Next weekend, Premier League footballers will descend on
London for the annual Professional Footballers’ Association awards. The 6
nominees for Player of the Year have already been announced and the winner will
be presented with the coveted award at the ceremony this coming Sunday. This
two part article takes a closer look at the nominees, the good season they’ve
had and who I consider the favourites are to take the award home.
Juan Mata
Since signing from Valencia in 2011, Juan Mata instantly
became one of Chelsea’s key players and while he had a good solid first season
with The Blues, his second one has been even better. He currently sits top of
the Premier League assists table with 12 in total and has also found the back
of the net himself on 10 occasions.
It took Mata a little while to get going before he got his
first assist of the season in a 1-0 home victory over Stoke City. A week later
however he turned it up in a big way against Arsenal at The Emirates assisting
in the first goal and scoring the second in a 2-1 win. It would then trigger
more top performances from Mata over the coming games and led to him winning
the Player of the Month award for October with the highlight of the month
coming at White Hart Lane when he scored a brace and set up the final goal in a
big 4-2 win against Tottenham Hotspur. While the results then started to turn
sour for Chelsea just a few weeks later, Mata continued to come up big for the
team whenever he could and his good work was rewarded in December when he
signed a new contract at the club to stay with them until 2018. In January, he
came back to haunt Arsenal again as he netted the first goal against The
Gunners in another 2-1 victory.
Chelsea are in a great position right now to have a very
talented group of creative midfielders in their ranks, and I think it would be
fair to say that Juan Mata may well have outshone most of them. Oscar and Eden
Hazard are showing great potential and have played a big part in the challenge
for a top 4 finish and Frank Lampard has shown that he can still step up and
perform when he has to despite his old age, but this season Mata has excelled
and shown himself to be one of the best midfielders in the world, let alone the
Premier League in my opinion. Almost every time I watch him, I believe
something is going to happen. He has the knowledge and the skill that helps him
beat players and set up great chances for his teammates to score. He definitely
faces some really tough competition to win this award, but I think he is in
with a very good chance.
Luis Suarez
If the votes for this award have already been made before
the fixtures this past weekend, Luis Suarez is in with a really good chance of
winning this award. If not, I’m afraid his chances begin to fade away over one
act of stupidity in the game against Chelsea yesterday at Anfield.
Before yesterdays match, Luis Suarez was having the season
of his life. The Uruguayan striker is currently the Premier League’s top scorer
with 23 goals from 33 appearances. He is currently the only player in the
league this season with two hat-tricks to his name, the first coming at Carrow
Road in September in a 5-2 victory over Norwich and the second coming at the
start of March in a 4-0 win over Wigan at the DW Stadium. Out of his 23 goals
he has scored so far, the pick of the bunch surely has to be his goal against
Newcastle at Anfield back in November when he expertly controlled a long ball
from Jose Enrique on his chest in the 18 yard box, rounded the goalkeeper and
slotted the ball into the empty net. It was wonderful to watch and it showed
everybody watching exactly how talented Suarez is. As well as scoring goals, he
can be very creative as well, as he proved yesterday when he played a great
curving ball into Daniel Sturridge who got Liverpool’s equaliser when they were
1-0 down.
Last season was a controversial one for Suarez, and up till
the 65th minute of the match yesterday, it looked like he would have been
remembered more for the work he did with his feet this season. But despite
scoring a last minute goal to level the tie at 2-2, it appears that his bite on
Branislav Ivanovic of Chelsea is what he will be mostly be remembered for by
many this season. It is a real shame given the talent he possesses but when you
do stupid things you will get punished for it. He has already been fined and
issued a statement apologising to fans and Ivanovic. The FA will likely review
the incident and I wouldn’t be surprised if a lengthy retrospective ban is
issued. It likely rules Suarez out of the running to win this award now unless
the votes were cast before the game on Sunday which is a shame as I felt he was
in with a great chance of getting it until he once again made all the headlines
for the wrong reasons.
Robin Van Persie
Last year’s winner, Robin Van Persie was another one of the
most talked about players this past summer. The Dutchman announced at the start
of July that he was not going to sign a new contract at Arsenal and with only 1
year left to run on the deal, The Gunners decided cashing in on their
then-captain was the right move to make. Bids reportedly came in from
Manchester City, Juventus and Manchester United, and in August Van Persie
decided to make the move to the red half of Manchester in a reported £24
million deal.
Once the move was finalised, it didn’t take last season’s top
scorer to start firing again. In his first start for his new side he scored
against Fulham in a 3-2 win at Old Trafford and it got even better a week later
as United travelled to Southampton and won 3-2 again with Van Persie grabbing
all 3 goals. As the season went on, he continued to score important goals in
big games including the winner against Liverpool in the 2-1 win at Anfield back
in September and the first goal of the game against his old side Arsenal in
November at Old Trafford which The Red Devils also won 2-1. December was a
particularly special month for him and the fans as he won the Player of the
Month award for his performances during the busy spell of games in the Premier
League that month. The fans favourite moment from that month will be when he
scored a free-kick against rivals Manchester City in the 92nd minute at
Eastlands to win the game and give his side a 6 point lead in the title race at
the time.
Robin Van Persie continued to score goals early into 2013
and helped United to continue extending their lead at the top of the table. The
29 year old suffered a slight blip recently in front of goal going just over
two months without scoring for Manchester United until he converted a penalty
at Stoke City just over a week ago. But United still picking up the points and
City continuing to drop them, the Reds are now just one win away from
reclaiming the Premier League title. Out of the 75 league goals United have
scored this season, Van Persie has scored 21 of them and sits just 2 goals
behind Luis Suarez in the top scorers table. Overall Van Persie’s first season
at Old Trafford can be considered a huge success and I would say that a title
winning sides top scorers efforts will certainly not go unnoticed and that will
mean that he is in with a very good chance of joining the likes of Thierry
Henry and Cristiano Ronaldo in winning the Player of the Year award two seasons
in a row.
Andrew.
