Euro 2024

Who makes our 2023 Soccer Sporting Year Top 10 Lists?

2023 has been another outstanding year for sport, where teams and individuals have come to the fore, while others have faded more into the background.

With the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2023 show very much on the horizon, It seems fitting to look back at many of the achievements of the year in this retrospective look at some of the most impressive performances in sport in 2023.

We will do that by way of our Soccer Sporting Year Top 10 Lists for 2023. A list of lists if you will, which will cover teams, players, managers and more, highlighting who, for us at least, has been the best of the best this year in the Premier League.

Many of these teams and performers we backed with bet365 Sport at the time of their great victories and successes. Others, we missed out on. We’re sure that 2024 will see many more chances to take on the bookmakers once again!

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We’re going to divide our lists into a number of different categories, so let’s begin with

Football – Soccer Sporting Year Top 10 Lists of 2023 – Teams

Sporting Year Top 10 Lists – Best Transfer Buy of 2023

  1. Declan Rice – West Ham to Arsenal – £105m
  2. James Maddison – Leicester to Tottenham – £40m
  3. Anthony Gordon – Everton to Newcastle – £45m
  4. Cole Palmer – Manchester City to Chelsea – £40m
  5. Dominik Szoboszlai – Red Bull Leipzig to Liverpool – £60m
  6. Jeremy Doku – Rennes to Manchester City – £55.4m
  7. Mohamed Kudus – Ajax to West Ham United – £38m
  8. Tino Livramento – Southampton to Newcastle United – £40m
  9. Alex Moreno – Real Betis to Aston Villa – £13m
  10. Cody Gakpo – PSV Eindhoven to Liverpool – £45m

Sporting Year Top 10 Lists – Best Team Performances of 2023

  1. Liverpool 7-0 Manchester United (March)
  2. Manchester City 4-1 Liverpool (April)
  3. Manchester City 4-1 Arsenal (April)
  4. Sheffield United 0-8 Newcastle United (September)
  5. Arsenal 0-3 Brighton & Hove Albion (May)
  6. Newcastle United 5-1 Aston Villa (August)
  7. Arsenal 1-3 Manchester City (February)
  8. Arsenal 3-2 Manchester United (January)
  9. Brentford 3-1 Liverpool (January)
  10. Newcastle United 6-1 Tottenham Hotspurs (April)

Sporting Year Top 10 Lists – Best Overall Performance of 2023

  1. Manchester City (EPL, Champions League & FA Cup Winners)
  2. Arsenal
  3. Newcastle United
  4. West Ham United (Europa Conference League Winners)
  5. Aston Villa
  6. Manchester United (Carabao Cup Winners)
  7. Brighton
  8. Liverpool
  9. Brentford
  10. Tottenham Hotspurs

Sporting Year Top 10 Lists – Biggest Upset Results of the Year 2023

  1. Arsenal 0-3 Brighton (May)
  2. Brentford 1-0 Manchester City (May)
  3. Brentford 3-1 Liverpool (January)
  4. Manchester United 0-3 Bournemouth (December)
  5. Brighton 1-5 Everton (May)
  6. Wolves 3-0 Liverpool (February)
  7. Brighton 3-0 Liverpool (January)
  8. Nottingham Forest 1-0 Arsenal (May)
  9. Bournemouth 1-0 Liverpool (March)
  10. Chelsea 0-1 Nottingham Forest (September)

Football – Soccer Sporting Year Top 10 Lists of 2023 – Managers

Sporting Year Top 10 Lists – Best Managers of 2023

  1. Pep Guardiola (Manchester City)
  2. Mikel Arteta (Arsenal)
  3. Eddie Howe (Newcastle United)
  4. Roberto de Zerbi (Brighton)
  5. Thomas Frank (Brentford)
  6. David Moyes (West Ham United)
  7. Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)
  8. Ange Postecoglou (Tottenham Hotspurs)
  9. Javier Iraola (Bournemouth)
  10. Gary O’Neil (Bournemouth & Wolves)

Football – Soccer Sporting Year Top 10 Lists of 2023 – Players

Sporting Year Top 10 Lists – Best Goalkeepers of 2023

  1. Alisson Becker (Liverpool)
  2. Guglielmo Vicario (Tottenham Hotspurs)
  3. Emiliano Martinez (Aston Villa)
  4. Ederson (Manchester City)
  5. David Raya (Brentford & Arsenal)
  6. Nick Pope (Newcastle United)
  7. Jordan Pickford (Everton)
  8. Alphonse Areola (West Ham United)
  9. Robert Sanchez (Brighton & Chelsea)
  10. James Trafford (Burnley)

Sporting Year Top 10 Lists – Best Defenders of 2023

  1. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
  2. William Saliba (Arsenal)
  3. Manuel Akanji (Manchester City)
  4. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool)
  5. Ruben Dias (Manchester City)
  6. Kyle Walker (Manchester City)
  7. Kieran Trippier (Newcastle United)
  8. Ben White (Arsenal)
  9. Andy Robertson (Liverpool)
  10. Nathan Ake (Manchester City)

Sporting Year Top 10 Lists – Best Midfielders of 2023

  1. Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)
  2. Rodri (Manchester City)
  3. Declan Rice (West Ham & Arsenal)
  4. Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
  5. Casemiro (Manchester United)
  6. Martin Odegaard (Arsenal)
  7. James Maddison (Leicester City & Tottenham)
  8. Douglas Luiz (Aston Villa)
  9. Alexis MacAllister (Brighton & Liverpool)
  10. Phil Foden (Manchester City)

Sporting Year Top 10 Lists – Best Strikers of 2023

  1. Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
  2. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
  3. Harry Kane (Tottenham)
  4. Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
  5. Julian Alvarez (Manchester City)
  6. Son Hyeung-min (Tottenham)
  7. Jarrod Bowen (West Ham United)
  8. Alexander Isak (Newcastle United)
  9. Gabriel Martinelli (Arsenal)
  10. Ivan Toney (Brentford)

Sporting Year Top 10 Lists – Best Young Players (21 or Under) of 2023

  1. Cole Palmer (Manchester City & Chelsea)
  2. Harvey Elliot (Liverpool)
  3. Tino Livramento (Newcastle United)
  4. Rico Lewis (Manchester City)
  5. Evan Ferguson (Brighton)
  6. Levi Colwill (Chelsea)
  7. Julio Enciso (Brighton)
  8. Stefan Bajcetic (Liverpool)
  9. Alex Scott (Bournemouth)
  10. Jhon Duran (Aston Villa)

Football – Soccer Sporting Year Top 10 Lists of 2023 – International Football

Sporting Year Top 10 Lists – Best International Teams of 2023

  1. Argentina
  2. Portugal
  3. France
  4. Hungary
  5. Spain
  6. England
  7. Belgium
  8. Brazil
  9. Croatia
  10. Turkey

Football – Soccer Sporting Year Top 10 Lists of 2023 – Top 10 & Representative Team of 2023

Best 10 Premier League Players of 2023

  1. Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City)
  2. Rodri (Manchester City)
  3. Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
  4. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
  5. Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
  6. Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool)
  7. Bernardo Silva (Manchester City)
  8. William Saliba (Arsenal)
  9. Alisson Becker (Liverpool)
  10. Manuel Akanji (Manchester City)

Premier League – 2023 Representative XI

  1. Alisson Becker (Liverpool) – GK
  2. Trent-Alexander Arnold (Liverpool) – DR
  3. Manuel Akanji (Manchester City) – DL
  4. William Saliba (Arsenal) DC
  5. Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) DC
  6. Rodri (Manchester City) DMC
  7. Bukayo Saka (Arsenal) AML
  8. Declan Rice (West Ham & Arsenal) MC
  9. Erling Haaland (Manchester City) AC
  10. Kevin de Bruyne (Manchester City) AMC
  11. Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) AMR

Manager – Pep Guardiola (Manchester City)

Football – Soccer Sporting Year Top 10 Lists of 2023 – Fans

Best Supporters of the Year 2023

  1. Newcastle United
  2. Crystal Palace
  3. Brighton
  4. Aston Villa
  5. Nottingham Forest
  6. Liverpool
  7. Brentford
  8. Manchester United
  9. Everton
  10. Arsenal