Some players endured difficult Premier League seasons in 2025-26 but could be about to bounce back. We look at six aiming to put their struggles behind them and rediscover their best form this campaign.
Matchday 1 of the 2026-27 Premier League season is in the books, giving us our first glimpse of how each team is shaping up for the campaign. Crucially, we also got our first sight of which players have hit the ground running.
For many, like Liverpool’s Dominik Szoboszlai and Manchester City’s Marc Guéhi, strong performances were simply a continuation of the form they showed last season.
But for others, whether through injury, a loss of form, or simply failing to hit the heights expected of them, 2026-27 represents a chance to bounce back.
We comb through the data from the opening matchday to identify six players who endured disappointing campaigns last season but could be poised for a comeback.
Cole Palmer
It took Anthony Elanga has yet to really kick on following his £55 million transfer from Nottingham Forest to Newcastle. After a final season at Forest in which he scored six goals and provided 11 assists, the third-highest total of any player, he failed to score a single goal in his debut season on Tyneside despite making 32 Premier League appearances.
He started just 14 games, though, suggesting he had not done enough to earn a regular place in Eddie Howe’s first-choice XI.
One thing that never left Elanga, however, was his searing pace. The Sweden international hit a top speed of 34.9 km/h during Newcastle’s opening game against Liverpool, the highest of any player in the division on MD1.
That was on full display for Elanga’s opener. He raced onto a through ball from William Osula, leaving Milos Kerkez in his wake, before finishing across Alisson.
The goal ended a run of 40 Premier League appearances without scoring and was Elanga’s first league goal for Newcastle, coming on what was his 33rd top-flight appearance for the club.
Not every team is going to be as vulnerable as Liverpool currently are to counter-attacks, but with the pace of Harvey Barnes and Elanga either side of the technical quality of Yoane Wissa and Osula, Newcastle will pose a significant threat in transition.
That is where Elanga thrived at Forest. They averaged 40.8% possession during his final season at the club, similar to the 39.2% of the ball Newcastle saw against Liverpool. If that trend continues, the Magpies could provide Elanga with the kind of conditions in which he has previously flourished.
Yoane Wissa
Another Newcastle player who disappointed after arriving on Tyneside last season was Josko Gvardiol is an exceptional defender whose footballing intelligence has shown in how seamlessly he adapted to the unusual in-possession demands placed on him by former manager Pep Guardiola.
But he has also been such a success at Manchester City – and worth the vast sum they paid for him – because of his durability.
Between signing for City in August 2023 and 1 January 2025, he was available for 89 of a possible 95 Premier League games, playing a part in 81.
But his 2025-26 campaign was disrupted by a broken shinbone suffered in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea on 4 January. He was sidelined until the final weeks of the season, and he barely played after he came back.
Now, having played 90 minutes against Bournemouth at the weekend, he’s completed a full Premier League game for the first time this year.
Not only that, he also showed that old habits die hard. In new manager Enzo Maresca’s first league game, he popped up in exactly the kind of position that Guardiola would’ve wanted to see him in, scoring a 91st-minute winner. He is the Premier League’s second-highest-scoring defender during his time in England, with 14 goals, behind only Virgil van Dijk (17).
City and Maresca will be hoping for a few more key contributions from Gvardiol this season.
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Cole Palmer, Martin Ødegaard, and the Six Premier League Players Poised for a Bounce-Back Season Opta Analyst.
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