Leicester trio Riyad Mahrez, N’Golo Kante and Jamie Vardy will battle it out against West Ham’s Dimitri Payet, Harry Kane of Spurs and Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil for the PFA Player of the Year award, the PFA has announced.
It is arguably the most competitive end of year gong in recent memory with each candidate putting up great shouts to win the award in their own right, but if Leicester do go on to claim their first Premier League title then you would have to imagine the award will end up in the hands of one of their players.
According to WhoScored.com, Riyad Mahrez, who is also the bookies favourite, should take the award. The Algeria international’s rating of 7.81 is the highest in the Premier League this season, which has largely been helped by the fact he has played a direct hand in more league goals than any other player this season (27 – 16 goals + 11 assists).
Vardy’s brace against Sunderland at the weekend means the England international is now level with Mahrez for goals contributed to this season and has put him only one goal behind leading goalscorer Kane (22).
The final Leicester representative is Kante, who has arguably been the signing of the season. The dynamic box-to-box midfielder has covered just about every single blade of grass up and down the country this season and has completed more interceptions and tackles combined than any player in Europe’s top five leagues (280).
If anyone was to beat Kante to the moniker of signing of the season, then Payet would have a say in that. The France international has been inspirational for Slaven Bilic’s side this season and has scored five free-kicks in 2016 alone. Not only that, but only two players have created more chances than Payet (94).
One of those, is Ozil (123). The Arsenal No.11 is still on course to break Thierry Henry’s record for assists in a Premier League campaign (20) and is only two shy of matching that (18).
Who do you think should be crowned PFA Player of the Year? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below
