2025 GDS English Football Squad Preview: Part 1

Welcome to the first edition of our English Premier League club previews for GameDay Squad’s (GDS) brand new Football platform. Over a set of five articles, we’ll review each of the twenty Premier League teams with a brief club season recap & preview, and analysis of each team’s star player, GDS hidden gem (excluding promoted teams) and key transfer. The hope is to arm the GDS community with all the information required to compete amongst the best coaches straight away, whether you are a newbie, experienced or just out of touch with the league.

The first edition includes previews for Arsenal, Aston Villa, Bournemouth and Brentford as we take a look at Starboy Saka, a big rumoured transfer and a potentially on the move Bryan Mbeumo.

Arsenal

An injury-riddled season to stars such as Bukayo Saka soured a potential drought-breaking title win. Instead, Arsenal had to be content with a third straight second-place finish. The silver lining, for the continual bridesmaids of the league, is that the club has started this transfer window with a willingness to spend, they’ve added starting quality in Zubimendi, while also acquiring depth in Kepa and Nørgaard. Arsenal don’t appear to be done either, with strong links to GDS-relevant Viktor Gyökeres and Rodrygo.

●     Star Player - Bukayo Saka

Saka’s season from hell (sidelined for 99 days with a hamstring injury) was still good enough for a top-20 finish in the 2024/25 GDS scoring charts. Saka played in 25 games, scored 6 goals, assisted 10 times, made 37 successful crosses (15th), and delivered 46 key passes (=22nd). Saka’s 15.60 GDS points per game was the third highest amongst the top 20 scorers.

●     Hidden Gem - Declan Rice

Originally a CDM, Rice enjoyed more freedom further up the ground in 24/25 in a central midfield role. With a highlight reel that included two free-kick goals against European powerhouse Real Madrid, Rice demonstrated his attacking prowess in the past season. To further this, Rice finished 4th in successful crosses and 14th in key passes. Disappointingly, the defensive numbers weren’t as impressive, particularly in key GDS scoring areas. Rice failed to finish in the top 25 for both interceptions and successful tackles. With the addition of a natural CDM in Zubimendi, it could further hinder Rice’s involvement in these areas. Rice’s role and numbers in these stats are one to watch in the early season.

●     Key Transfer - Viktor Gyökeres (Rumour)

Fresh off a title-winning season in Portugal, Sporting’s diamond in Gyökeres led the league with his 39 goals (20 goals more than the next best), while also adding 7 assists (=4th in the league). While this form in a supposed lower-tier league such as the Liga Portugal does not always translate to performances in the Premier League, Gyökeres managed to further press his credentials through performances on the European stage, with his 6 goals in 8 games of the UEFA Champions League. While it isn’t a ‘done’ deal quite yet, this one looks likely to happen.

●     Other Notable GDS Players: Gabriel Magalhães, Gabriel Martinelli & Martin Ødegaard

Aston Villa

After a season that appeared to be more focused on the UEFA Champions League, Villa made some key signings in January to stabilize and almost pull off a top-four finish… unfortunately, a 6th-place finish resulted in a Europa League spot instead of another shot at the Champions League. With January loan signings departing and no real key starter signings, Villa need to act quickly if they are to keep the strain off a Morgan Rogers and Ollie Watkins-led attack.

●     Star Player - Morgan Rogers

 With a lack of Villa players appearing in the top 25 lists for key GDS attacking stats (dribbles, key passes, shots on target, and crosses), Rogers appears to be the best of the bunch in a pure eye test. The English young gun finished the season with 8 goals and 10 assists in a central attacking midfield role. His underlying stat highlights were his 61 successful dribbles (=6th) and 51 fouls drawn (=20th).

●     Hidden Gem - Youri Tielemans

Much like Declan Rice, Tielemans plays a central midfield role reliant on both his attacking and defensive qualities. Tielemans proved he had both in key GDS areas, ranking 12th in the league for key passes, 12th for fouls drawn, and 21st for successful tackles. He’ll be a reliable, if not unique, midfield GDS option in a solid Villa team.

●     Key Transfer - None

Villa are yet to make any meaningful transfer additions to the squad, while they have lost numerous quality players after the expiration of several loan deals. If Villa fail to act, they risk having fewer quality rotational options for the likes of Rogers and Watkins, which is not necessarily a bad thing for GDS coaches.

●     Other Notable GDS Players: Ollie Watkins, Lucas Digne & John McGinn

Bournemouth

One of the more entertaining teams to watch, performed like a team possessed through the mid parts of the season, looking destined to end the year with European football. A poor finish to the season when the pressure was on blew those chances, however. Bournemouth suffered further when key players Huijsen and Kerkez departed early in the transfer window to Real Madrid and Liverpool respectively, and with further departures expected, Bournemouth need to get to work on arrivals to ensure a downward spiral doesn’t occur.

●     Star Player - Antoine Semenyo

Bournemouth’s sole top-20 ranked GDS scorer was one of the league’s leading attacking threats last season. Semenyo's underlying stats continually read well throughout the season, despite his troubles in front of goal. Semenyo finished top 10 for two key statistical attacking categories, which were 5th in successful dribbles and 8th for shots on target. The result? 11 goals and five assists. Not bad for a winger in a mid-table team.

●     Hidden Gem - Lewis Cook

In the words of Little Britain’s Ray McCooney, “You’d like to know my secrets?” Well, here’s a big one. Lewis Cook is quite a good hidden GDS scorer, and that’s without the glamour of goals and assists. The midfielder performs admirably well in a number of GDS-relevant statistical categories. He was 16th in the league for successful crosses, 12th for interceptions, and 20th for successful tackles in 2024/25. With another year of experience under this young Bournemouth team’s belt and no late-season fadeout, Cook could continue to rise up the GDS ranks.

●     Key Transfer - Eli Junior Kroupi

The 18-year-old French wonderkid lit up the French Second Division last season, scoring a league-leading 22 goals. With minutes likely hard to come by given Bournemouth’s current attacking quality in Evanilson and Dango Ouattara, Kroupi is more so one to keep an eye on for the future.

●     Other Notable GDS Players: Justin Kluivert, Evanilson & Dango Outtara

Brentford

Just like Bournemouth, Brentford were one of the more entertaining teams to watch throughout the 2024/25 season, with their key attacking duo in Mbeumo and Wissa firing in the goals. Brentford also had the most players in the top 20 for GDS scorers last season, with four in Wissa, Damsgaard, the recently departed Flekken and soon to depart Mbeumo. This would lead one to assume Brentford’s style of play lends itself well to GDS; however, with their manager recently departing to Tottenham, that could change.

●     Star Player - Yoane Wissa

Brentford’s star man, after the departure of Mbeumo to Manchester United. There’s been recent interest in Wissa, but Brentford may be tempted to keep hold of the striker after losing Mbeumo and Flekken in this window already. Wissa’s 19 goals was enough for 6th in the league, finishing just behind former teammate Mbeumo’s 20. Five assists to go with those goals as well as 51 fouls drawn (=20th) and 43 shots on target (6th) in 35 games, capped off what was, arguably, just as good a season as Mbeumo. With the departure of Mbeumo, one worries Wissa’s supply could dry up, however with Damsgaard and Schade still around Wissa should still be able to put together a successful 2025/26 campaign.

●     Hidden Gem - Mikkel Damsgaard

Not so much a hidden gem, given his top-20 placing in total GDS points last season, however, he is very much underrated. Damsgaard played in an advanced attacking midfield role behind his team’s more reputable front three. He finished the season as equal 15th for successful dribbles, equal 11th for key passes, equal 16th for successful crosses, and equal 23rd for successful tackles. I do worry about a potential drop-off from Damsgaard if rumours eventuate and Brentford lose two of their starting front three.

●     Key Transfer - Caoimhin Kelleher

Kelleher finds his way into the Brentford starting lineup after the departure of the only top-20 scoring GDS goalkeeper in Mark Flekken. This tells us there is scoring opportunity here if Kelleher can perform as well as Flekken, which will be no easy task given he led the league in saves with 153 for the season. On the other end of the scale, this also reads as Brentford being very susceptible to goals against them, which could be a calamity for coaches next season. Kelleher has pedigree, performing well with 4 clean sheets in 10 league games when deputising for Liverpool’s Alisson last season. Kelleher has long been thought of as a starting-quality goalkeeper for the league and has finally made the move after being stuck as the number 2 at Liverpool for quite a while.

●     Other Notable GDS Players: Kevin Schade, Keane Lewis-Potter, Nathan Collins