Ahead of the Premier League’s final day this weekend, Liverpool and Aston Villa attacker Stan Collymore has picked his ‘Team of the Season’.
This season’s Premier League has been another hugely entertaining campaign. Although Manchester City have already been crowned champions, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal made huge strides in challenging Pep Guardiola’s emphatic Cityzens.
At the other end of the table, the battle to survive has been one of the most enthralling in recent seasons. Southampton’s relegation to the Championship was sealed last month with Everton, Leicester City and Leeds United all in contention to join them.
It hasn’t just been the top and bottom of the table that has had fans on the edge of their seats though. The race for European qualification has also provided much entertainment, especially with UEFA expanding their competitions to now include a third tournament.
Following Manchester City and Arsenal’s top-two finish, Manchester United and high-flying Newcastle United confirmed their places in next season’s prestigious Champions League with Liverpool and Brighton and Hove Albion sealing Europa League football.
Elsewhere, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur will play their final day fixtures against Brighton and Hove Albion and Leeds United, respectively, for the chance to pinch just one available Europa Conference League spot.
In terms of players, and how they’ve done this season, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland has been a standout performer. Arriving at the Etihad from Borussia Dortmund last summer, the prolific Norweigan, after netting 36 league goals with one game to play, smashed Alan Shearer and Andy Cole’s long-standing record of most goals scored in a single Premier League campaign (33).
Other impressive players have included the likes of Manchester United’s David De Gea, who will win the league’s ‘Golden Glove’ after keeping 17 clean sheets, and Marcus Rashford, who recently became the first Red Devil since Robin Van Persie in 2013 to score at least 30 goals in a season. Surprisingly though, Collymore, who spoke exclusively to CaughtOffside, has snubbed both players in his ‘Team of the Season’.
Stan Collymore picks his Premier League ‘Team of the Season’
Giving his opinion of the Premier League’s top performers this season, Collymore has picked the following players:
GK: Nick Pope (Newcastle United)
RB: Kieran Trippier (Newcastle United)
CB: Sven Botman (Newcastle United)
CB: Ruben Dias (Manchester City)
LB: Pervis Estupinan (Brighton and Hove Albion)
DM: Moises Caicedo (Brighton and Hove Albion)
CM: Kevin De Bruyne (Manchester City)
CM: Martin Odegaard (Arsenal)
LW: Kaoru Mitoma (Brighton and Hove Albion)
RW: Mohamed Salah (Liverpool)
ST: Erling Haaland (Manchester City)
Collymore also added that Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe should be crowned the Premier League’s ‘Manager of the Season’, but only if Guardiola fails to guide Manchester City to a remarkable treble consisting of the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.