A duel is a contest between two opposing players for the ball, on the ground or in the air. Every duel has a winner and a loser: the player who wins the ball wins the duel, and the other player loses it.
There are plenty of them. An average Premier League match in 2025/2026 had about 97 duels, roughly one a minute, and about a third of them were in the air.
Any contest for the ball between two opponents at the same moment counts. A tackle, a dribble at a defender, a jump for a header and a challenge that ends in a foul are all duels. With a foul, the player fouled wins the duel and the player who fouled loses it.
Add up a player's aerial duels won, tackles, successful dribbles and fouls won and you get their duels won, almost exactly. An interception, a clearance or a blocked shot is not a duel on its own, because nobody is challenging for the ball at that moment.
An aerial duel is two opposing players challenging for the same ball in the air, usually to head it. The player who wins the ball wins the duel. Centre backs and target strikers contest the most, from goal kicks, long balls, crosses and set pieces.
Virgil van Dijk won 167 aerial duels for Liverpool in the 2025/2026 Premier League, more than anyone else, ahead of James Tarkowski on 143. Strikers fight for high balls too: Thierno Barry won 5.78 per 90 for Everton, the most of anyone who played 1,500 minutes or more.
Bettors back players to win a number of aerial duels in a match, and the aerial duels betting guide shows how those bets are settled.
A ground duel is any duel on the floor: a tackle, a dribble or a challenge that ends in a foul. About two duels in every three are on the ground, and for wingers and attacking midfielders they are almost the whole job: more than four in five of the duels they won in 2025/2026.
Elliot Anderson won 224 ground duels for Nottingham Forest, 31 more than João Gomes of Wolverhampton Wanderers, and 288 duels in all, the most in the league. Jérémy Doku won 8.26 duels per 90 for Manchester City, the most of anyone who played 1,500 minutes, almost all of them on the ground.
It depends on the position. Premier League centre backs won 60% of their duels in 2025/2026 and strikers 40%, because a striker spends much of the game contesting high balls with their back to goal. Wingers and attacking midfielders, who keep taking players on, won about 44%.
Among players with 1,500 minutes or more and at least five duels per 90, Virgil van Dijk had the best rate, 73.2%, ahead of Harry Maguire on 69.0% and Ibrahima Konaté on 68.3%. A low rate is normal for a forward: Mohamed Salah won 30.3%, the lowest of anyone who qualified.
Updated 8 November 2026, after the last game
| Rank | Player | Club | Appearances | Duels | Duels won | Ground duels won | Aerial duels won | Duel success rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elliot Anderson | Manchester City | 10 | 124 | 74 | 65 | 9 | 59.7% |
| 2 | James Hill | AFC Bournemouth | 10 | 109 | 72 | 31 | 41 | 66.1% |
| 3 | Oliver McBurnie | Hull City | 10 | 161 | 71 | 30 | 41 | 44.1% |
| 4 | Boubacar Kamara | Aston Villa | 10 | 125 | 70 | 57 | 13 | 56.0% |
| 5 | Thierno Barry | Everton | 10 | 144 | 70 | 25 | 45 | 48.6% |
| 6 | Jérémy Jacquet | Liverpool | 10 | 98 | 68 | 42 | 26 | 69.4% |
| 7 | James Tarkowski | Everton | 10 | 88 | 67 | 32 | 35 | 76.1% |
| 8 | Diego Gómez | Brighton & Hove Albion | 10 | 141 | 66 | 31 | 35 | 46.8% |
| 9 | Dara O'Shea | Ipswich Town | 10 | 102 | 65 | 26 | 39 | 63.7% |
| 10 | Morgan Rogers | Chelsea | 10 | 137 | 62 | 48 | 14 | 45.3% |
Premier League duels won, all 439 players
A tackle is a duel won by the defender, and lost by the player who had the ball. Premier League players made 12,688 tackles in 2025/2026, about a third of all duels won.
A dribble works the other way round: an attacker who beats a defender wins the duel, and the defender, dribbled past, loses it. That is why wingers win plenty of duels and still have a low success rate: every dribble that fails is a duel lost.
Duels won is the number of contests for the ball a player wins, on the ground or in the air. Every duel has a winner and a loser, so across the 2025/2026 Premier League almost exactly half of all duels contested were won, 50.1%.
Duel success rate is the share of a player's duels they win: duels won divided by duels contested. A player who wins 30 of 50 has a rate of 60%, about the average for a Premier League centre back in 2025/2026.
No. FPL's defensive contribution points count clearances, blocks, interceptions and tackles, plus ball recoveries for midfielders and forwards. A tackle is a duel won, so it counts that way, but other duels earn nothing.
Every player's duels won in the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue 1. The Premier League's aerial duels won, ground duels won and duel success rate each have a page too.