The heartbeat of any team, the leading central midfielders in the Premier League will be aiming to inspire their clubs to greater heights this season.
The need for control of the 'engine room' of a football pitch is pivotal. It's a key battleground in any top-flight match and one that the best teams simply cannot afford to yield.
Ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, The Sporting News polled its football writers to rank the top performers in each position. We then used those responses to create an average, which then allowed us to order the players into a top 20.
Manchester City have dominated over recent years with a midfield unit moulded in Pep Guardiola's image, while Arsenal have made Declan Rice the most expensive British footballer in history and rebuild of the Liverpool unit saw them sign four midfielders during the transfer window.
Read on to find out our top central midfielders in the Premier League, ranked from 20 to one.
MORE: How do you improve a team that just won the treble? Over to you, Pep Guardiola
TOP 20 CENTRAL MIDFIELDERS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
20. Tomas Soucek (West Ham)
A fine foil for Rice during his stratospheric rise over recent seasons, Soucek remains at West Ham and dependable as ever. An expert when it comes to screening his defence, the Czech Republic international also has a decent knack in front of goal and finished a breakout 2020/21 Premier League season with 10 to his name.
19. Matheus Nunes (Manchester City)
Superb during his first season at Wolves having caught the eye at Sporting CP, Nunes faces the daunting task of trying to establish himself within City's central midfield array. Encouragingly, Guardiola said the Portugal international was "one of the best players in the world today" when City faced Sporting in the Champions League in 2022 — and he never said that about Kalvin Phillips.
18. Cheick Doucoure (Crystal Palace)
Liverpool were not shy in their pursuit of central midfield reinforcements during the summer 2023 window and they were met with an unswerving valuation of £70 million / $88 million for Doucoure from Palace, according to the Evening Standard. He cost just over a quarter of that a year ago and has become the heartbeat of side that the big boys are increasingly trying to magpie.
17. Philip Billing (Bournemouth)
An athletic, skilful midfielder with an eye for goal, Billing first caught the eye during Huddersfield Town's foray into the Premier League and has kicked on at Bournemouth. He has scored 25 times across the past three league seasons and is coming into his prime as Andoni Iraola seeks to oversee a bold new era on England's south coast.
16. Abdoulaye Doucoure (Everton)
Without Doucoure, there's every chance Everton would not be playing Premier League football right now, not least because he scored the winner on the final day of last season against Bournemouth to keep them up. Admittedly, that feels like a dubious blessing right now but, if there is to be an upturn in fortunes at Goodison Park, a player who once thrilled Carlo Ancelotti with his capacity to "play anywhere on the pitch" will be a huge part of it.
15. Amadou Onana (Everton)
Onana showed flashes of his obvious talent more frequently as last season wore on, with Everton having paid £33m/$41.5m to bring him in from Lille. Anchoring a midfield grappling with relegation at 22 was a baptism of fire for Onana, who performed commendably and needs to show further progress this season.
14. Douglas Luiz (Aston Villa)
Originally on Manchester CIty's books, Luiz secured his move to Villa on the back of an impressive loan stint at Girona. A combative, uncompromising performer in the engine room, the Brazil international showed an increasingly well-rounded side to his game with six goals and as many assists in the Premier League last season.
13. Mathias Jensen (Brentford)
Brentford can sometimes come across as a pragmatic team trying to get the job done by any means but Jensen is a wonderfully easy-on-the-eye midfielder who makes them tick. He filled the considerable void left by his compatriot Christian Eriksen last season, vindicating Thomas Frank's decision not to go into the transfer market for a new playmaker.
12. Christian Eriksen (Manchester United)
After his fairy-tale return to top-flight football with Brentford, United took a punt on Eriksen that paid off over the course of the season. A wonderful playmaker and a calming influence on a team that still veers towards the frenetic too often, United generally looked better with Eriksen on the field, making his struggles to complete 90 minutes at full tilt a not-insignificant problem.
11. Mateo Kovacic (Manchester City)
Picked up for a knockdown £25m/$31.5m from Chelsea, Kovacic has taken on the No. 8 shirt vacated by treble-winning captain Ilkay Gundogan at City. Those are significant shoes to fill, but the Croatia international is a soft-footed midfielder, adept at controlling the tempo with his passing or dribbling, who appears ideally suited to Guardiola football.
10. Sandro Tonali (Newcastle United)
In contrast to some of his choices for an evening restaurant, Tonali did not put a foot wrong as he found the net and dazzled on his Newcastle debut against Aston Villa. There is palpable excitement around the idea that the former AC Milan man could be a playmaker to take Eddie Howe's side to the next level.
9. Joao Palhinha (Fulham)
A relentlessly influential presence as Fulham pushed into the top half last season, Palhinha has a growing list of admirers — not least Bayern Munich, who nearly signed him on deadline day. He made an astonishing 148 tackles in the Premier League last season. Only one other player, Moises Caicedo, reached 100.
8. Thomas Partey (Arsenal)
Once Partey's fitness issues settled down, Arsenal finally saw the influential midfield enforcer they thought they were getting from Atletico Madrid. He was not the only Gunners midfielder to lose his best form down the stretch and he has been fielded in an expansive right-back role during the opening weeks of this season.
7. Moises Caicedo (Brighton)
Ecuador international Caicedo was a revelation at Brighton to the extent that Chelsea were persuaded to make him the most expensive player in British football history. Don't let his accident-prone debut against West Ham fool you: Chelsea have signed a formidable player who could be a dominant force in his position for the next decade.
6. Enzo Fernandez (Chelsea)
Caicedo took the possibly unwanted "most expensive" tag off his new Chelsea teammate Fernandez. The Argentina international joined a fiasco midway through last season but has performed with quiet efficiency in the circumstances. His elevation to the starting XI reignited Argentina's triumphant campaign at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
5. Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
For the third summer in succession, Bernardo Silva was linked with a move away from Manchester City; once again, it failed to materialise. The 29-year-old penning a new three-year contract is probably City's most important singing of a fairly busy summer. Equally adept at knitting together attacks, taking the load off the defence and tenaciously pressing, it is hard to think of a midfielder right now playing more perfectly to Guardiola's specifications.
4. Bruno Guimaraes (Newcastle United)
Probably Newcastle's most transformative arrival of their Saudi-era. Guimaraes instantly lifted the quality of Howe's midfield as a physically imposing and technically excellent performer. Clubs elsewhere who did not take the punt when Guimaraes left Lyon were quickly kicking themselves.
3. Casemiro (Manchester United)
United spending big on a player the wrong side of 30 brought a mixed reception but Casemiro soon silenced the naysayers. The former Real Madrid star instantly became one of the most important players at Erik ten Hag's disposal, with his knack for timely goals never more vital than when he opened the scoring in the Carabao Cup final win over Newcastle.
2. Declan Rice (Arsenal)
A talismanic presence as he inspired West Ham to Europa Conference League success, Rice swapped east for north London in a blaze of glory and became the most expensive British footballer of all time in the process. No midfielder made more recoveries or interceptions than Rice in the Premier League this past season and his challenge now is to move Arsenal to the top of the pile.
1. Rodri (Manchester City)
A year on from scoring the equaliser in City's final-day comeback against Aston Villa to snatch the Premier League title, Rodri fired in the only goal in the Champions League final to complete a historic treble. A knack for cluch goals is simply the icing on the cake for a truly formidable player, who is nerveless under pressure in possession and immaculate in terms of pass selection and tempo control. The Spain international is growing into a leader of some renown and is arguably the player Guardiola can least afford to lose to injury right now.
READ: TOP 20 GOALKEEPERS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
READ: TOP 20 FULL-BACKS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
READ: TOP 20 CENTRE-BACKS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
READ: TOP 20 ATTACKING MIDFIELDERS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
READ: TOP 20 WINGERS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
READ: TOP 20 STRIKERS IN THE PREMIER LEAGUE
