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There is no debating Bruno Fernandes’ brilliance this season.
Nineteen assists. Eight league goals. Manchester United’s creative pulse, dragging them back into the Champions League conversation almost by force of will. The numbers are staggering, and the influence is impossible to ignore, and the Football Writers’ Association, FWA, crowning him their player of the year feels completely understandable.
This has probably been the best season of his Manchester United career. Not just statistically either.
There has also been a maturity to him this year, a calmness that was not always there before. Even in games where United have looked messy, stretched or one bad moment away from collapsing, Fernandes has usually been the reason they stayed alive.
He deserves his flowers for that.
The easiest thing to do after Bruno Fernandes won the Football Writers’ Association award would be to assume the Professional Football Association, PFA, player’s player of the year race is done too.
Usually, these things move together. One major individual award tends to drag the other with it.
But this season does not feel that simple.
The PFA award should still go to Declan Rice, because Declan Rice still feels like the player who has defined the Premier League season more than anyone.
And if Arsenal go on to win the league, giving Declan Rice the PFA award should not even feel controversial.
The problem with these conversations is how quickly they become reduced to numbers. Goals. Assists. Chances created.
In that regard, Bruno Fernandes wins comfortably. Few players in Europe have created more, or carried a team’s attacking burden quite like he has this season.
But the PFA award has never been purely about spreadsheets. Footballers, the people actually casting the votes tend to value something beyond just the numbers alone.
They know who controls games. They know who changes the level of a team. They know the players that make life horrible for opponents for 90 minutes even if they leave the pitch without a goal contribution.
That is where Rice’s case becomes impossible to ignore.
Arsenal have had brilliant players this season. But Rice is the one player that makes the whole thing function.
Take him out and Arsenal become a different side entirely.
There is a reason Mikel Arteta trusted him immediately with basically every responsibility imaginable.
Rice defends huge spaces. He wins second balls. He progresses play. He drives the team forward physically. He covers for attacking full-backs. He kills transitions before they become dangerous. He is at the forefront of set pieces for Arsenal whether corner kicks, free kicks or even throw-ins.
And then there is the leadership side of it too, you see how much of it he gives on the pitch and how he inspires his teammates to function.
The most recent example people will remember came when Arsenal lost to Manchester City at the Etihad, with cameras catching Rice telling skipper, Martin Ødegaard: ‘ It’s not done.’ A reminder that the title race was far from over.
He has been the emotional center of the team.
One interesting thing about Rice is that a lot of what he does on the pitch does not scream for attention, yet it is impossible not to notice.
That is what makes him such a fascinating player. He does not play football like someone desperate to be seen. There is no obsession with numbers or moments crafted for social media clips. Everything he does feels geared towards making Arsenal stronger.
Players respect that massively.
And the truth is, Rice has improved technically this season in a way that completely changes how people view him.
If Arsenal finally get over the line after years of chasing Manchester City, people will look back at Declan Rice as the signing that shifted the emotional temperature of the club. The player who made Arsenal feel serious again.
That carries enormous weight.
Then there is the Champions League run. Arsenal reaching the final has added another dimension to Rice’s season because he has looked just as commanding against Europe’s elite as he has domestically. The stream of man-of-the-match awards only reinforces that dominance.
And sometimes, awards like these are decided by moments on the biggest stages. Rice has had plenty of them.
That visibility matters when players vote.
Maybe that is the key point here. Fernandes may well have had the flashier season. Rice has had the bigger one.
One has been exceptional in helping rebuild Manchester United into a top-four side again. The other has been at the centre of a team competing for the two biggest trophies in club football.
That distinction matters.
So yes, Fernandes absolutely has a genuine chance of winning the PFA award. Nobody wins the FWA Footballer of the Year prize by accident.
But with what Arsenal have achieved so far this season, and Rice’ influence, it is difficult to look beyond him. Not because he owns the loudest statistics, but because he has felt like the player most responsible for shaping the season itself.
