Five Arsenal players have been included in the PFA Premier League Team of the Year following their impressive performances in the 2023/24 campaign.
David Raya, William Saliba, Gabriel Magalhaes, Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard were all selected by their peers and were present to collect their trophies at this evening’s award ceremony in Manchester.
The rest of the XI included Liverpool’s Virgil van Dijk, Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins and Manchester City quartet Kyle Walker, Rodri, Erling Haaland and Phil Foden.
Between them, Arsenal’s representatives produced some compelling stats:
- Raya: 32 PL appearances / 16 clean sheets
- Saliba: 38 PL appearances / 18 clean sheets / 1 assist / 2 goals
- Big Gabi: 36 PL appearances / 17 clean sheets / 4 goals
- Declan Rice: 38 PL appearances / 7 goals / 9 assists
- Martin Odegaard: 35 appearances / 8 goals / 10 assists
The PFA Premier League Team of the Year, voted for by the players ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/uuoQ4roT0O
— Professional Footballers' Association (@PFA) August 20, 2024
Bukayo Saka, who surrendered his PFA Young Player of the Year title to Cole Palmer, didn’t make the XI.
Martin Odegaard was nominated for PFA Players’ Player of the Year but lost out to Phil Foden.
The Arsenal interest in the evening didn’t end there. Lotte Wubben-Moy, a stalwart in Arsenal Women’s defence last season, earned her first inclusion in the PFA WSL Team of the Year. She was the only Gunner to be nominated.
Saka and Benjamin both not in the team of the year? Crazy!
Walker ahead of Benny! Yeah right
Saka and White again snubbed for Foden and Walker. Okay I can see not wanting to give us 7 of the 11 but they’re still just wrong.
Foden over Saka I get but very difficult to argue Walker was better than White
Let’s not forget it is voted for by players – and old whitey probably upsets about 90% of PL players with his hilarious set piece antics 😂
Ahahaha
Saka is twice the player foden or palmer are. Everything Saka does is perfection. He never misses a step. We are where we are because of him. Saka just has to be twice as good for half the credit they get. None of them could unseat him for England. The players know from training day in and day out on international duty who the better player is. I hope this season people will start to see just how good he is and he gets the respect he deserves.
I’m not sure if this is sarcasm
Really, really happy for Big Gabi. He seem to still be very much underrated by both fans and non-fans of Arsenal alike. This recognition from his peers is HUGE!
And the less said about the omission of Ben White, the better.
Odegaard’s face says “fuck this shit, I want the league”.
Yes! Big Gabi!
Finally we can take him out of the “underrated” category!
Declan didn’t get the memo about tuxes 😂
Impressive haul! Amazing how Kyle Walker keeps getting into these teams though. It’s a players’ vote so fair enough I guess, plust Trent had a wobbly year. I think White’s case is hurt by bad games against Rashford and the perception that he’s vulnerable while Walker has a reputation for being a lockdown defender because he’s got those great recovery runs and big burly shoulders (which helps tbf). The truth is White is a far superior positional defender, meaning he gets his angles and starting positions right and makes good decisions on when to jump and when to stay. Walker… Read more »
So what the hell is this formation?
3-3-1-2 plus Kyle Walker in a “free role” just running like a headless chicken all over the field?
Now you have me wondering which role “positionally indisciplined headless chicken” inverts to.
These awards are meaningless. They are basically a popularity contest. The awards that really matter are the ones that you win on the pitch.
We need to go out there and win something big this season.
Wow. Congrats to the Arsenal entourage.❤️👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾
Raya, seriously ???
What is more shiny?
Rice’s trophy or Gabi’s teeth?
Has anyone else noticed, at almost 6 foot tall, Odegaard is the smallest one there!! With Merino possibly arriving soon (Ha!), will we have the tallest team in the PL?
Congrats to the lads on their inclusion. Honourable mentions to Benny and Saka.
5 foot 10 is Odegaard per Wikipedia.
Agree that tall skilfull athletes are an big asset, contrast Vieira and Petit and Campbell etc against some of smaller teams we had afterwards (who got injured a lot more).