The first month of the 2024/25 Premier League season is in the books and it’s fair to say it went very much as expected.
Superstars like Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah put in world class performances, Manchester United struggled for form and the likes of Brighton and Aston Villa showed glimpses of their ability to compete for European qualification.
After all of that fun, here’s 90min’s picks for the ten best performing players from August – ranked.
10. Joao Pedro
Best performance: Goal and star turn vs Arsenal
After a fairly decent maiden campaign at Brighton & Hove Albion in 2023/24, Joao Pedro has seemingly taken his game to another level at the start of the new season.
His goals against Arsenal and Manchester United saw Brighton take a surprising four-point haul from their tricky fixtures which ended August and have helped the coastal club rise up to third in the Premier League table heading into the international break.
Best performance: Four goal contributions vs Wolves
While results and performances have been rather inconsistent for Chelsea at the start of the new season, star man Cole Palmer has been as consistently brilliant as ever.
The recently crowned PFA Young Player of the Year already has five goal contributions to his name, thanks in large part to his masterclass in a thumping 6-2 win over Wolves in which he bagged a goal and a whopping three assists.
Best performance: Player of the match outing vs Ipswich Town
When fit, Kevin De Bruyne is probably the best midfielder in the world.
And thankfully for Man City fans, De Bruyne has been fully fit at the start of the 2024/25 campaign.
That has notably made City the team to beat in the early stages of the season, with KDB dictating the tempo of all three of his side’s wins in August.
He’s different class.
Best performance: Clean sheet vs Man Utd
Liverpool’s impressive performances in August were largely down to their veteran stars re-finding their best form, with Virgil van Dijk one of these players.
The Reds’ Van Dijk-led defence have started the season with three clean sheets from three games, with their star centre-back putting in fantastic showing after fantastic showing to achieve this feat.
His ability to completely nullify Joshua Zirkzee in the win over Man Utd was particularly impressive.
Best performance: Brace vs Southampton
No Ivan Toney? No problem.
With their former star striker upping sticks and moving to the Saudi Pro League, Bryan Mbeumo has been tasked with becoming Brentford‘s primary goal-getter in 2024/25 and boy oh boy has he delivered.
His three goals in three games thus far have seen Brentford bag an impressive six points to kick-off the campaign. Nice one.
Best performance: Player of the match vs Wolves
Bukayo Saka was many people’s tip to win all the player of the year awards this season and, judging by his August outings, it’s easy to see why.
Arsenal’s ‘Starboy’ has been as consistent as ever in the opening weeks, bagging a goal contribution in all three of his side’s games so far.
Best performance: Hat-trick vs Wolves
Considering just how many forwards Chelsea have on the books (a trillion by our last count), Noni Madueke has been a surprising starter for Enzo Maresca thus far.
And it’s fair to say Madueke has grabbed that surprise opportunity with both hands.
The wide forward’s hat-trick in the win over Wolves was the best individual display we’ve seen in 2024/25 thus far.
Best performance: Brace vs Man Utd
Having been given the starting berth on the left flank ahead of Cody Gakpo and Darwin Nunez, Luis Diaz have excelled under new boss Arne Slot.
The wide forward has four goal contributions and two player of the match awards to his name already, notably bagging a brace in a famous 3-0 win over Man Utd to round out the month on Sunday.
2. Mohamed Salah
Best performance: Three goal contributions vs Man Utd
Yep, another Liverpool player. And the best of the lot, too.
Mohamed Salah has looked back to his very, very best in 2024/25, bagging a rather outrageous three goals and three assists to fire the Reds into an early title race with Manchester City.
The veteran star is thriving under Slot.
Best performance: Hat-trick vs West Ham
Three games = seven goals.
Erling Haaland cannot be stopped.
The forward is on track for yet another record-breaking campaign in front of goal for Manchester City.
