Premier League Player of the Season

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The shortlist for the Premier League Player of the Season award has been announced and there were a few surprises in the list.

Mohamed Salah, Kevin De Bruyne, Son Heung-min, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Bukayo Saka, Joao Cancelo, Jarrod Bowen, and James Ward-Prowse have all be nominated to pick up the award.

Perhaps the most surprising name on the shortlist is James Ward-Prowse.The Southampton central midfielder is a consistent performer and has been in the Premier League for some time.

He has a good range of passing and has scored 4 goals directly from free-kicks during the 2021/22 campaign, including some impressive strikes.

However, does Ward-Prowse deserve a place on the list ahead of the likes of Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip, who have been superb at the heart of the Liverpool defence? Cristiano Ronaldo is third in the top goal scorers chart yet has been overlooked.

Bukayo Saka is also an interesting choice. The Arsenal man has reached double figures for goals this season and helped the club compete for the top four. However, many onlookers feel Saka has been included in the list because of what happened in the penalty shootout against Italy in the final of the European Championship.

Jarrod Bowen has superior figures to Saka and he has scored 10 goals and recorded 12 assists in the Premier League this season, with two matches remaining.

His form helped propel West Ham United into Champions League contention and only two other players have achieved double figures for both goals and assists in the current Premier League campaign.

Bowen has had a tremendous season and no one could deny he deserves his place on the shortlist for Premier League Player of the Season.

Son Heung-min has been excellent for Spurs this season and is enjoying his best goal scoring campaign to date. At the time of writing, the South Korean has 21 goals to his name, 6 more than Harry Kane and has 9 assists. If Spurs were to seal fourth position and a place in the Champions League, Son would be one of the key reasons for their success.

The Liverpool duo of Trent Alexander-Arnold and Mohamed Salah have been superb again in the Premier League this season. Alexander-Arnold is currently second for assists in the 2021/22 campaign and having played 31 games at the time of writing, has helped to keep 17 clean sheets.

Salah continues to score and create goals for Liverpool. His is currently top of both the goals and assists charts in the Premier League this season, with 2 games remaining. Salah is only the sixth player to score 20 or more goals in four different Premier League seasons.

Finally, we come to the Manchester City duo of Joao Cancelo and Kevin De Bruyne. Cancelo may be a full-back but his influence on the Manchester City team is incredible.

He has been involved in 8 goals in the Premier League, has played the most minutes of any player this season, and completed the most passes. De Bruyne has 15 goals and 7 assists to his name at the time of writing and is coming good towards the end of the season.

Should Manchester City win the title, De Bruyne could be the man to win the award for a second time but if Liverpool succeed, the Premier League Player of the Season will likely be Salah.