There was no Premier League in September until the 13th day of the month as a result of the first international break of 2025–26, with schedules set to condense over the next few weeks.
There were an array of standouts despite the lack of respite many were afforded over the break.
Particularly dazzling displays in Manchester City’s snatching of local bragging rights and Arsenal’s emphatic victory over Nottingham Forest in the Saturday lunchtime kick-off stood out.
Here were FotMob’s five highest-rated players from Gameweek 4 of the 2025–26 Premier League season.
5. Lucas Bergvall, Ibrahima Konaté & Phil Foden: 8.4
Three players snuck into fifth spot with an 8.4 rating, including Tottenham Hotspur’s Lucas Bergavll, who scored the first Premier League goal of his career in Spurs’ 3–0 victory at West Ham United.
Bergvall came on strong during his debut season and has continued to show off that promise at the start of 2025–26 under a different manager. The Swede’s looping header over Mads Hermansen was a superb finish, but that was merely the highlight in a superb all-round display that encapsulated Bergvall’s mighty talent.
Phil Foden was being carefully managed by Pep Guardiola at Bergvall’s age (19), but the Englishman has since evolved into a contributor to multiple Premier League title successes and a PFA Player of the Year victor. The threshold of superstardom has long been breached, but it‘s been a while since we’ve seen Foden perform as he did in Sunday’s Manchester Derby.
The local lad loves the occasion, and Ricky Hatton’s passing the morning of supplied Foden with extra spirit and motivation. He opened the scoring with a guided header and performed with the verve that has seemingly escaped him over the past 12 months.
Liverpool centre back Ibrahima Konaté wasn’t anywhere near as eye-catching as the aforementioned names, but he ended the Reds’ 1–0 victory with the most duels won (14) and eight defensive contributions. He was effective in limiting the Clarets’ counter-attacking threat.
4. Jérémy Doku: 8.7
Foden was magic, Gianluigi Donnarumma produced an outstanding save at 2–0 and a certain Nordic destroyer was, once again, inevitable, but Jérémy Doku’s display in the derby win shouldn’t be overlooked.
On Sunday, the Belgian wasn’t merely asked to hug the touchline and take on his man one-on-one. Instead, Guardiola instructed him to drift infield and overload Man Utd’s midfield pairing. His assist for Foden came from the right half-space, and the move to bypass Luke Shaw on the edge of the box was majestic.
Doku notched a second assist with a perfectly weighted pass in behind for Erling Haaland to latch onto and double City’s lead.
3. Robin Roefs: 8.8
Sunderland ranked among the busiest Premier League operators in the summer transfer window, signing the likes of Granit Xhaka, Nordi Mukiele and Lutsharel Geertruida.
However, their best piece of business may well prove to be goalkeeper Robin Roefs, who was their second-cheapest acquisition.
Roefs has immediately displaced Anthony Patterson as Sunderland’s No. 1, and recorded two clean sheets in his first four Premier League outings. He wasn’t made to work too hard by West Ham on the opening weekend, but Crystal Palace were left stumped by the Dutchman’s performance on Saturday.
Roefs faced an xG of 1.36 and was forced into six saves, as the Black Cats earned another point. His saves to deny Daichi Kamada from distance were particularly impressive.
2. Martín Zubimendi & Antoine Semenyo: 8.9
FotMob were unable to separate the performances of Arsenal’s Martín Zubimendi and Bournemouth’s Antoine Semenyo on Gameweek 4, as both earned 8.9 ratings.
The weekend started with Zubimendi belting the Gunners into the lead against Forest with the standout finish of the weekend, as he thumped home a technically wonderfully volley from the edge of the area. The midfielder then completed the first brace of his senior career with a header in the second-half.
Outside of the goals, Zubimendi’s peformance was laden with genius subtlety, as Arsenal dominated the visitors in Ange Postecoglou’s first game in charge.
Semenyo continued his superb start to the season against Brighton & Hove Albion, with his strike coming from the penalty spot. The Bournemouth winger once again produced a display that showcased his irresistible power, and capacity to simply overwhelm opponents when isolated one-on-one out wide.
1. Erling Haaland: 9.3
Two goals for Erling Haaland on derby day means he’s now just three adrift of Wayne Rooney’s Manchester derby record of 11.
Haaland loves facing the Red Devils, and his ruthless form from the September break permeated into Sunday’s game. The Norwegian’s two goals took the game away from Ruben Amorim’s side in the second half, and both were high-quality finishes one-on-one with Altay Bayındır, albeit from two completely different angles.
While Haaland was efficient when combining, it was his freakish goalscoring ability that once again proved to be the point of difference for a City side that still doesn’t look quite right.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Five Best Players From Premier League Gameweek 4.
