It’s the end of the year, a terrible year for many. Perhaps not that bad of a year for Chelsea, though. It’s a time to look back at the last 12 months and reflect, and try and and learn as much as possible for the next year. I spoke to 8 writers at The Chelsea Spot for our end of year awards, and here are the results…(total of 9 votes):
Player of the Year – Mason Mount
Mount took 4 out of the 9 votes to take victory in our vote for Chelsea Player of the Year. He truly has had an incredible year, featuring so much and being such a vital player to Lampard’s team. Off the pitch he really seems like someone who could captain this club in the future, and seems to be improving every single game. He has struggled at times, but that was always expected from such a young lad. Money Mase takes the win and there aren’t many surprises.
Honourable mentions go to Reece James who was just behind Mason by one vote, who has also had an amazing year. Kurt Zouma and Olivier Giroud also managed to pick up a vote each, with both Frenchman being vital players to our squad in the last 12 months.
Underrated Player of the Year – Tammy Abraham
Tammy Abraham also took 4 out of 9 votes for Underrated Player of the Year which gives him victory in this category. Personally, I couldn’t agree any more. He is one of the best strikers in the Premier League and that’s without taking penalties. He seems to have improved his hold up play a lot this season, and he couldn’t ask to learn from anyone better than Olivier Giroud. His next area he needs to work on is his heading but his overall play offers so much to this team.
Honourable mentions go to Mason Mount who took 3 votes, as well as Reece James and Olivier Giroud who took one each. I think it’s fair to say that Reece James, Mason Mount and Tammy Abraham have been pretty good this year.
Most Disappointing Player of the Year – Kepa
Kepa wins most disappointing player of the year, and you can’t really argue with that. His career at Chelsea has been an absolute failure, which is such a shame, and this year probably has been his worst. The most expensive goalkeeper in the world has been unable to live up to the high standards his price tag brings, conceding so many goals last season and struggling to create a dominance in the defence. He has since been replaced by Edouard Mendy, and even when he comes in for the cup games, he seems short of confidence. Arrizabalaga needs to find a new club and pray for a better year.
Christensen picked up two votes behind Kepa, who many thought could improve under Frank Lampard, but we have struggled to see that potential and his time at Chelsea could be coming to an end very soon. Rudiger, Jorginho, Alonso and Tomori all picked up one vote each too, with all four options making sense. (Our loyal listeners and readers can probably guess who voted Jorginho…)
Best Game of the Year – 4 way joint tie…
4 games each picked up two votes. These include Chelsea’s 4-0 victory against Sevilla just a few weeks ago, our 2-0 FA Cup victory against Liverpool, the big 2-1 London Derby Win against Jose Mourinho last season and us beating Manchester City 2-1 after the lockdown break.
Giroud scored all four goals against Sevilla including a perfect hat-trick and a penalty to basically secure Chelsea top of their group in the Champions League – great choice. Our 2-0 FA Cup Victory saw the rise of Billy Gilmour, and was one of the best games at Stamford Bridge last season. Chelsea’s 2-1 victory against Spurs also was a feisty one and one of the last few games where there was full attendance at Stamford Bridge. Pulisic was the star man in our win against Manchester City and that was the rise of him having a brilliant next few months.
An honourable mention goes to the game in the picture above, Chelsea 4-0 Everton, which surprisingly only picked up one vote. A game which gave Premier League debuts to Armando Broja and Tino Anjorin too…
Goal of the Year – Ross Barkley vs Liverpool
Barkley’s goal vs Liverpool won quite comfortably. Taking 5 out of the 9 votes, it truly is one he will remember for a long long time. Scoring against his childhood rival, he picked up the ball before the halfway line, ran the whole pitch and instead of laying it off to Pedro, smashed it into the bottom left hand corner and put Chelsea into the next round of the FA Cup. What a Golazo.
Reece James vs Brighton this season was an absolute screamer too, and the timing was great as the pundits couldn’t stop shutting up about how good Lamptey was for Brighton (which he was, but we didn’t need to hear about it every two minutes)! Werner vs Southampton also picked up one vote, as he let the ball through his legs, skipped past 3 defenders and tucked it in the corner. A tough one.
Academy Player of the Year – Henry Lawrence & Tino Anjorin
Yeah, you can’t disagree with this one. Henry Lawrence and Tino Anjorin both picked up three votes each, and these two players are by far the most likely to breakthrough in the first team in the next few months. Lawrence played anywhere where asked and showed a great level in each position, and Anjorin made teenagers look like children constantly. We expect both to start against Morecambe in 10 days time.
Lewis Bate and Tino Livramento also picked up one vote each. Both players also are training with the first team this week as The Chelsea Spot revealed on our Twitter page. They could also feature in the FA Cup game and will be looking to bring the FA Youth Cup back home. Danny Drinkwater also picked up a pity vote!
TCS Writer of the Year – Danny New
Couldn’t agree any more. Danny was my vote, and a lot of our writers too. Danny has written 23 articles, featured in so many podcasts, and overall been such a huge contributor on and off the pitch to our team. From scouting reports, controversial opinions, and changing his mind on Chilwell, you can have a read of all his articles here.
The whole team has been incredible though, so if you are reading this, thank you. Every single article and podcast have been top quality and our amazing growth wouldn’t have happened without each one of you. Cheers lads.
Player to Look Out for in 2021 – Hudson-Odoi & Soonsup-Bell
Hudson-Odoi has been our best player on the pitch for two games in a row now, and we expect him to have a proper breakthrough under Frank Lampard in the next few months. He has been such a vital player off the bench, and with Ziyech picking up a few injuries and Pulisic being made of glass, we can expect Callum to really show his potential this season. The increase of the bench to 9 players will certainly help him too.
Jude Soonsup-Bell in the academy is certainly a player to look out for. At the age of just 16, he has started off life with the U18’s with a bang, and even in his first U23 game against Manchester United he looked extremely comfortable and scored a lovely finish with his weaker foot. We can promise you, if you stay tuned on all our social media, you will hear a lot about Jude…
Honourable mentions go to Tino Anjorin, who is also expected to have a breakthrough in men’s football in the next year. Kai Havertz was also a player mentioned who always performs in the second half of the season, so we are expecting a lot more from him in the next few months. Joe Haigh and Myles Peart-Harris were also two players recognised, both talented midfielders who you should keep an eye out for.
A very interesting year…
And that’s it, the end of the awards. It’s been a tough year for everyone, but no doubt despite the ups and downs of Chelsea Football Club, it has kept us ticking over and it’s something to look forward to every single matchday.
A last thank you needs to go out to yourself reading this. Admin, Writer, Listener, Reader, Viewer, whoever. Thank You. We have received so much positive feedback this year and we have only been live for 8 months. We have big plans for 2021 so stay tuned!
Do you agree with our awards? Let us know on our social media platforms!
Written by Paree
The Chelsea Spot 
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