The Ballon d'Or shortlist has highlighted a weak season for Premier League attacking talent, with only Bruno Fernandes and Erling Haaland representing English football among 16 nominated forwards, while Arsenal's title-winning campaign relied on defensive players such as Gabriel Magalhães, Declan Rice and William Saliba rather than admired attacking football. This reflects a wider trend last season towards physicality, set pieces and defensive attrition in England, which saw Paris Saint-Germain retain the Champions League and Argentina beat an overly cautious England at the World Cup, with Anthony Gordon the only Premier League-based attacker to score at the tournament.

Critics, including Gordon himself and Thomas Tuchel's assistant Anthony Barry, argued the English top flight had become congested, over-reliant on long throws, elaborate set-piece routines and timewasting, making games harder to watch. However, new laws this season – including a five-second countdown on goalkicks and throw-ins, a 10-second substitution limit and trial tactical timeouts – appear to be quickening the pace: ball-in-play time has risen from 55min 23sec to 57min 14sec, delay times have fallen from 29.2 to 26.7 seconds, and goals from fast breaks have almost doubled, suggesting a more attacking style may be emerging in 2026-27.