The year 2020 has surely been a tough year for every aspect of life and football is no exception. But just like darkness can make stars shine, many footballers continued to establish great achievements and showed no sign to ever stop climbing their career ladder even in challenging times. Many others, however, definitely struggled to survive the already-hard game they are in.
Let Fun88 take a closer look at 3 big clubs and single out each one’s worst players this season based on statistics and overall impact for their club!
Worst Premier League player 2020. This is not a noble title to be honored, but at least it is worth mentioning before placing a bet on the match.
Related: Assessing The Best Young Players In The Champions League This Season
Top 6 Worst Premier League footballers in 2020
1. Nicolas Pépé – Arsenal
Nicolas Pepe’s arrival has definitely brought a huge level of excitement knowing he was the single-player who had more than 20 goals and over 10 assists in a top-five Europa league (not including Lionel Messi).
He was signed by an impressive amount of money – £72m but sadly soon to be proved not bang for the buck. In the total 54 appearances at Arsenal, Pepe only achieved 11 goals and 12 assists which brings him nowhere near the star title that the Gunners and its fans expected him to be.
One thing to be clear, if his performance doesn’t show any sign of improving, Nicolas Pepe will surely be on the bottom list of worst players in Arsenal history, which he has already been slipping into.
2. David Luiz – Arsenal 
To the former Chelsea striker, Tony Cascarino’s no surprise, David Luiz has proudly earned himself the label “the poorest defender” in the Gunners’ history.
Arsenal has signed this 32-year-old Brazilian from Chelsea in the summer transfer for £8m with an aim to strengthen their defence power. Yet, David’s obviously-not-good-enough capacity has wistfully turned the club’s dream into a nightmare.
His visible out-of-shape has enabled him to make several unacceptable high-profile errors, including more penalties conceded than any player can have in one Premier League season.
3. Danny Drinkwater – Chelsea 
There would have been no way for Danny Drinkwater to be in this category if this was the year 2017 when he was the hero who helps Leicester City get their hands on the Premier League champion trophy and deservingly earned his place in the PFA Championship Team of the Year together with teammates Kasper Schmeichel and Wes Morgan. But only God knows that his following transfer to Chelsea is never the case.
The 30-year-old was purchased by the Blues with a fee of £35 million in September 2017 for a five-year contract. But during his first season in Chelsea, the midfielder can only make 22 appearances in all competitions, can’t even enter the final against his old club Man Utd due to what seemed to be a severe thigh injury.
Compliments are hard to find when he couldn’t even manage to make a single appearance in the 2018-19 season. Should we keep looking forward to Danny Drinkwater in his new journey with Aston Villa to reinvigorate his career? Probably not.
4. Dominic Solanke – Chelsea 
Early in his energetic youth, Dominic had been captivating English audiences with a series of remarkable achievements, through which he truly showcased his young potential. Not only did he win the 2014 UEFA European U-17 Championship and the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup but was also astonishingly given the Golden Ball award for the best player at the finals in England’s triumphant tournament in Tunisia.
Every football club would die to have him, so without a doubt, Chelsea was privileged to be able to make that first move in 2004. Yet, what can go so wrong 3 years later, witnessing this young talented wonderkid of those days missing every goal across 24 games? Roman Abramovich’s false leadership was to be blamed for many reasons.
But even a fresh start at Bournemouth with a £19m transfer fee in January 2019 couldn’t make much impact for the new club – saving the Cherries from relegation to the League Championship nor preventing Dominic’s career from going-downhill momentum.
5. Kepa Arrizabalaga – Chelsea 
Kepa Arrizabalaga apparently has the worldwide fame of being one of the most expensive goalkeepers in the world record of transfer history.
In 2018, Chelsea signed the seven-year contract with the Spanish footballer for €80 million (equal £71.6 million), expecting him to be the steady goalkeeper for the next decade as a long-term replacement for Petr Cech. Eventually, it turned out he held such a notorious reputation.
During his play for The Blues, of all the 47 goals against him, Kepa failed to move 14, which was 30%! Should he have conceded 11 less, the costly Spanish netkeeper wouldn’t have been awarded the 127th place out of 132 goalkeepers in top seven leagues of Europe.
Chelsea must have stopped their belief to convince themselves that Kepa would be their goalkeeper for the next 10 years while all they have won was the fact that the club has conceded more goals in this season than 10 teams in Brighton.
Although there are many opinions concerning their attacking strength, many just can’t accept that the Blues hasn’t even replaced Kepa Arrizabalaga yet after all of the mentioned-above and more shockingly bad statistics to come in the 2019/20 season.
6. David de Gea – Manchester United 
Why don’t we add more fairness to this list by considering another under-performing goalkeeper from Manchester United? David de Gea, who is well-known before for his agility and especially his incredible ability to pull off what seemed an impossible kick. All of us would know that not every goalkeeper on the pitch has this instinct.
However, David’s form quickly fell off a cliff when he had a decline since 2018. Within only the Premier League’s last 2 seasons, David made 7 unacceptable mistakes. Fans would be worried about his uncertain future to stick with Old Trafford after getting tired of watching him making errors that affected goals over and over again.
Would you agree with us or who else do you think should be included in this list. Please let us know down below.
