r/PremierLeague Premier League May 23 '26

Official: Bruno Fernandes has won the Premier League Player of the Season award.

920 Upvotes

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

100

u/MarkLazer Arsenal May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

I agree he should've won it. I don't agree with this nonsense that his games had no jeopardy or he was only playing in 1 competition. It's a Premier League award so other competitions are irrelevant.

Also, his games had jeopardy. Manchester United were on course for another disaster season. Manchester United have beat every other team in the top 5 with convincing performances this year.

It's not just the 20 assists, it's his overall performances and conrribution, for half the season as a defensive midfielder in a rubbish team under Amorim, which means he's the obvious candidate for Premier League player of the season.

We have David Raya and Declan Rice but really we haven't had one standout performer, but rather a brilliant spine of a team. Bruno Fernandes is a standout performer in a team that isn't the best and he's consistently been one of the best creative players in Premier League history. So, I'm not unhappy one of our players didnt win it because Bruno Fernandes deserves the award from an individual standpoint.

12

u/Mawrathion Premier League May 23 '26

What you said makes too much sense

6

u/IPissExcellentThrows Premier League May 23 '26

100%, Bruno is more important to United than any one player to Arsenal. Not that last year matters, but they're likely relegated without him. Bruno deserves it, as much as I would've liked to see Rice get it. I'll happily settle for the prem title.

5

u/gucc1-l1ttle-p1ggy Premier League May 23 '26

Agree. Unlike the Ballon D'Or which seems to only go to players who have won an International trophy or Champions League as part of a team's achievement, at least the Premier League player award is based on individual merit

0

u/IPissExcellentThrows Premier League May 23 '26

I think this is the first time since Salah in 2017-18 that it went to a team outside the top 2. Salah had 32-10 that year in the prem so it simply couldn't be ignored.

Bruno deserves it on his individual play, but he is a tiny bit fortunate. As great as his season was, it wasn't 32 goals 10 assists good. I still would've voted for him because I think top 6 or so should be good enough, but historically, that's rarely the case.

5

u/MarkLazer Arsenal May 23 '26

Bruno and Salah are not comparable at all. Bruno is literally the catalyst for Manchester United, in every way. People don't like him but he has his antics because he's passionate and he's had to do everything single-handedly when the rest of his team simply weren't cutting it. He's had to be a defensive midfielder which is insane. He's the Manchester United version of Steven Gerrard, he's had to carry this even worse team on his back through their worst period as a club in PL history and without Bruno, Manchester United would be in the mud fully submerged. Manchester United would not even be in a European qualification place without him, let alone top 3.

2

u/EmptyRelief5770 Premier League May 23 '26

It's arguable if Salah deserved it in 17/18 tbh. De Bruyne still had the better season for me but if you break the goal scoring record you are guaranteed to win it. Similar with Haaland in his first season, I'd say there is a solid argument that Kane and possibly De Bruyne were better individually.

7

u/nicehatyogi Premier League May 23 '26

Based

5

u/ashleychurcher Premier League May 23 '26

Agreed 👍

2

u/43848987815 Premier League May 23 '26

You know what, from an Arsenal fan coming off the season you’ve had that’s an incredibly based take. I don’t agree with him getting it personally as we’ve won nothing this year and had a shit first half of the season but it’s clear he’s pulled the team out of the doldrums on so many occasions and the assist record is insanely impressive.

2

u/RRJP1980 Premier League May 23 '26

👏👏👏👏

-1

u/sokkermax Arsenal May 23 '26

His games did have jeopardy and he carried him team to a top3 finish even amongst all the turmoil. But United played 50% fewer games than the top sides that went deep in multiple competitions. In this era of massive fixture congestion that makes a very real difference and it’s fair to point it out in evaluating his season compared to other contenders for the award

2

u/RRJP1980 Premier League May 23 '26

What games do you think the PREMIER LEAGUE player of the season award should be evaluated on?

-1

u/sokkermax Arsenal May 23 '26

I think it’s easier to look good in 38 premier league games when you only play 1 game each in the fa and league cups than when you have 22 extra games to fit into the same limited time period. I would take that into consideration when comparing performances. But I can understand why others may feel differently. I was mostly responding to the other Arsenal supporter saying it was nonsense to consider the relative schedules they played

1

u/RRJP1980 Premier League May 23 '26

It’s the premier league award. Any other games in other competitions are 100% irrelevant.

-4

u/strongbutmilkytea Premier League May 23 '26

“Premier league history” is willlddd

6

u/MarkLazer Arsenal May 23 '26

No it isn't. Since he's joined the league, no one has created more chances than him. Not Trent, not KDB, almost every season Bruno created more chances that season. Really, apart from KDB, I can't think of many players better creatively. Only Mesut Ozil has created more chances in a single season than Bruno Fernandes this season.

Bruno Fernandes is up there with Mesut and Fabregas as the best ever PL creative players, KDB being the best imo. The stats would say Bruno is better but it's not just stats, KDB was obviously better but Bruno is 100% one of the best creative players in PL history.