The fan account “COYS (Come on You Spurs) News,” which delivers Tottenham news, reported on SNS on the 9th (Korea time), “Son Heung-min was selected as the Player of the Month (POTM) in the Premier League in December.”
On the 4th, the Premier League Secretariat released eight candidates for the Premier League’s December Player of the Month for the 2023-24 season on its official website. Son Heung-min, who scored as many as eight offensive points in December alone with four goals and four assists, is undoubtedly included in the candidate list.
In addition to Son Heung-min, Dominique Solanke (Bournemouth), Liverpool key right back Trent Alexander Arnold, Hwang Hee-chan’s colleague Matheus Cunha (Wolverhampton Wanderers), Mohamed Kudus (West Ham United), Michael Olise (Crystal Palace), Cole Palmer (Chelsea) and Marcos Sennessey (Bournemouth) were also named.
When the candidate was announced, many fans highly evaluated Son’s chances of winning the prize. Son scored a goal in the last game of 2023 against Bournemouth on April 31, and recorded eight offensive pointers in a month.
Starting with one goal and one assist in an away match against Manchester City in round 14, which ended in a 3-3 draw, Son had one goal and two assists in the match against Newcastle United in round 16, leading the team to a landslide 4-1 victory. Since then, he has scored two goals and one assist in three matches in round 18-20, and recorded a whopping eight offensive points during the month of December.
No player has scored more offensive points than Son. After Son, six players are Solanke, Palmer, and Cunha. Solanke has scored six goals. He has scored more goals than Son, but lacks assistance. Fellow Cunha Hwang Hee-chan also scored three goals and three assists, with six ball points. Palmer recorded four goals and two assists. Olise was followed by Cunha with four goals and one attack point, followed by Cunha with four goals. Senesi and Alexander Arnold recorded three goals each with two goals and one goal and two assists.
The best performance of the team was Alexander Arnold, who had four wins and two draws in six games. Arnold also scored one goal and two assists, and finished three of six games without allowing a single goal, showing perfect performance in both offense and defense. However, as he is selecting the player of the month, Son Heung-min, who is ahead of his individual performance, is likely to win the award.
If he wins the Player of the Month award in December over his prominent competitors, Son will win his second Premier League Player of the Month award this season alone since last September. Son scored six goals in four games in a month in September, earning his fourth career Premier League Player of the Month award.
Son Heung-min, who was selected as the player of the month for the first time in September 2016, won the player of the month award for the fourth time in about 35 months after winning the award in April 2017 and October 2020. With four wins in total, he is on par with world-class players by tying the number of wins with Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergamp and Frank Lampard.
Another win would tie five-time winners Robin van Persie, Wayne Rooney and Mohamed Salah, and would allow them to surpass six-time Player of the Month winners Cristiano Ronaldo and Steven Gerrard. The biggest winners of the Premier League Player of the Month award are seven-time winners Harry Kane and Sergio Aguero.
While attention was paid to whether Son Heung-min would take a step closer to Premier League legend, a Tottenham fan account drew attention by confidently claiming that Son Heung-min was selected as the player of the month in December.
The media explained, “Son Heung-min was selected as the Premier League’s POTM in December,” adding, “The official announcement will be announced on Friday, January 12th.”
Then, he said the December manager of the month award went to Aston Villa head coach Unai Emery. Emery was nominated as a candidate by posting four wins, two draws and one loss in seven games during the month of December. In particular, his victory over Premier League powerhouse Manchester City and Arsenal drew keen attention.
Based on this, the media cited that they guessed who would be the player of the month and the manager last September. They said on October 10 last year that Son Heung-min and Coach Anji Postecoglou, who leads Tottenham, will be selected as the player of the month and manager in September. Later, on October 13, the Premier League handed out the trophy to Son Heung-min and Postecoglou as they claimed.
However, Son Heung-min scored six goals in four games during the month of September, which was a very high chance of winning the prize compared to his competitors, so attention is focusing on whether the media’s speculation will be correct again.
BY: 스포츠토토
