PFA player of the year ‘won already’ and he’s NOT at Arsenal or Man Utd | OneFootball

One observer has declared the only viable candidate who should win the PFA player of the year award, and it’s not Arsenal’s Declan Rice or Manchester United’s Bruno Fernandes.

Rice and Fernandes are the first and second favourites respectively to scoop the PFA Player of the Year award right now. You would assume the fate of the title race would determine which of those superstars wins the award. If Arsenal win, it’ll be Rice. If Arsenal bottle it, Bruno.

Yet according to talkSPORT’s never-shy pundit and host, Adrian Durham, there’s a blatantly obvious choice for the prestigious individual accolade, and it’s Rayan Cherki.

“I’m thinking of the footballer of the year,” Durham began. “You can’t have any Arsenal players, they’re not footballers, okay? They’re just robots.

“So, you can’t have any Arsenal players as player of the year.”

On Cherki specifically, Durham said: “He is the only contender for footballer of the year. Rayan Cherki has won it already.”

When asked to clarify what he actually meant with his Arsenal ‘robots’ comments, Durham continued: “None of us are entertained by Arsenal and and you can’t really knock what they’re doing.

“They’re the top of the league. They’re probably going to win the league. If Man City win the Premier League, this (Cherki winning the award) is a no-brainer.

“But if Arsenal do win the Premier League, they are just robotic. And we’re talking about footballer of the year, not robot of the year.

“We’re talking footballer of the year who’s playing the football. Are you going to give it to the Arsenal top scorer [Viktor] Gyokeres?

“Are you going to give it to Declan Rice who hit a couple of free kicks against Real Madrid? There’s nobody who plays football. They’re just bullies at set pieces.”

Durham concluded: “You can’t give it to a goalkeeper. Goalkeepers aren’t footballers. They’re goalkeepers.

“Rayan Cherki is literally the only one who’s playing proper football in the Premier League.”

Should Man City overhaul Arsenal and regain their Premier League crown off Liverpool, Cherki may well factor into the equation for the award.

Yet the Cherki choice is a somewhat strange one, not least because with the bookies at least, there’s already two City stars with shorter odds than the Frenchman – Erling Haaland and Antoine Semenyo.

What’s more, you might be surprised to learn Cherki has netted just three goals in the Premier League all season.

His overall numbers across all competitions are much rosier, with 20 goal contributions (nine goals, 11 assists) racked up in his maiden season in England.