Bruno Fernandes named Premier League player of the season as Arsenal stars snubbed | OneFootball

Man Utd star held off competition from Arsenal’s title winners

Bruno Fernandes has been named the Premier League player of the season.

The Manchester United captain has enjoyed a remarkable season, where he has levelled the league record for most assists in a single campaign.

Fernandes has one more chance to claim the record as his own this weekend, when United travel to Brighton and Hove Albion for their final match of the season.

He has beaten off competition from Arsenal’s title-winning trio Gabriel, Declan Rice and David Raya for the top honour.

Also shortlisted were Man City pair Erling Haaland and Antoine Semenyo, as well as Nottingham Forest’s Morgan Gibbs-White and Brentford’s Igor Thiago.

Fernandes, 31, has played 34 times in the top flight this term, adding eight goals to his assist total.

He has matched his goal tally from the last campaign, and doubled his assist count.

Fernandes’ numbers this season take him to 229 Premier League appearances, with 70 goals and 71 assists.

The midfielder has skippered the Red Devils to third in the Premier League table, which looked a million miles away when Ruben Amorim was sacked back in January.

Michael Carrick was installed as the interim replacement, and the former United man has since guided his old employers to Champions League football for next season, and a comfortale top-three finish.

It was announed on Friday that Carrick had signed a two-year deal at Old Trafford, keeping him as the club’s head coach in a permanent capacity after impressing in his second caretaker spell in charge.

Under Carrick, Fernandes has notched three goals, but saw his assist count increase drastically upon being shifted from a deeper-lying role under Amorim to his preferred No10 position behind the lone striker in a 4-2-3-1.

Since Carrick took over at the helm, Fernandes has laid on 11 assists for his team-mates.

Nico O’Reilly scooped up the young player of the year award, fending off competition from Junior Kroupi, Lewis Hall, Michael Kayode, Mateus Fernandes, Rayan Cherki, Kobbie Mainoo and Alex Scott.