🦁 Premier League Mid-Season Awards 2023/24 🥇 | OneFootball

Thursday’s fixtures mean almost every club in the Premier League has now reached the exact halfway point in the season.

So what better time than this to hand out our awards for the campaign so far.

Disagree with our selections? Let us know in the comments below!

Player of the Season 👏

In truth it is difficult to pick out one standout player in the Premier League at this point in the campaign.

Arsenal’s Declan Rice has arguably been the signing of the season, while John McGinn deserves a mention for his influential role in Aston Villa’s ascent.

Meanwhile, Manchester City striker Erling Haaland leads the scoring charts with 14 goals, despite missing games through injury and not being in his best form, while Tottenham captain Son Heung-min is a very worthy contender too.

But the winner of our award is Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah, who has so far chipped in with 12 Premier League plus seven assists, helping the Reds become a fearsome attacking force again this term.

If Jürgen Klopp’s side are to win the title this year, their Egyptian king will have to maintain this kind of form in the second half of the season, and there’s every chance he will.

Young Player of the Season 👶

Despite the appointment of a new manager and more cash being splashed in the summer, Chelsea fans haven’t seen a great deal of improvement from their team this year, with their inconsistent results leaving them languishing in mid-table.

But the undoubted star of 2023/24 for the Blues so far has been Cole Palmer.

Eyebrows were raised when £40m was spent on signing the 21-year-old from Manchester City in the summer, but he has so far been worth his weight in gold, with six goals and three assists helping to highlight some impressive performances.

The west Londoners appear to have bagged themselves a gem, and they will hope Palmer can inspire his team-mates to be better in the second half of the season.

Honourable mention also for the man City replaced Palmer with, 21-year-old Jérémy Doku.

Surprise of the Season 🤯

Heading into the season, everybody expected Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool to be challenging for the title, and pretty much nobody thought Aston Villa would even be in the conversation.

But in the conversation they have been, and even if Villa fall out of the race in the New Year, their first half of the season has been one to truly relish, with some brilliant football played at Villa Park and big scalps taken in wins over Manchester City and Arsenal.

The Villans have quality players in every department and an excellent manager in Unai Emery, so their rise perhaps shouldn’t be considered such a shock, but it has been great fun to have a new team mixing it with the usual title contenders, and it will hopefully make for a really interesting second half of 2023/24.

Manager of the Season 👔

Having survived relegation by the skin of their teeth in the last two campaigns, Everton began 2023/24 with four defeats and one draw from their first five matches, suggesting it was going to be another long season.

And then, just when the Toffees were starting to find their feet, they were hit with a 10-point deduction for breaching Premier League financial rules, plunging them back into the relegation zone.

But rather than wallowing in their situation, manager Sean Dyche has successfully been able to channel the righteous fury around Goodison Park into a string of impressive results, which has seen them quickly make up lost ground and put the relegation zone in the rearview mirror.

Dyche’s football isn’t always easy on the eye, but it is effective, and finally Everton can start looking optimistically towards the future.

Signing of the Season 🤑

Transfer fees of £100m or more are becoming more and more commonplace in the Premier League, but spending that kind of money on a player isn’t always a guarantee of instant success.

It has been for Arsenal though, with their big money capture of Declan Rice from West Ham in the summer undoubtedly improving the side which came second last season.

Rice has not only brought energy and poise to the Gunners’ engine room, but he’s chipped in with some big goals too, netting late winners against both Manchester United and Luton Town already this season.

If Mikel Arteta’s side go on to win the title this season, the England midfield maestro will have been a big reason behind their success.

Managerial Change of the Season 🔄

After he kept Bournemouth in the Premier League last season, many were surprised and disappointed by the club’s decision to part company with manager Gary O’Neil over the summer.

And when his replacement endured a tough start to life in English football, many also questioned whether the south coast club had made a big blunder.

But patience is a virtue, and in time Andoni Iraola’s bold, high-pressing style of play has made the Cherries a match for any side in the division on their day, with the highlight of the Spaniard’s tenure so far being a brilliant 3-0 win away at Manchester United.

Credit is also due to O’Neil, who was appointed by Wolves in the week before the season began and has made them a tough nut to crack, with wins over Manchester City, Tottenham and Chelsea already under his belt.

Biggest Improvement This Season 📈

Big things were expected of Richarlison when he swapped Everton for Tottenham in the summer of 2022, but the Brazilian failed to live up to his £50m price-tag when he contributed just one Premier League goal in his first season at the club.

And when Harry Kane’s departure to Bayern Munich in the summer still didn’t spark an improvement in Richarlison’s scoring form, patience among the Spurs faithful was beginning to wear thin.

But the 26-year-old finally appears to have found his groove in recent weeks. A brace against Newcastle on 10 December took him past the Premier League goals tally he managed in the whole of last season, before he followed it up with strikes against both Nottingham Forest and Everton in the following games.

This is the player Spurs spent all that money on, and a confident Richarlison could lead the club to great things.

Feelgood Story of the Season ❤️

Whatever your feelings towards Tottenham, you surely can’t deny that manager Ange Postecoglou has been a breath of fresh air this season.

The former Celtic boss has not only made Spurs enjoyable to watch again, but his press conferences and post-match interviews have been heart-warming experiences and a reminder that there aren’t enough nice, down-to-earth blokes at the top level of the game.

The Australian began the season with three consecutive Manager of the Month awards before an unfortunately timed injury crisis put a big dent in his side’s fledgling title challenge.

But Big Ange has brought the good vibes back to the white half of north London, and we at OneFootball are big fans, mate.

Goal of the Season 😍

There could only have been one winner of this award. If Alejandro Garnacho’s bicycle kick at Goodison Park doesn’t win Goal of the Season in May, it will have been beaten by something out of this world.

Game of the Season 🏟

Six days after beating nine-man Tottenham 4-1 in a jaw-dropping London derby, Chelsea were involved in another astonishing match.

The Blues’ 4-4 draw with Manchester City on 12 November was a proper Premier League ding-dong in the rain which had a bit of everything, including some late drama.

It doesn’t get much more pure Barclays than what we witnessed at Stamford Bridge that afternoon.

Disagree with our selections? Let us know in the comments below!