Arsenal narrowly missed out on Premier League glory, but they did perform superbly throughout the season to finish runners-up.
The Gunners finished two points behind Manchester City, despite winning 16 of their last 18 Premier League games, and setting club records in both attack and defence.
There were countless top performers for Arsenal over the course of the season, as Mikel Arteta’s side were simply unstoppable at times as they demolished teams with ease both home and away.
The strong defence was a big factor behind their outstanding campaign, with centre-back William Saliba finishing third in Arsenal’s Player of the Season awards. However, fans are now shocked at who was voted in second place for the award.
Arsenal fans are confused as Declan Rice comes second in Player of the Season awards
Summer signing Declan Rice had an outstanding impact in midfield, initially at the base of a trio before pushing into a more advanced role.
The England star was consistently brilliant, with his remarkable defensive ability helping Saliba and Gabriel Magalhaes thrive at the back, whilst also recording a career-best goals and assist total.
Many would have regarded Rice to be an obvious candidate for the Best Player award, given his remarkable consistency, but he has come second, and with Saliba third, fans are now bewildered as to who will win the award.
“Deservedly so but this means one of Saka or Odegaard aren’t in the top 3 which is pretty crazy to me,” one fan pointed out on X in response to Rice coming second.
“I genuinely don’t know who’s won then, Saka or Odegaard?? Havertz?” One fan questioned.
“Quality player man, no one chats about that fee that’s how good he’s been,” another added.
Arsenal fans now divided between Bukayo Saka or Martin Odegaard for Player of the Season award
With Rice in second place, there appears to be two standout candidates for the winner of the award: Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard.
Whilst Gabriel can also consider himself unlucky to not be in the top three, it is now the case that one of Saka, who was Arsenal’s top scorer, or captain Odegaard will not be recognised as one of the top performers in the team.
Some fans believe that Saka’s performances across the whole season place him above Odegaard, who struggled at the start of the campaign, whilst Odegaard finished so strongly that Gary Neville even claimed he was the best player in the entire league.
“Whatever you do, make sure the winner isn’t Saka. Saka should be 4th best behind Odegaard, Saliba and Rice in that order,” one fan claimed.
“Odegaard should be the player of the season. I don’t mind if it’s Saka anyways,” another pointed out.
“I think we need to acknowledge we’ve got 5-6 players who could be POTS or deserve to be up there. Not having X or Y there is not an insult it’s just the level the team is at. Recency bias sways narratives but it’s disingenuous to say a lot of these guys don’t deserve it,” one fan acknowledged.
“Shows how crazy how high the level was that I don’t know for sure who 1st place is. Guessing Saka but could very well be Odegaard, Gabriel, Raya, White… the list goes on,” another fan pointed out, but others were less level-headed.
“Saka not being top 3 is disgusting,” one fan fumed, on the assumption that Odegaard was set to win it.
Whoever is left out will simply have to accept that in a team full of outstanding performers, the level required to win Arsenal’s Player of the Season award has seldom been higher.