PFA reveal Premier League, WSL Teams of the Year – did the players get it right?
Five Arsenal players were selected for the PFA Premier League Team of the Year — as voted for by players — for 2025-26, with Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes and Manchester City’s Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw the recipients of the Players’ Player of the Year awards.
The PFA (Professional Footballers’ Association) named its strongest teams for each of the top four divisions of English men’s football and top two leagues of the women’s game on Tuesday evening.
Premier League champions Arsenal are represented by goalkeeper David Raya, defenders Gabriel, William Saliba and Jurrien Timber, alongside midfielder Declan Rice.
Manchester City, who finished runners-up in the Premier League, are represented by Nico O’Reilly, Rayan Cherki, Erling Haaland and Antoine Semenyo, a January signing from Bournemouth. Brentford striker Igor Thiago, who scored 22 league goals, is also included.
The individual award for Fernandes, the sole United representative in the team, follows his success in the Football Writers’ Association men’s footballer of the year award for the campaign. The Portugal international recorded a record-breaking 21 league assists in 2025-26.
Fernandes is the first United player to win the award since Wayne Rooney in the 2009-10 season, and it is the first time in nine years that it has not been won by a Liverpool or Manchester City player, a streak dating back to N’Golo Kante’s trophy in 2017 with Chelsea.
Shaw — one of three representatives of champions Manchester City in the Women’s Super League (WSL) team — was named WSL Player of the Year after powering the title win with 21 goals.
Did the players get it right? We asked a team of our writers at The Athletic for their thoughts — and who should have been included instead…
Would Bruno Fernandes get into any team in the world?
Andy Mitten
PFA Premier League Team of the Year
Goalkeeper: David Raya (Arsenal)
Defenders: Gabriel (Arsenal), Nico O’Reilly (Manchester City), William Saliba (Arsenal), Jurrien Timber (Arsenal)
Midfielders: Bruno Fernandes (Manchester United), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Rayan Cherki (Manchester City)
Forwards: Erling Haaland (Manchester City), Antoine Semenyo (Manchester City), Igor Thiago (Brentford)
Did the players get it right?
Stu James: I found it quite unsettling not to be in a rage about the players listed. Yes, there’s a heavy Arsenal and Manchester City contingent, but I don’t have an issue with that. I’d like to make room for Morgan Gibbs-White but, unlike some of my colleagues, I can’t select him ahead of Rayan Cherki. Instead, Gibbs-White is in for Igor Thiago, who had an excellent season at Brentford but, if we’re being picky (and I am), eight of his goals were penalties. So it’s a 4-1-4-1, in case you were wondering. Keep running, Declan
Seb Stafford-Bloor: No doubt Rayan Cherki had wonderful, inclusion-worthy moments, but Morgan Gibbs-White’s 15 goals and four assists for Nottingham Forest last season, for three different coaches and during a relegation fight, was contextually more impressive. It was a better story, too, after all the shenanigans with Tottenham in the summer of 2025. Many players would have sulked through last season. Gibbs-White played brilliantly and warrants recognition.
Carl Anka: An adventurous 4-3-3? A lopsided 4-4-2? A player-voted team of the year is a great reminder that footballers view and feel the game differently from the layman. Riccardo Calafiori and Casemiro would be my suggestions for the team, subbing in for O’Reilly and Cherki respectively. An interesting XI from 25-26 – another indicator that the Premier League is undergoing a transitional period and perhaps needs more superstar forwards.
Cherki’s inclusion was not popular with our writers. Gareth Copley/Getty Images)
Amelie Claydon: Nine of the 11 spots going to Arsenal and Manchester City is hard to dispute after they finished first and second on 163 points combined. The change would be one 23-year-old for another, Elliot Anderson for Cherki. Cherki made just 19 league starts as a No 10, while Anderson made 37 in a deeper role for 16th-placed Nottingham Forest and won possession more often than any other Premier League player.
Felipe Cardenas: I looked at this and immediately thought ‘Where’s Morgan Rogers?’ The former Aston Villa midfielder had a breakout season in 2025/26. He was exceptional for Villa. How does one earn the PFA Young Player of the Year and not make this best XI? The fix is to swap Cherki for Rogers. The England international doesn’t have the flair and game-changing impact that Cherki offers, but Rogers proved that he could start and improve any squad in the Premier League.
Colin Millar: Nine players from the top two clubs is top heavy. The only serious question is Rayan Cherki’s inclusion, given he started just half of Manchester City’s league games. The absence of players from Aston Villa, Bournemouth, Brighton and Sunderland, however, is striking. Morgan Rogers and Elliot Anderson became the two most expensive English players ever after this season, yet neither feature. Morgan Gibbs-White played a direct role in 40 per cent of Nottingham Forest’s goals but he too was omitted.
PFA WSL Team of the Year
Goalkeeper: Hannah Hampton (Chelsea)
Defenders: Kerstin Casparij (Manchester City), Toko Koga (Tottenham Hotspur), Ellie Carpenter (Chelsea), Emily Fox (Arsenal)
Midfielders: Yui Hasegawa (Manchester City), Mariona Caldentey (Arsenal), Jess Park (Manchester United)
Forwards: Bunny Shaw (Manchester City), Alessia Russo (Arsenal), Lauren James (Chelsea)
The WSL Team of the Year had a more equitable split than the men’s, with three players each from City, Chelsea and Arsenal, alongside one each from Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur.
Shaw, who scored 21 goals in 22 WSL appearances last term, is joined by City team-mates Kerstin Casparij and Yui Hasegawa, with Chelsea’s Hannah Hampton, Ellie Carpenter and Lauren James also selected.
Arsenal trio Emily Fox, Mariona Caldentey and Alessia Russo are named, alongside defender Toko Koga of Spurs and Manchester United midfielder Jess Park.
Did the players get it right?
Megan Feringa: You’ll never please everyone with accumulated XIs but this is a pretty stellar line-up that is difficult to nitpick. Koga’s debut season for Tottenham was phenomenal and testament not only to her but Spurs’ recruitment team that at 20 years old, the Japan international is named amongst plenty of WSL veterans. Another WSL debutant in City’s Jade Rose is unfortunate not to join Koga, as is arguably former Arsenal full-back Katie McCabe or City captain Alex Greenwood. That midfield would strike fear in anyone, and of course there is no WSL team of anything without Khadija ‘Bunny’ Shaw up front.
Charlotte Harpur: Given Manchester City ended Chelsea’s dominance, it’s little wonder Shaw and Hasegawa have deservedly been named. But I’d argue City goalkeeper Ayaka Yamashita earns the No 1 spot ahead of Hampton — she ranked highest for goals prevented (4.1), according to Fotmob. There is only one player from outside of the top three teams: Koga, who has impressed and she is also the only centre-back named. City captain Alex Greenwood was not included in the PFA’s team of the year but showed versatility and consistency in the backline. It’s noticeable that there is no genuine left-back named in the PFA team. Caldentey and Park, the latter particularly at the start, made their midfields tick and injected creativity when needed. James made less of a consistent impact but that was among a lot of chop and change at Chelsea. Vivianne Miedema, however, was instrumental for City in the No 10 role. Interestingly, there were no out and out wingers voted for.
Theo Lloyd-Hughes: The purist in me certainly finds something irksome about having three predominantly right-sided full-backs and just one center-back in the team of the year! However, it is a fun surprise to see Koga get some love from her peers as the only centre-back selected. In her first season in the WSL to boot. Tottenham conceded 1.57 goals per game when Koga featured as opposed to 2.66 in the three games when she did not. In the forward line, Shaw and Russo are inarguable picks but James, with just 782 minutes and 11 starts, would have been an outsider to make this list based on last season.
Jess Hopkins: Maya Le Tissier is quite unlucky to miss out here, given her impact for Manchester United. The 24-year-old captain did not miss a single minute of competitive football last season and has been the beating heart of her team for multiple campaigns now, as recognised by her pick in the WSL team of the season. With the PFA team having only one established centre-back — though Casparij, Carpenter and Fox have been excellent — a case could be made for the England international’s inclusion instead.