Sterling, Cancelo, Martinelli top EPL Player of the Month nominees

Manchester City duo of Raheem Sterling and Joao Cancelo as well as Arsenal duo of Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard are among the seven players shortlisted for December 2021’s Premier League Player of the Month award.

Joao Cancelo was a driving force from full-back in the month under review for Pep Guardiola’s side.

The Portuguese scored a beauty and provided an assist at Newcastle United, as well as keeping three clean sheets in six straight wins for Manchester City.

Raheem Sterling on the other hand scored a Premier League-high five goals in December, including his 100th in the competition with a penalty against Wolverhampton Wanderers. He also assisted Ruben Dias’s strike at West Ham.

Gabriel Martinelli Martinelli broke into Arsenal’s starting line-up and established himself as a key player in attack last month. He started all six matches and scored three goals to go with his two assists.

Martin Odegaard was instrumental in Arsenal’s midfield, scoring against Manchester United, Everton and Southampton before assisting three of the Gunners’ nine goals in successive wins at Leeds and Norwich City.

James Maddison is Leicester City’s only player on the list and the playmaker was in sparkling form, scoring with fine efforts at Southampton and Man City either side of a goal and an assist in a 4-0 success over Newcastle.

Like Leicester, Chelsea and Tottenham also have just one nominee each in Mason Mount and Son Heung-min respectively.

Chelsea midfielder Mount kicked off December with a goal and an assist in back-to-back trips to Watford and West Ham United, before scoring at home to Leeds United and Everton and setting up Romelu Lukaku against Brighton & Hove Albion.

Tottenham Hotspur’s unbeaten month under new head coach Antonio Conte owed much to Son’s form. He scored in four consecutive matches, including a strike against Liverpool while also producing a goal and an assist versus Norwich.