wayward shot has left the Reds with far fewer goals than they perhaps deserve.

The Hungary international needs to balance that intense work rate with a bit more composure. His talismanic performances for his national team have proved he can do it, and the time away with the Magyars might help to remind him exactly what he's capable of.

The reigning Premier League Player of the Season has barely seen any pitch time in the 2024-25 campaign.

Phil Foden has clocked up just 461 league minutes of a possible 990, and he has just one assist to show for it.

Like a few players on this list, it's difficult for the 24-year-old to make an impact when he's not in the team. But when you consider the heights he hit last season, it's immensely disappointing that we've not been allowed to watch the lad from Stockport continue his impressive rise to world-class status.

Patience is wearing thin on the Red side of Manchester.

Marcus Rashford is simply not living up to the standards the Old Trafford fans expect. For all the good things you can say about the 27-year-old off the pitch, he's simply not delivering on it.

Of course, that could be down to management, with Erik ten Hag presiding over a dour couple of seasons. Perhaps the arrival of Ruben Amorim can revive his obvious talent.

But the clamour for a youthful front line featuring Alejandro Garnacho, Amad Diallo and Rasmus Højlund is getting louder, and if the incoming Portuguese boss hears it, Rashford might find it hard to force his way back into the Red Devils' strongest XI.

Alexander Isak appears to be waking up, with three goals and one assist in his last three league games. Before then, he'd scored and assisted once apiece in six matches.

The Sweden international was the third-highest scorer in the Premier League last season, notching 21 to trail Cole Palmer (22) and Erling Haaland (27). But he has stumbled out of the blocks this term, and fears he'd regressed or defenders had finally come up with a way to deal with him were very real.

There are promising signs he's on his way back to his best, but a player with his talent should have provided much more to Newcastle's campaign at this point.

A lot of Nottingham Forest's recent good fortune has been thanks to Morgan Gibbs-White, with the midfielder helping to spearhead their last two bids for Premier League survival.

Those efforts might have caught up to him, though, as he's not reaching the same heights this season—even as Forest sit a surprising fifth in the league table.

Granted, the 24-year-old still puts in the hard yards, but that's not been matched with production in front of goal.

Last season, Gibbs-White provided a goal or an assist every 2.5 Premier League games. This term, he's got just one goal in eight appearances.

He's still vital for the east Midlands side's cause, but if he could provide a little more in the final third, it might further boost the club's chances of an unprecedented berth in a European competition next season.

Aaron Ramsdale endured the agony of seeing his No. 1 goalkeeper spot usurped by David Raya at Arsenal last season, and he was forced to watch on as the Gunners competed for the title until the very end.

A move to Southampton seemed like a smart way to resurrect his career and get him back in the conversation for England caps. But 19 goals conceded in nine appearances isn't doing much to boost his stock.

Ramsdale, 26, still flits between the inspired and the naive, and a bit more focus and consistency would do wonders.

It was always going to be tough for Saints on their Premier League return, and he can't keep out every single shot that comes his way. But composure at the back can help provide a platform for better things up top, and that starts with the goalkeeper.

It's been a curious season for Tottenham Hotspur. They are the league's top scorers with 23, and the 13 they've conceded is good for the joint-sixth-best record.

Still, they have just 16 points to show for it, leaving them 10th in the table.

The defense has been various forms of poor, leaving them too exposed to goals they simply shouldn't be conceding. That's stopped them from picking up points in games they should arguably be winning.

But the relative backward step from Heung-Min Son is also a concern. He lands on this list of disappointing players, but only because of his previous high standards.

Injuries have curtailed his involvement, and an awkward contract situation might be playing on the South Korean's mind. Regardless, he's gone missing in too many games this season, and as the club's talisman following the exit of Harry Kane, Spurs need him to get back to his best as soon as possible.

Arguably, the whole West Ham United team has been disappointing this season. A squad that contains a decent stockpile of talent should not be hovering four points above the relegation zone.

Multiple players haven't performed to expectations, with Mohammed Kudus not stepping up after a fine first campaign, Jean Clair-Todibo not shoring up the back line as expected, and Lucas Paqueta seemingly not finding a good fit in Julen Lopetegui's new system.

But Alphonse Areola has consistently looked like a weak spot, and his last outing against Spurs perhaps encapsulated his misfortunes.

He was judged to have conceded an own goal and ended up letting in four as the Hammers capitulated at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium after taking an early lead.

The next game, Łukasz Fabiański returned to the starting XI. It's unclear if Areola is injured or whether he's been dropped, but considering he was on the bench for the subsequent game against Manchester United—which West Ham won—it's likely the boss had seen enough.

West Ham need a lot more than better goalkeeping to get their season back on track, though.

Wolverhampton Wanderers signed Sam Johnstone from Crystal Palace as a potential upgrade from José Sá.

The England international took the No. 1 spot for the first five games following his arrival, but he conceded 13 in that time as Wolves went winless. Now, Sá has reclaimed the starting berth, and the Molineux side picked up their first victory of the season last time out with the Portuguese in goal.

Johnstone's shot-stopping ability is sound, but his lack of confidence and ability with the ball at his feet has put Wolves in some tricky spots, leading to turnovers of possession and general disarray at the back. That's not a position you want your defense to be in.

While Sá is prone to a couple of ghastly errors, he's a bit more sure-footed than his goalkeeping rival. It'll be tough for Johnstone to reclaim the spot that was once his to lose.