SEASON AWARDS 2014-2015

This is taken from the accumulative weekly awards over the season

TEAM: TOTTENHAM

This winner may come as a massive surprise but Spurs, along with Man City were the only teams to receive four awards over the course of the season. I opted to give it to Spurs as they improved on their league position from last term with a manager in his first season. In second place on three awards came Arsenal, Swansea, Southampton and West Bromwich Albion.

GOALKEEPER: DAVID DE GEA (Man Utd)

This winner may not come as a massive surprise as De Gea won the joint most individual awards of all the categories with six. With that being said, he was pushed all the way by Burnley’s Heaton who finished the season on five awards. Those two were way ahead of the rest as nine goalkeepers finished behind them in third with two awards each.

DEFENDER: JOHN TERRY (Chelsea)

This was one of the toughest decisions off all the categories as five defenders finished on two awards. In the end I gave it to the Chelsea skipper due to leading his team to the title and at 34, played every minute of every league game which is no mean feat. The four other defenders on two awards were Daryl Janmaat, Toby Alderweireld, Chris Smalling and Scott Dann.

MIDFIELDER: ALEXIS SANCHEZ (Arsenal)

I doubt there will be much surprise about this winner. In his first season Sanchez lit up the Premier League and was the only midfielder to receive four awards. In second came David Silva and surprisingly Yannick Bolasie with three awards. Jordan Henderson, Sadio Mane and Willan finished in third with two awards each.

FORWARD: HARRY KANE (Tottenham)

The Spurs man just takes this, I say just as he finished with four awards along with Sergio Aguero, but I gave it to the Spurs man as he only made his league debut in November. No striker finished on three awards but Saido Berahino, Diego Costa, Steven Fletcher and Christian Benteke all finished on two awards each.

MANAGER: GARY MONK (Swansea)

This is validation of just how good Monk has done in his first full season in management. Its been an incredible job really as he tied for the most individual awards, winning six. In second came Mark Hughes and Alan Pardew with four. Ronald Koeman came third with three awards.

UNSUNG HERO: FABIAN DELPH (Aston Villa)

In a category that traditionally has very few multiple winners, this was probably the toughest decision off them all. Seven players managed to finish on two awards and in the end I gave it to Fabien Delph as his performances in a poor Villa side helped them avoid relegation and forced him into the England set up. Other players with two awards were Lee Cattermole and Kurt Zouma who were close to winning this. Also Ki Sung-Yueng, Michael Carrick, Nacer Chadli and Jefferson Montero.

GAME: LEICESTER 5-3 MAN UTD

TOTTENHAM 5-3 CHELSEA

EVERTON 3-6 CHELSEA

This was extremely hard to decide upon and although it looks as though the number of goals was the biggest factor in these games, it wasn’t the only factor.

Leicester came from 2-0 then 3-1 down to get a memorable victory against Man Utd. They managed to score four second half goals, in a rip-roaring 20 minute spell to claim a superb victory in a game that also had Di Maria’s audacious lob goal.

This game confirmed Kane had arrived. He had been good in the two months since his debut but this was different as Spurs had played Chelsea a month earlier and lost 3-0. This time Kane scored two and assisted two and was superb throughout in a thrilling game.

In pulsating game that saw eight different scorers, Costa scored in the 1st and the 90th minute to help Chelsea make a mockery of their boring, defensive tag. Everton never recovered from Chelsea’s two early goals but kept coming back and was always within one goal until the 77th minute where Chelsea ran away with it.

Other games that came close where Liverpool 3-2 Tottenham. WBA 2-3 Leicester. Tottenham 2-1 Arsenal. Newcastle 3-3 Burnley. QPR 3-2 WBA. Burnley 2-3 Palace.

GOAL: CHARLIE ADAM (Stoke) v Chelsea

MATT PHILLIPS (QPR) V Crystal Palace

PHILIPPE COUTINHO (Liverpool) v Southampton

Inevitably, Charlie Adam’s tremendous long-range corker from inside his own half takes this. It was great improvisation to spot Courtois off his line and hit a shot, cutting across the ball that swerved and lobbed Courtois who was desperately trying to get back.

Phillips came up with a fantastic, albeit consolation goal against Palace. From all of 30 odd yards, cutting inside from the left, he hit and powerful, arrow-like effort that literally flew in, dipping at the last-minute over the keeper and clipping the underside of the bar.

Coutinho scored a sensational 25 odd yard effort. Usually long-range goals are hit with the laces for maximum power but what made this one special was he seemed to place it, side footed with curl that just dipped over the keeper, smacking in off the underside of the bar.

FOOL: BRENDAN RODGERS (Liverpool)

Sadly, he was only one of two people to get two fool awards over the course of the season. The other was referee Phil Dowd and that was in consecutive weeks. LFC players also received a fool award so you can argue Rodgers’ received three. After the heroics of last season, his spending of the Suarez money left a lot to be desired, new signings struggled and Rodgers’ tactics have been questioned. He’s the first LFC manager not to win a trophy in his first 3 seasons. You can also add the Gerrard issue, Sterling debacle, Balotelli not scoring, Lambert/Borini hardly playing, high profiled non signings, a record defeat in Gerrard’s last game and that’s just off the top of my head. Despite coming close to winning the league last season most fans have lost faith and now want him gone. FOOL!