Daniel Edwards: Who should be the PFA Player of the Year?

ERLING Haaland is the comfortable favourite to win the PFA Player of the Year award this season, but in Martin Ødegaard, Marcus Rashford and Bukayo Saka, he has some worthy competition. Here we present a case for each player.

Erling Haaland – 33/100

The favourite, and for good reason. At this stage, the market appears to be confident that Erling Haaland will be crowned as this season’s PFA Player of the Year.

Haaland is scoring at such a rate that he’s demystified some previously heralded seasons by elite scorers of the past. With eleven games remaining, Haaland’s return of 28 goals in the Premier League this season is already more than the Golden Boot winner achieved in 18 of the previous 27 campaigns since the division was cut to 20 teams.

He’s surpassed the best Premier League returns of Wayne Rooney (27), Sergio Agüero (26), Romelu Lukaku (25), Ruud van Nistelrooy (25) and Fernando Torres (24), while he needs seven more goals to break the Premier League record, jointly held by Andrew Cole (1993-94) and Alan Shearer (1994-95) with 34 goals each.

But do his goalscoring exploits guarantee him the PFA award? Not necessarily. The award has been won by the Golden Boot winner eight times in 30 seasons in the Premier League era, and twice across the last eight seasons.

Haaland remains the man to beat, but the crown isn’t secure just yet.

Martin Ødegaard – 4/1

Arsenal are currently the favourites to lift the Premier League crown this season, but it’s worth remembering that they came into this campaign as high as 40/1 with most bookies, with five teams adjudged to have a better shot at the title.

Their improvements have been holistic and it would be insincere to pin their success on one individual, but Martin Ødegaard has undoubtedly been one of the key ingredients.

Named club captain ahead of the season, Ødegaard has stepped up his game to match his newfound authority, already scoring more goals and providing more assists than he did last season.

What Ødegaard perhaps doesn’t get enough credit for is his industriousness – he isn’t purely a silky playmaker, he’s every bit a two-way player. While he has the most chances created of any Arsenal player this season (61), he also tops all teammates for distance covered (282 kilometres), pressures (536) and possession won in the final third (37).

As previously mentioned, Arsenal remain favourites to win the title this season, and the PFA award has been given to a player from the league winners 14 times out of 30 seasons in the Premier League era.

There is an opening for Ødegaard should his and Arsenal’s immaculate play continue during the run-in.

Marcus Rashford – 8/1

Marcus Rashford is having the best season of his career, proving himself to be the key attacking weapon of a Manchester United side who can challenge for titles in the near future.

With the spectre of Cristiano Ronaldo firmly in the rear window, Rashford has taken on the goalscoring burden from out wide, netting 26 times in all competitions this season, surpassing his previous best mark of 22 goals in 2019-20.

It wasn’t a given that we would ever see Rashford return to his previous incarnation, owing to countless mismanaged injuries in previous campaigns. He scored just five goals in all competitions last season.

In truth he took a while to fully get going this season also, but after scoring three goals at the World Cup despite limited playing time, Rashford returned to England with added confidence, and he’s probably been the league’s most in-form player post-Qatar.

A strong second half of the season is more valuable than a strong first half of the season if you’re wanting the win the PFA award, but with Manchester United sitting 16 points behind Arsenal and 11 behind Manchester City, it’s hard to see how Rashford could threaten Haaland or Ødegaard. We’ve gone 12 seasons since a Manchester United last won the award (Wayne Rooney in 2009-10).

Bukayo Saka – 8/1

Bukayo Saka feels like the value pick among the four players mentioned here so far. Many believe him to be Arsenal’s best player, and he’s playing for the best team, so why shouldn’t he win the PFA award?

Saka appears to be getting better every season, and his output his outstanding for a wide player of his age. Earlier this month he became the sixth-youngest player in Premier League history reach 50 combined goals and assists, with the only non-striker reaching this total at a younger age being Cesc Fàbregas.

This season alone he has been directly involved in 19 goals in the Premier League, the most of any player who isn’t a centre-forward.

What will hold Saka back, and Ødegaard too, is that voters may struggle to decide which Arsenal man is more deserving, and they will therefore take votes from one another.

Only two Arsenal players have lifted the Premier League title and won the PFA award in the same season – Dennis Bergkamp in 1997-98 and Thierry Henry in 2003-04.

It’s not going to happen, but you deserve some credit (both 33/1)

If Erling Haaland didn’t exist then Harry Kane would be the highest scoring player in Europe’s top five leagues this season. But he does exist, so he isn’t. This level of goalscoring has been normalised by Kane over the years, and owing to Haaland’s stupendous figures, Kane probably isn’t getting the recognition he deserves.

Kevin De Bruyne has created the most chances of any player in Europe’s top five leagues this season (78), while only Lionel Messi (13) has assisted more goals than the Belgian (12). He started the season in outstanding form with nine assists in as many games, but his standards have dipped a little of late and he’s now out of contention for a record-breaking third PFA award.