Tens of thousands of Mail Sport readers voted last summer to choose the greatest ever player from each current Premier League club.
Thank you to everyone who participated, either through our online poll or by email.
With the 2024-2025 premier season starting on Friday, we’ll be announcing all the winners this week.
Here are your selections for Arsenal, Aston Villa, AFC Bournemouth and Brentford.
Arsenal
1: Thierry Henry 33.7 percent
2: Dennis Bergkamp 19.6 percent
3: Tony Adams 16.2 percent
WINNER: THIERRY HENRY (1997-2007 & 2012)
Matches 376, Goals 228
Henry is a clear winner of the Arsenal poll. Not only is he the club’s top scorer in history, he is also widely regarded as the best foreign player ever to play in English football, having won the Premier League Golden Boot four times.
Arsenal’s star striker during their historic unbeaten 2003-04 season, Mr Invincible put his own spin on the competition. His style and grace made him a huge hit with advertisers and brought a new audience to the sport.
He also won the FA Cup twice and helped Arsenal reach the Champions League final in 2006. He scored all types of goals, from deft passes to long-range strikes, and returned for a short loan spell in 2012, fittingly scoring the winning goal against Sunderland in his final game.
Thierry Henry was voted Arsenal’s greatest ever player by Mail Sport readers, beating Dennis Bergkamp and Tony Adams
Bergkamp symbolised Arsenal’s revolution into great entertainers under Arsene Wenger
Former hard-tackling captain Adams took third place on the list of Gunners favourites
“Thierry is an exceptional player who is making football history,” said his manager Arsène Wenger, who signed the Frenchman as a struggling young winger at Juventus and helped him develop into a world-class striker.
As Arsenal supporter Carte Blanche wrote to MailOnline from Los Angeles: ‘TH14 was simply unstoppable during his Arsenal days and was robbed of the World Player of the Year award as a result.’
There was also strong support among Gunners fans for ‘King’ Dennis Bergkamp, who symbolised Arsenal’s development from a defensive-minded team to a team of great entertainers, and for Tony Adams, the captain of four championship teams under George Graham and Wenger.
Aston Villa
1: Paul McGrath 28.4 percent
2: Andy Gray 16.5 percent
3: Gordon Cowans 10.5 percent
WINNER: PAUL McGRATH (1989-1996)
Matches 327, Goals 11
Paul McGrath was considered a write-off when Sir Alex Ferguson let him go from Manchester United amid concerns about his ‘unprofessional’ lifestyle.
He didn’t make his debut for Villa until just before his 30th birthday, but over the next seven years he became such a favourite that you voted him the club’s greatest player of all time.
McGrath, a Rolls Royce of a defender who was also regarded by Ireland manager Jack Charlton as his best player, was given his own fitness programme at Villa to give his arthritic knees a rest from training with the other players.
Over the course of seven years, Paul McGrath became a fan favorite for his smooth Rolls Royce
Andy Gray earned personal honours at Villa, winning the League Cup in 1977
Gordan Cowans was part of Villa’s European Cup-winning team in 1981–82 and won five trophies with the club
Yet on match day he was usually the best player on the pitch, winning the League Cup in 1994 by beating his former club United and again in 1996 when he was part of a three-man defence with Gareth Southgate to beat Leeds 3-0 at Wembley.
Holte End serenaded them with ‘Paul McGrath, My Lord’ and former manager Ron Atkinson said: ‘Anyone who has followed Villa for a number of years knows he is number one.’
As Villa fan Skidmor74 posted on MailOnline: ‘Never out of position, strong as an ox and technically superior. The standout by far.’
Andy Gray, who was both PFA Player and Young Player of the Year in 1975, came second. The vote for the legendary team that won the European Cup in 1982 was divided, but the most popular choice was Gordon Cowans.
AFC-Bournemouth
1: Ted MacDougall 22.6 percent
2: Steven Fletcher 14.2 percent
3: Callum Wilson 11.4 percent
WINNER: TED MacDOUGALL (1969-1972, 1978-1980)
Matches 223, Goals 144
It is highly unusual for a player to be regarded as a club legend after just three seasons, but it shows the impact Ted MacDougall had at Bournemouth. A stand has been named after him, both at the old Dean Court and the current Vitality Stadium.
The club was still called Bournemouth & Boscombe Athletic when MacDougall was signed from York in 1969 for £10,000, on a salary of £28 a week. His achievements are still talked about more than half a century later.
The original SuperMac scored 49 goals in 1970–71 as the Cherries won promotion from the Fourth Division. The following season they became a national name when he scored nine in a single FA Cup match against Margate, in an 11–0 win.
Ted MacDougall played just three seasons for Bournemouth after joining the team in 1969, but he is still talked about after scoring 126 goals
Steve Fletcher is Bournemouth’s record holder for appearances and currently assistant manager
Callum Wilson is still a favourite among our Cherries voters despite his move to Newcastle
His diving header against Aston Villa was captured on Match of the Day and is still regularly replayed. For 5ft10ins he was exceptional in the air and by 1972 he was too hot for Bournemouth to keep and he went to Manchester United for £200,000 – a huge fee in those days.
MacDougall, who earned seven caps for Scotland, returned for a few years towards the end of his career – reunited with strike partner Phil Boyer – and still keeps a close eye on the club from his native America. ‘The game is different. I might have a problem with these modern pitches – I wouldn’t have any problem laying the blame!’ he jokes.
Steven Fletcher, the record holder for most appearances, came second and the club’s recent spell in the Premier League, the best in the club’s history, has brought much support to Callum Wilson.
Brentford
1: Ivan Toney 23.2 percent
2: David McCulloch 17.9 percent
3: Kevin O’Connor 17.8 percent
WINNER: IVAN TONEY (2020-)
Matches 141, Goals 72
Ivan Toney is already Brentford’s best player according to your supporters, and there could be more to come if he stays in West London after the transfer window closes.
Toney had big shoes to fill when he joined from Peterborough to replace Ollie Watkins, who moved to Aston Villa, but he scored 33 goals in his first season – the most in The
Champion at the time – helped his new club to promotion to the top division for the first time in 74 years.
Brentford fans voted Ivan Toney as their favourite, after helping Brentford return to the top flight after a 74-year absence.
David McCulloch (left) is still respected today for his goalscoring exploits in the 1930s
Kevin O’Connor takes a podium finish after playing his entire career at Brentford, making 501 appearances for them
Since then, he has kept Brentford in the Premier League thanks to his goals, despite the first half of last season being shortened by a betting ban.
For manager Thomas Frank, Toney is more than a goalscorer. He is a physical presence up front and a true leader, who inspires and engages those around him. Nothing is too much for him, as Toney scored a famous double at The Etihad in 2022 to beat Manchester City 2-1.
His no-look penalties, already familiar to Brentford fans, attracted a wider audience among the English public at the recent European Championship.
‘He’s a man for the big occasion. He doesn’t feel the pressure,’ praised Frank. ‘Toney, easy,’ was the opinion of MailOnline reader Jimmy Sands from London.
David McCulloch, a goalscoring machine from the 1930s, was the only Brentford player other than Toney to score 20 goals in a top-flight season. He narrowly beat popular long-time midfielder Kevin O’Connor into second place, but was a decisive distance behind Toney.
