Five Man City stars among early favourites for 24/25 PFA player of the year award
The season has barely begun, but it’s already an international break so we’re already thinking about who might succeed Phil Foden as the PFA player of the year. Or perhaps Foden will retain his crown. Stranger things have happened – like for instance that time when Man United won the literal treble but David Ginola scored some nice goals while being very handsome and nipped in to pinch this award as assorted United stars carelessly split the vote.
Here are the current favourites for this season’s prize, according to the latest best odds available at Oddschecker.
10) Ilkay Gundogan (Man City)
Back at City after a year’s sabbatical at Barcelona and immediately slots into the top 10 here as – SPOILER ALERT – one of five members of Pep Guardiola’s side among the early pace-setters.
9) Martin Odegaard (Arsenal)
Yet to quite hit the heights of last season just yet but little doubt it’ll come for the man known to all as the second best Norwegian in the Premier League.
8) Declan Rice (Arsenal)
Will proving that The Game Has Officially Gone help or hinder his chances? Only time will tell for the Arsenal and England midfielder, but missing out on the chance to take the p*ss out of Spurs is a significant early sacrifice.
6=) Phil Foden (Man City)
Scored a whole bunch of goals to win this title last year, and the fact he is only the fourth favourite among City players says an awful lot about the current state of Premier League title fights.
6=) Cole Palmer (Chelsea)
Can he replicate last season’s outlandish breakthrough season with a Chelsea side that is, against all the odds, if anything even more ludicrous than last season’s? Yes, he probably can to be fair.
5) Rodri (Man City)
The famously defeat-averse midfield metronome makes City tick and feels very much like a professional’s professional. But still likely to be overshadowed by flashier colleagues in the final reckoning, you’d fancy.
3=) Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
The brilliant Egyptian has made a fine start to the season, a key factor in Liverpool themselves making a fine start under Arne Slot, and if Liverpool can hold on to the coat-tails of City for a decent chunk of the season it’s hard to imagine Salah become less crucial to that. May also benefit from being a more obvious standout at Liverpool than any of the City or Arsenal lads who are his major rivals here.
3=) Bukayo Saka (Arsenal)
The arrival of Raheem Sterling – a player we wouldn’t be surprised to see make a move up and into this list from his current rank outsider spot, by the way – may give Saka slightly more opportunities for the occasional rest, which might slightly reduce his overall minutes but will, we would contend, increase the impact he makes in those minutes still further. If Arsenal can at least give City another fright, Saka is right in the mix for sure.
2) Kevin De Bruyne (Man City)
Still the best playmaker in the division and has the huge advantage of having a large number of the chances he creates falling to Erling Haaland instead of, say, Rasmus Hojlund at United or Darwin Nunez at Liverpool or nobody at all at Chelsea.
1) Erling Haaland (Man City)
And talking of Haaland, yeah you’d have to say he’s a fair enough early favourite having scored seven goals in his first three games of the season with two hat-tricks and a new assortment of records falling into his lap despite none of his goals actually counting.