Player of the season – Robin van Persie
No matter how many goals you score or how excellent your performances, the best player in any given season should be able to translate all that into a tangible effect on the table. There is no denying, however, that Van Persie has done exactly that. Indeed, without his goals, it’s highly likely that the epoch-ending, imploding season that many Arsenal fans feared might well have taken place. They certainly wouldn’t have finished third. Van Persie’s goals have directly provided 27 points in the guise of equalisers and match winners. That’s a remarkable 40% of the club’s total. And it’s not just how prolific he’s been, it’s how he’s progressed as a player overall. The Dutchman might well be the third best in the world at the moment. Honourable mentions: Yaya Toure, Vincent Kompany
Goal of the season – Papiss Cisse v Chelsea
You can pretty much sum up Cisse’s remarkable injury-time strike at Stamford Bridge with a question: have you ever seen anything like it before? There were simply so many dimensions to it: the importance, the distance, the ambition, the technique and – above all – the aesthetics. Cisse caught a skipping ball superbly to somehow bend it around Petr Cech on the half-volley with an exquisite, emphatic strike. Honourable mentions: Luis Suarez v Norwich City, Hatem Ben Arfa v Bolton Wanderers
Irish player of the season – James McClean
The former Derry winger’s season may have only started at the half-way point as he finally got his first appearances for Sunderland around Christmas. But he hasn’t exactly done things by half since. In fact, no Irish player has so consistently competed at such a level. As it stands, McClean has provided either a goal or assist every three games – that’s an equal return to the likes of Gareth Bale and superior to David Silva, Nani and Juan Mata. Honourable mentions: Anthony Pilkington, Wes Hoolahan
Game of the season – Manchester United 4-4 Everton
It wasn’t just the amount of goals. It wasn’t just the amount of times that it swung. It was the amount that was at stake. Much of City’s title win came down to this helter-skelter, unprecedented type of game at Old Trafford. Wayne Rooney dragged United from behind to force them into a commanding lead, only for Everton to do to Alex Ferguson’s team what they have done to so many others. Honourable mentions: Chelsea 3-5 Arsenal; Arsenal 5-2 Tottenham Hotspur
Manager of the season – Alan Pardew
Ultimately, successful football management comes down to maximising your resources. And has any manager done that as impressively as Pardew? It wasn’t just that his club effectively bought a brilliant new team for less than the price they sold Andy Carroll (eight of their most regular starters cost £34.5m). It was how quickly and spectacularly he got them to integrate. Not only that, as soon as we got into the second half of the season and it looked like other sides might start figuring Newcastle out, he signed Cisse, shifted Demba Ba and completely changed the focus of the attack. It says a lot that it will be a disappointment if they don’t reach the Champions League having initially been tipped by many to go down. Honourable mentions: Roberto Martinez, Paul Lambert, Brendan Rodgers
Most meaningful goalscorer
It’s not just about how many you score but when you score – key equaliser, late winners. Goals from the following players directly contributed to the most points
Player Apps Key goals Points won Points won per game
Papiss Cisse 14 11 13 0.93
Pavel Pogrebnyak 12 5 9 0.75
Robin van Persie 38 16 27 0.71
Mario Balotelli 22 6 12 0.55
Sergio Aguero 34 10 18 0.53
Wayne Rooney 34 8 16 0.47
Javier Hernandez 28 7 11 0.39
Clint Dempsey 38 9 14 0.37
Grant Holt 35 9 12 0.34
Team of the season
1. Michel Vorm (Swansea City)
2. Pablo Zabaleta (Manchester City)
3. Leighton Baines (Everton)
4. Vincent Kompany (Manchester City)
5. Fabio Coloccini (Newcastle United)
6. Yaya Toure (Manchester City)
7. Antonio Valencia (Manchester United)
8. Luka Modric (Tottenham Hotspur)
9. Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
10. Robin van Persie (Arsenal)
11. Clint Dempsey (Fulham)
Next best XI
1. Joe Hart (Manchester City)
2. Angel Rangel (Swansea City)
3. Kyle Walker (Tottenham Hotspur)
4. Gareth McAuley (West Brom)
5. Williams (Swansea City)
6. Gylfi Sigurdsson (Swansea City)
7. Anthony Pilkington (Norwich City)
8. Yoann Cabaye (Newcastle United)
9. Grant Holt (Norwich City)
10. Wayne Rooney (Manchester United)
11. Jonas Gutierrez (Newcastle United)
Team of the season… if the season ended at Christmas
1. Simon Mignolet (Sunderland)
2. Phil Jones (Manchester United)
3. Jose Enrique (Liverpool)
4. Joleon Lescott (Manchester City)
5. Ledley King (Tottenham Hotspur)
6. Lucas Leiva (Liverpool)
7. Chris Brunt (West Brom)
8. Juan Mata (Chelsea)
9. Demba Ba (Newcastle United)
10. David Silva (Manchster City)
11. Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspur)
Team of the season… if the season started at Christmas
1. David De Gea (Manchester United)
2. Branislav Ivanovic (Chelsea)
3. Gael Clichy (Manchester City)
4. Laurent Koscielny (Arsenal)
5. Gary Caldwell (Wigan Athletic)
6. Paul Scholes (Manchester United)
7. Victor Moses (Wigan Athletic)
8. Hatem Ben Arfa (Newcastle United)
9. Papiss Cisse (Newcastle United)
10. Tomas Rosicky (Arsenal)
11. James McClean (Sunderland)
XI whose performances deserved better
1. Shay Given (Aston Villa)
2. Ryan Shotton (Stoke City)
3. Ashley Cole (Chelsea)
4. Gael Givet (Blackburn Rovers)
5. Younes Kaboul (Tottenham Hotspur)
6. Ramires (Chelsea)
7. Stephane Sessegnon (Sunderland)
8. Matt Jarvis (Wolves)
9. Aiyegbeni Yakubu (Blackburn Rovers)
10. Steven Fletcher (Wolves)
11. Junior Hoilett (Blackburn Rovers)
Most disappointing XI
1. Pepe Reina (Liverpool)
2. Johan Djourou (Arsenal)
3. Wayne Bridge (Sunderland)
4. Roger Johnson (Wolves)
5. Scott Dann (Blackburn Rovers)
6. Charlie Adam (Liverpool)
7. Gervinho (Arsenal)
8. Joey Barton (QPR)
9. Federico Macheda (QPR/Manchester United)
10. Kevin Doyle (Wolves)
11. Stewart Downing (Liverpool)
How did their season rank? (based on pre-season targets and whether they were met)
Arsenal B+
Aston Villa D-
Blackburn Rovers F
Bolton Wanderers F
Chelsea B
Everton B-
Fulham B-
Liverpool C-
Manchester City A
Manchester United B-
Newcastle United A-
Norwich City B+
QPR C
Stoke City C
Sunderland C
Swansea City A-
Tottenham Hotspur B-
West Brom B-
Wigan B-
Wolves F
United are absolutely muck!!!
I agree, Daithi, and I’m a ManU fan. All that’s been holding them together was Ferguson. It’ll take a while to pick themselves up. Hope Van Gaal is given enough time!
Yeah, I think it’s a while off till they get themselves together!! Rooney was savagely bad!! Mata was poor. Evans, young, all were garbage!!
That’ll be two points dropped for Burnley come the end of season relegation battle. Bad result. Should be beating the likes of muck like United!
Poor result for Burnley. Need to be beating their relegation rivals at home to have a chance of staying up!
Burnley started very well against Chelsea a couple of weeks ago but were well beaten eventually – could well be something similar today. Anything less will be disastrous for Utd.
Noticed that Burnley’s starting 11 is entirely British – something very rare nowadays
I wouldn’t have Evans in my local pub team.
What’s worse is we let Pique go because we thought he was the next big thing!
Although you never know a prolonged run in the first team may see him come good.
Ah now, with all the money he has he’d surely pay for a few rounds
Pique was always going to end up back at barca
Pique was always going to end up back at barca
There’s an echo in here.
And United fans with the usual ‘welcome to the biggest club in the world’ deluded
Good chance for united to pick up 3 points against the team backed for relegation…but I still worry about the back 3 (jones, Evans and blackett) I think this game is a perfect chance for jutciewicz (sorry, I can’t spell it) and ings to prove themselves against a fairly lacklustre defense
Relegation 6 pointer !!!
Utd done very well to get the draw that’s 2 points in the bag WOW!!!!
Could be the point that saves United from relegation come next May.
A dreadful performance by Utd – as bad as anything that they produced last season. 2 pts from 3 games against the giants of Swansea, Sunderland and Burnley. Hard to see them finish in the Top 6, could be much lower than last season if they don’t cop on soon.
It’s early days yet but they’d want to get their shit in gear sharpish!
It would be plain stupid to play Evans again – after his dire performance against MK Dons.
Time for him to move on….
Great squad player!
Poor mans john o Shea he is. O Shea could play in goal
Yoda are you?
I have a wee theory about to United’s poor start to the season so far, which I have yet to see written anywhere (I’m open to correction).
Players who have been at United for years appear to be lacking in confidence, particularly central midfielders and defenders.
I reckon that boasting about having so much to spend on new players was bad enough, but the worst idea was identifying areas we need to strengthen and then not having them strengthened by the start of the season!
Everybody knows we need a proper central defensive midfielder like Keane was. Hence all the hype about Vidal. Everybody also knows the likes of Evans and Jones are prone to being rubbish so we need to strengthen there too, hence the hype about Blind, Rojo, and Shaw. Our wingers have been singled out as blunt instruments, hence the long running saga over DiMaria.
Such speculation must have an impact on the egos of the existing players. Imagine playing in any of these positions over these past few weeks, knowing that the club are actively trying to find a better player in your position! Your confidence would be shot, especially when you’re (by association) being partly blamed for the worst season United have had in ages!! Most of us agree that there is a lot of dead wood still at United, but I’m sure they know who they are too.
I reckon these kinds of big transfers should ideally be completed before the season starts and leave the time between gameweek 1 and Deadline Day to strengthen the squad!
True Man Utd players would relish the competition.
Does Ronaldo ever accept that anybody is better than him?
In any professional job the bottom 10percent of performers should always be moved on!
True class always finds another level, and manages to raise their game.
Time to get rid of the passengers at United and keep the winners!
I agree. But shouldn’t they be moved on before the season starts? I suppose the World Cup has had a big impact on Uniteds ability to do that this year…
Most definitely, a period if transition should be just that!
Vidic should have never been allowed to go before a high class centre back was found.
Your talking about a club that still hasn’t replaced Keane or Scholes!
Spot on. And they hail Carrick as the Messiah when all he can do is pass backwards!!
He’s not the Messiah, he’s a very naughty boy!
“They all”? Who? His kids,never heard anyone say that about carrick.
Mainly the English media in fairness. Christ lads, this is feckin desperate stuff.
Good result for united.
Sean Dyche has to go. Poor result for Burnley :):):)
Di Maria looking great so far. Utterly ridiculous decision by Real to offload him.
For 60 odd million, great business by Madrid. Good player in fairness but Madrid tend to make few mistakes when selling players. Remember the furore when they sold Ozil for 50 million. Probably worth 20 now
Pure muck how is Anderson still getting a game
Bring back Moyes.
Just not creating enough chances. A team like burnley shouldn’t be coping as easy as they are at the moment.
Come on. No offemcr but its burnley and we kept a clean sheet but when we cant find a goal with 4 world class attackers it has to be the tactics #352is532
Should’ve won that,more injuries too. So much for 6 easy games to start.
Did not see game, too early here in Canada for me…. No such thing as easy games I would guess these days. Watching Man City game though, when is a blatant penalty not a penalty for smaller clubs though? Right in front of Ref and assistant too…. Stoke robbed……
We had a peno claim too with a few to go,handball in the box,I’m not even sure what’s a ball to hand/hand ball is anymore.
3-1 Utd for me.
Burnley 3-1 Utd?
2 – 0 to Burnley.
ManU’s glory days will not recommence for some years.
It takes a while to completely rebuild a team.
The foundations of the last ones were home grown.
Buying random players on the market is a lot more difficult as – who knows if they’ll gel.
You forgot your “mid table team” gem.
So easy to cancel United out.
No leader(s) or class….
The most scary statistic from this morning is that diMaria cost more than every player that has ever played for Burnley in its 100+ year history added together. And by some margin.
Can’t believe West Ham signed Song from Barca…..he’d be perfect for Utd
If MU now have a lengthy injury list I feel a bit sorry for van Gaal, it’s been hard enough anyway. Now for red thumbs, come on the blues.
Looks like a Oreo for each player in the Sky Sports pic!