Palmer, Nunez or Garnacho? The Premier League’s most improved player revealed

Robin Bairner

• 26 Jan 2024 17:16 GMT
• 2 min read

Chelsea’s Cole Palmer is the most improved player in the Premier League since the beginning of the season, data analytics firm SciSports report.

Palmer left Manchester City for Chelsea in the summer for a fee of €47 million (£42.5m) and has been an undisputed success since joining the Stamford Bridge side.

While the Blues have seen some of their young arrivals fail to hit the ground running, the 21-year-old has rapidly established himself as an essential part of Mauricio Pochettino’s side. Showing the versatility to play through the middle or out on the right, Palmer has 11 goals and seven assists in all competitions in what has been a struggling team.

Coming in second, according to SciSports, is Italy U21 international Luca Koleosho. The US-born winger has featured regularly for Burnley since moving from Espanyol in the summer and has made sizeable progress in his game.

Completing the top three is Sheffield United winger Andre Brooks, who has started the last seven games for the Blades.

SciSports give each player a SciSkill rating based on hundreds of in-game data points, and with an improvement of 26.3 in his score, Palmer is the Premier League player who comes out on top.

Premier League's most improved 10 players

There are some familiar names in the top 10, with Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite, who is attracting transfer interest from the league’s biggest sides placing in the top five along with Liverpool cult hero Darwin Nunez, whose level has improved 16.4 on SciSports’ score.

Manchester United star boy Alejandro Garnacho also breaks the top 10, aided by the long run of starts Erik ten Hag has afforded him, which has brought three goals and two assists.

Palmer’s Chelsea teammate Nicolas Jackson also sneaks into the top 10, while just missing out on this list is Brighton’s Evan Ferguson, who has a higher potential ceiling of any player in this category, SciSports report.

Chelsea, meanwhile, can be encouraged to have two players who are progressing nicely under Mauricio Pochettino, even if their campaign as a whole has been disappointing to date.