Best Performing Clubs in 2025: Q3 Results
By: AT
Image Credit: Ged Mullen-Buick
With the third quarter (Q3) of 2025 complete, we look at the three best performing clubs from July 1 to September 30, 2025. This article is the third part of a four-part series that includes brief analyses on the three best performing clubs from Europe’s top five leagues during the first two months of the 2025-26 season, as well as their performances associated with incoming and outgoing transfers during the offseason.
The analysis portion notes the clubs’ records and accomplishments during that period, notably standout matches and winning streaks, and exploits in such knockout-style competitions as domestic cup competitions and continental competitions.
This quarter’s three clubs do not include Serie A club SSC Napoli and Ligue 1 club Paris Saint-Germain, for which we produced comprehensive articles following the former’s 2024-25 Serie A title win and massive summer transfer window, and the latter’s historic 2024-25 season. As well, this article does not include any of our three candidates from our Q2 article, which are:
Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, which finished the 2024-25 season on a strong note;
Premier League (EPL) club Chelsea FC, which clinched a berth to the 2024-25 UEFA Champions League (UCL) and won the 2024-25 UECL title in May, and hoisted their second FIFA Club World Cup in July; and
LaLiga club FC Barcelona, which won the 2024-25 LaLiga and Copa del Rey titles and nearly qualified for the 2024-25 UCL final before losing against Serie A club Inter Milan in extra-time in that competition’s semifinals.
Moreover, this article does not include analyses about Club World Cup matches, and clubs’ and players’ performances in that tournament.
The final article of this series will be released at the end of December. We will also provide an additional analysis on the top three clubs throughout 2025 (see our 2024 analysis here).
Without further ado, let us delve into the first of the top-three performers in Q3 2025.
🏴 Crystal Palace (wins, draws and losses in competitive matches from July 1 to September 30, 2025): 6-4-0
Other than Chelsea, which won the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, few clubs have had a better third quarter than Crystal Palace. Throughout the quarter, Palace went undefeated in 10 matches, extending their overall streak of unbeaten matches to 18 and equalizing a new club record that was achieved in 1969. (On October 2, Palace defeated Dynamo Kyiv 2-0 away in their 2025-26 UEFA Conference League opening match, thereby increasing their streak to 19 matches and breaking their previous record.)
In those 10 matches, the 2024-25 FA Cup winners kicked off the 2025-26 season with a win on penalties (2-2 after full-time) in the FA Community Shield (English super cup) against defending EPL club Liverpool FC, thereby hoisting their first said title. Coupled with their FA Cup title in the previous season — in which their final victory against EPL rivals Manchester City was part of that 19-match unbeaten streak — these two trophies are the club’s only two top-flight trophies (excluding trophies won in lower leagues) in the club’s 120-year history.
In league action, throughout six matches, Palace had mustered a record of three wins and three draws. These matches included a scoreless away draw on opening matchday against Chelsea, a 3-0 away victory against Aston Villa and a 2-1 home victory in a Community Shield rematch against then-league leaders Liverpool. Throughout the six-match stretch, Palace scored eight goals and conceded only three, a league-best at the time. As a result, Palace were ranked in third place in the 2025-26 EPL table, behind only Liverpool and Arsenal FC by three and two points, respectively. (As of October 25, Palace were ranked in eighth place, raking in one draw and one loss since the start of that month.)
In domestic cup competitions, on September 16, The Eagles won their EFL Cup third round match on penalties (1-1 after full-time) against EFL Championship (English second division) club Millwall FC. As a result, Palace advanced to the fourth round, in which they will duel once more against Liverpool on October 29, 2025.
In continental competitions, Palace underwent a rollercoaster of emotions. Despite qualifying for the 2025-26 UEFA Europa League (UEL) after hoisting the 2024-25 FA Cup, The Eagles were disqualified from the UEL due to a UEFA rule that, in certain cases, prevents more than one club under the same ownership from participating in one of the three UEFA continental club competitions. In this case, the conflict of interest in ownership — under Eagle Football Holdings — lied with Ligue 1 club Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon), which experienced a rollercoaster of emotions of their own after facing a serious threat of relegation to Ligue 2 and subsequent disqualification from the UEL. As of July 2025, Eagle Football Holdings was the largest shareholder of both clubs, owning 43.9% of Palace and 77.0% of Lyon.
Despite missing out on UEL action, the London-based club nevertheless qualified for their first continental club competition — the UEFA Conference League (UECL) — after defeating Eliteserien (Norwegian first division) club Fredrikstad FK by a 1-0 score on aggregate: 1-0 home win in the first-leg match and a 0-0 draw away in the second-leg match. (In their 2025-26 UECL league stage campaign, they have so far garnered one win and one loss: a 2-0 win away against Kyiv and a 1-0 loss at home against Cypriot First Division club AEK Larnaca.)
In addition to performances since the start of the 2025-26 season, our evaluation of Crystal Palace — as well as that of the two other clubs evaluated in this article — include their performances in the 2025 summer transfer window, which took place throughout July and August. During that period, the London-based club completed a number of sales and signings to compensate for those sales, totalling €74.2 million and €55.3 million, respectively. After selling star midfielder Eberechi Eze to local rivals Arsenal for €69.3 million and loaning midfielder Matheus França to Brazilian Série A club Vasco da Gama, Palace had subsequently decided to focus on enhancing the quality of their squad around the midfield. Throughout the summer, The Eagles signed the following five players:
goalkeeper Walter Benítez, a free transfer from Eredivisie (Dutch first division) club PSV Eindhoven;
defender Borna Sosa, for €2.3 million from Eredivisie club AFC Ajax;
defender Jaycee Canvot, for 23.0 million from Ligue 1 club Toulouse FC;
forward Yéremy Pino, for €30.0 million from LaLiga club Villarreal CF; and
forward Christantus Uche, a one-year loan from LaLiga club Getafe CF.
While their undefeated streak ended in early October, Palace find themselves in a comfortable position under manager Oliver Glasner. They remain a solid EPL club, while also having a shot at either winning the EFL Cup or, perhaps, repeating as FA Cup winners. In Europe, The Eagles are among the favourites to win the 2025-26 UECL title. Should a UECL triumph materialize, it would be a third different trophy for the club within 365 days, and a third UECL title won by an English club after West Ham United and Chelsea hoisted the title in 2022-23 and 2024-25, respectively.
🏴 Sunderland AFC: 3-2-2
Although they did not muster an excellent run of undefeated matches like Palace, Sunderland have found themselves among the top 10 performing EPL clubs, rather than the bottom 10 clubs, despite being promoted from the EFL Championship just four months ago.
As of September 30, in six EPL matches, the Northeastern English club garnered a record of three wins, two draws and one loss. After winning 3-0 at home against West Ham United in their first EPL match since May 2017 and subsequently losing 2-0 away against fellow newly-promoted club Burnley FC, Sunderland went undefeated in the last four consecutive EPL matches. Their four-match streak had included a 2-1 home victory against Brentford FC (matchday 3) and a 1-0 away against Nottingham Forest (matchday 6), and drawing 0-0 away against Palace (matchday 4) and 1-1 at home against Aston Villa (matchday 5).
That record had culminated in Sunderland ascending to fifth place — and tied in points (11) with fourth-place Tottenham Hotspur — in the 2025-26 EPL table after matchday 6. (As of October 25, after eight EPL matches, Sunderland sat in seventh place and were level on points with fifth-place Chelsea and sixth-place Tottenham Hotspur. In addition to their impressive record, Sunderland have conceded only six goals, level with second-place Manchester City for second-best in the league, behind only first-place Arsenal.)
Their second of two losses throughout Q3 2025 occurred in the EFL Cup. On August 26, Sunderland lost on penalties (1-1 after full-time) against EFL League One (English third division) club Huddersfield Town, thereby culminating in a premature elimination in that competition’s second round.
Despite their shortcomings in the EFL Cup, Sunderland can doubtlessly attribute their stellar start to the 2025-26 EPL season to their transformational squad changes. While it is common for newly-promoted clubs to conduct a major overhaul of their squads, The Black Cats had emerged as an attractive destination for many players who were already established in first divisions across Europe.
While Sunderland generated €51.0 million in player sales throughout the 2025 summer transfer window, the Northeastern English club purchased a substantial number of players. These total sum of player signings amounted to €187.9 million, a club record within a single transfer window. The Black Cats’ notable acquisitions include the following players:
defender Omer Alderete, for €11.6 million from LaLiga club Getafe CF;
defender Reinildo Mandava, a free transfer from LaLiga club Atlético Madrid;
defender Nordi Mukiele, for €12.0 million from PSG;
midfielder Habib Diarra, for €31.5 million from Ligue 1 club Strasbourg;
midfielder Enzo Le Fée, a permanent transfer worth €23.0 million from Serie A club AS Roma (after spending the 2024-25 season on loan at the club);
midfielder Granit Xhaka, for €15.0 million from Bundesliga club Bayer Leverkusen; and
forward Simon Adingra, for €24.4 million from EPL rivals Brighton & Hove Albion.
These newcomers have strengthened the cohesion and overall quality of the squad and their style of play. Among these players, however, Granit Xhaka stands out the most, producing three assists (as of October 25) and leading the squad as its captain. As of October 25, the Swiss international ranks second in EPL assists, trailing only Tottenham forward Mohammed Kudus and Everton FC forward Jack Grealish. Both players have produced four assists, each.
It remains to be seen whether Sunderland can maintain their fine form until the end of the season. That said, their spending spree will likely enable them to remain in the EPL for the 2026-27 season. This outcome would break a two-year curse for newly promoted EPL clubs, whereby all three newly promoted clubs had suffered relegation to the EFL Championship within a year after promotion.
🇫🇷 RC Strasbourg: 5-1-2
Despite finishing September 2025 with a 2-1 away loss against Olympique de Marseille, Strasbourg enjoyed Q3 2025 without an additional loss. In August, the Eastern French club kicked off their 2025-26 campaign with a narrow 1-0 away victory against newly promoted FC Metz. The next four league matches included wins against FC Nantes (1-0, home opener), Le Havre AC (1-0, home) and newly promoted Paris FC (3-2, away), and a loss against AS Monaco (3-2, away) on the third matchday.
As a result, with the addition of one win and one draw — 5-0 at home against Angers SCO) and 3-3 away against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) — after eight league matches, as of October 24, Strasbourg currently rank in third place in the 2025-26 Ligue 1 table. They are tied at 16 points with fourth-place RC Lens, second-place PSG and first-place Marseille.
In addition to Ligue 1 matches, in August, Strasbourg qualified for the 2025-26 UECL, a first for a European continental club competition in the club’s 119-year history. The Ligue 1 club qualified for the competition after defeating Danish Superliga club Brøndby IF by a 3-2 score on aggregate in the UECL qualifiers: 0-0 at home in the first-leg match and 3-2 away in the second-leg match. Since their historic qualification, in October, Strasbourg defeated Slovan Bratislava 2-1 away in their UECL league stage opening match and drew 1-1 at home against Ekstraklasa (Polish first division) club Jagiellonia Białystok in their second match.
Strasbourg’s electric start to the season is in part credited to their effective transfer policy revolving around purchasing young players with potential and selling them at high valuations. While raking in €85.7 million from player sales throughout the 2025 summer transfer window — including the likes of defender Mamadou Sarr (to EPL club Chelsea for €14.0 million), midfielder Habib Diarra (to Sunderland for €31.5 million) and forward Dilane Bakwa (to Forest for €35.0 million) — Strasbourg bought a number of players who have already made a significant impact at the club. These players include the following:
defender Soumaïla Coulibaly, for €7.5 million from Dortmund;
defender Lucas Høgsbrg, for €15.0 million from Danish Superliga club FC Nordsjaelland;
defender Andrew Omobamidele, for €10.5 million from Forest;
midfielder Valentín Barco, for €10.0 million from Brighton;
midfielder Julio Ensico, for €9.5 million from Brighton; and
forward Joaquín Panichelli, for €16.5 million from LaLiga club Deportivo Alavés.
These players have helped enhance a stable backline that has conceded only ten goals throughout their eight Ligue 1 matches — only Marseille, PSG, RC Lens and Lyon have conceded fewer Ligue 1 goals. In midfield, both arrivals from Brighton have also made an instant impact at the club, solidifying a dynamic midfield that excels in transition. In attack, as of October 25, Panichelli has scored seven goals in eight Ligue 1 matches, leading all players in Ligue 1 goalscoring in 2025-26.
Finally, Strasbourg’s association with Chelsea under the parent company BlueCo has been a boon for the French club. In the 2025 summer transfer window alone, Strasbourg purchased midfielder Mathis Amougou from the London-based club for €14.5 million, signed former Chelsea defender Ben Chilwell on a free transfer and acquired three players on loan: goalkeeper Mike Penders, defender Mamadou Sarr (who returns to Strasbourg after being sold by the club to Chelsea) and midfielder Kendry Páez.
So far, this partnership has allowed Strasbourg to flourish in French football. Congruently, it has enabled certain Chelsea players to earn playing time in a competitive environment, something young players at that club lacked for many years under management that did not prioritize the development of young players. Ultimately, Strasbourg have the potential to take the next step and potentially become a UEL, or to dream big, become a UCL participant.
*All transfer values indicated throughout the article are the base transfer fees, excluding signing and performance-based bonuses.
